In 1987, at the request of the City of Tournai, the Créa-Théâtre, represented by Francis Houtteman and his team, moved into a property owned by the municipality to establish the Puppet Center.

Over the following thirty years, Créa-Théâtre, the Puppet Center of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, and later the Museum of Puppetry Arts continued to develop this permanent home for the art of puppetry.

Located in the heart of Tournai, the Center is a resource hub for puppetry arts. Its work focuses on creation and research, transmission, and resources dedicated to artists, audiences, and partners.

This is a fundamental area of the Puppet Center’s work. Transmission takes many forms and reaches a diverse range of audiences, including professional artists, trainers, educators, people working in education, vulnerable groups, cultural workers and mediators, and the general public.

Transmission means preserving traditions, passing on the craft, and teaching techniques. It also means broadening horizons, encouraging audiences to explore the diversity of puppetry arts, and providing opportunities to experiment with different practices within these interdisciplinary art forms.

Our transmission programme responds to a growing demand for professional and semi-professional puppetry training across the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.