UNIMA PRESIDENT

Louise Lapointe holds a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts from Université Laval (Québec, 1981), a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre / Technical Production from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (Toronto, 1984), and a Certificate in Puppet Construction from ESNAM (Charleville-Mézières, 1992). Louise worked at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal from 1988 to 2012 as a stage technician and props master. She has also collaborated on numerous professional productions as a set designer, mask maker, and puppeteer.

Louise has been actively involved in the puppetry community for over thirty years. She served as Secretary of the Association québécoise des marionnettistes (AQM) from 1992 to 1998, UNIMA advisor for the UNIMA-Canada Center (2000–2008), and independent additional advisor (2008–2012). Louise was elected to the UNIMA Executive Committee in 2016 and has chaired the International Festivals Commission, of which she has been a member since 2001.

She was Artistic Director of the World Puppet Week in Saguenay (2001–2004). In 2005, she founded CASTELIERS in Montreal, an organization dedicated to the promotion of puppetry arts. CASTELIERS programs an annual international festival and a regular season, hosts artists in residence, and offers cultural mediation activities. CASTELIERS is also the co-founder, together with the AQM, of the Maison internationale des arts de la marionnette (MIAM), a research and creation center that opened in 2018. Today, CASTELIERS is recognized as a leader in the dissemination of the “11th art” on local, national, and international stages.

In 2018, Louise Lapointe received the Medal of the National Assembly of Quebec, and in 2022, she was awarded the title of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic, recognizing her remarkable contribution to promoting puppetry arts and strengthening artistic collaboration between France and Canada.