Ever since Mark Tucker was a kid, he’s always been weird. Whether it be his ventriloquist puppet, or his obsession with magic, Tucker’s childhood was filled to the brim with wacky hobbies and trinkets to pass the time.
Now, as art director and visual arts instructor for the Lloyd Scholars for Writing and the Arts (LSWA) at U-M, he shares this side of himself with his students and his community every day through Festifools.
Founded by Tucker in 2007, Festifools is a community-built event that fills the streets of Ann Arbor every year with hundreds of larger-than-life puppets and hundreds of people simply wanting to be foolish. From Elvis Presley, to Mario to a fire-breathing dragon, each puppet brings a towering scale to the event. And along with its nighttime counterpart, Foolmoon, it has captured the attention of many people inside and outside the community.
However, Festifools hasn’t always been what it is now.
“I know what I thought it was going to be when I started it, but it’s changed quite a bit from that original concept,” Tucker said. “Depending on who comes every year, and what kinds of creative ideas they bring to it, that determines what the outcome will be on the streets.”
For Tucker, how Festifools began is one of the hardest questions, and he finds himself answering differently each time it is asked. Even so, his love of puppetry undoubtedly started from a young age.
From there, Tucker went to college to pursue theater and visual arts, where drawing and painting became intertwined with his identity. It was only after graduating that he began upping his scale to bigger and better projects, working a job building parade floats for the Michigan Thanksgiving Parade. He then went on to build floats in Italy and Germany as well.
“That started me on a journey of making large scale, spectacle art, and I’ve been to other places in the world where they’ve done this,” Tucker said. “Instead of having these things only happen in New York City or LA, I’m so happy that I can live in a place I love, and continue to do the crazy things I like to do.”
A crucial part of “spectacle art” is the people making it, and for Tucker, involving more people in the creative process is of utmost priority. Although he admittedly didn’t intend to attract such a mob of interest to Festifools, he also admits that he couldn’t make hundreds of puppets himself.
Whether it be passionate students at U-M, or long-time volunteers who have attended the event from a young age, or even brand new Ann Arbor residents, Tucker tries his hardest to keep the Festifools experience as open and honest as possible.
“I think I’m doing good in Mark’s class, and then he tells me to redo the whole thing on the last day of the project,” said U-M Stamps student, Claire Case. “Am I learning things? Yes, but am I frustrated also? Yes.”
Case first caught wind of Tucker’s class when her roommate recommended it after taking his mural class during their first semester. Being an art student already, and having an association with LSWA, Festifools became the perfect environment for Case to openly express her artistic ability. However, Case is the odd-one-out when it comes to Mark’s students. In fact, most of his students come from a non-arts background.
“I love non-art majors because they don’t come with a lot of art baggage,” Tucker said. “They don’t know what they can’t do. They haven’t built up a lot of preconceived notions about what art might be or might not be, and more importantly, most of them do not have their identity wrapped up in whether or not they’re an artist.”
Tucker’s teaching style tends to be a bit more hands off, letting students use the materials however they like and incorporate pieces of their identity and beliefs wherever they see fit. Instead of telling them what to do or giving them steps to do it, he tries to help students strengthen their own ideas and bring them into the visual realm at their own pace.
“Mostly, I set up the situation. Here’s the situation: in 58 days, we’re gonna go out in the street, and for some reason there’s gonna be a big crowd of people there, and we’re going to bring something to them,” Tucker said. “And here is a room full of all the supplies and materials that you possibly want. Do that. Go.”
Work on Festifools has only expanded more and more now, to the point where CHS students and staff even had a part to play in it. Last year, the Art Club created a display showing FoolMoon luminaries with the theme “U.F.O.”.
“The piece wasn’t initially intended to be interactive, but kids were sitting down at the table and using the props like play-food in a kitchen,” said CHS art teacher Hannah Crabtree. “It was just really cool to have that further community aspect of not just looking, but also interacting.”
After years of being inactive in COVID, to then being called off in 2023, Festifools is eager to make a return in spring of 2024. Tucker hopes that the event can continue every year from here on out.
“I hope this event has a welcoming feel where people can come at least for one day, at least for one hour, and they can shed the skin of who they have to be the other 364 days of the year,” Tucker said. “They can be creative and they can be foolish.”
