18 September 2026
Preserving and renewing cultural heritage in contemporary Scotland: Vision Mechanics.
William Grant Foundation
Photo: Marionette puppets made by Vision Mechanics.
Key learnings:
- Marionette-making illustrates how cultural heritage can become endangered long before its loss is widely recognised.
- Some specialist skills are most effectively preserved through making, performing and teaching rather than documentation alone.
- Traditional crafts can gain new relevance when they are reimagined for contemporary audiences and contexts.
- Long-term, flexible funding can create the conditions for heritage crafts to be preserved and renewed over time, giving organisations the freedom to adapt, experiment and strengthen their operations.
Vision Mechanics is an Edinburgh-based theatre and puppetry company founded by Symon MacIntyre and Kim Bergsagel. Over several decades it has become known for creating imaginative performances ranging from giant outdoor spectacles to intimate puppet theatre. Symon and Kim have also become custodians of a much rarer tradition: marionette-making.
Today, marionette-making appears on the Heritage Crafts Red List of endangered crafts, and Symon and Kim are among only a very small number of practitioners in Scotland with the specialist skills to both make and perform with marionettes.
Symon MacIntyre and Kim Bergsagel of Vision Mechanics.
An endangered craft
For people unfamiliar with puppetry, marionettes occupy a distinctive place within the artform. Unlike glove puppets or many contemporary theatre puppets, marionettes are full-bodied, wooden figures operated from above by strings and controls.
Historically, they were a familiar part of popular entertainment, creating magic and delight for all ages. Today, however, they are rarely seen.
The vulnerability of marionette-making emerged gradually. As theatre practices evolved, fewer productions used marionettes. The skills required to make and operate them became increasingly uncommon, and opportunities to learn them almost disappeared.
Vision Mechanics only fully recognised the scale of the issue when it looked for other practitioners to collaborate with.
“We suddenly thought, who else is doing marionettes? Who can we get in? And there was nobody,” says Kim.
This highlights an important learning point for our work on preserving, researching and showcasing Scotland’s heritage: cultural practices can become fragile long before they attract wider attention.
Unlike the closure of a museum or the loss of an important building, the disappearance of specialist skills can happen quietly and over time.
Passing on the skills
For Vision Mechanics, safeguarding the craft is fundamentally about people.
The skills involved in marionette-making are complex. Creating a character involves design, carving, construction, balancing and performance. Learning to animate a marionette convincingly can take months of practice.
“But it is doing it that helps you learn it,” says Symon.
With support from our Scottish Culture and Heritage group, Vision Mechanics has been creating opportunities for people not only to build puppets but to bring them to life and perform with them.
The Circus of Dreams project brought a small, diverse group of trainees into the workshop each week – follow their journey in these video shorts. Participants created their own marionettes and, within a short space of time, were performing with them. In doing so, they shifted from being observers of the craft to becoming makers, performers and potential future custodians of it.
Watch this short video of students learning the tricky skill of manipulating the marionettes and bringing puppets to life.
The experience proved transformative for many of those involved. “It was joyful,” says Kim. “What struck us most was not simply people’s enjoyment of the craft, but their enthusiasm to continue exploring it.”
Some participants have already expressed a strong desire to keep developing their skills, offering hope that a new generation of marionette-makers may be emerging.
Looking back to look forward
Vision Mechanics’ work offers a powerful example of understanding the past in ways that enrich the present and future – one of our Scottish Culture and Heritage group’s ambitions.
It isn’t trying to recreate historic marionette theatre exactly as it once existed. Instead, it sees the craft as a source of contemporary creativity, generating new performances, new learning opportunities and new ways for people to engage with cultural heritage.
Recent projects include the Circus of Dreams production being presented within a new solar-powered travelling theatre, taking performances into communities across Scotland.
Kim and Symon with new marionette puppeteer Chris Bain.
Future plans include online tutorials, practical training programmes and opportunities for new makers and performers to create work of their own. The team recently secured support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which will help develop learning resources to use in training programmes and reach wider audiences.
“The craft of making the puppet is still the same,” says Symon. “What evolves are the stories, settings and opportunities for people to get involved.”
Rather than treating heritage as something static, Vision Mechanics sees it as a living tradition that can absorb new ideas, technologies and audiences while retaining its core skills and values.
Perhaps the clearest sign of success would be seeing future practitioners take the craft in new directions. Kim reflects, “We would love to see people step out from under our wings and say, ‘we want to make our own show’.”
Funding the renewal of cultural heritage
Vision Mechanics’ experience also highlights some of the realities of supporting heritage at risk. Passing on specialist skills takes time and resource.
Yet, like many cultural organisations, it continues to navigate a funding system largely built around discrete projects rather than long-term delivery and organisational development.
This is where flexible funding has been particularly valuable. Reviving marionette-making involves a wide range of interconnected activities, from training and mentoring to materials, artist time, touring, experimentation and audience development. These don’t fit neatly into a single project and often change as work evolves.
Alongside marionette work, Vision Mechanics creates striking puppets and objects that spark imagination and connect with audiences in unexpected ways.
Flexible funding has allowed Vision Mechanics to respond to opportunities, cover the real costs of delivery and move resources to where they are needed most.
As Symon reflects, flexible funding gives artists the freedom to focus on creating rather than constantly navigating funding requirements and restrictions. That flexibility matters because preserving and renewing a craft requires experimentation, teaching, adaptation and sustained commitment over time.
Vision Mechanics’ story also highlights important learning about the close relationship between organisational resilience and heritage preservation. When a craft depends on only a handful of practitioners, supporting the organisation carrying those skills becomes part of safeguarding the heritage itself.
Final reflections
Vision Mechanics’ work suggests that heritage at risk is not only about preserving what remains. It’s about creating the conditions for knowledge, skills and cultural practices to be passed on, reinterpreted and made meaningful for future generations.
In the case of marionette-making, Symon and Kim are working towards a future where the craft continues to evolve and inspire under the stewardship of a new generation of makers and performers who will keep the strings alive.
The Circus of Dreams and the solar stage will be at Findhorn Bay Festival (30 Sep – 4 Oct 2026) – learn more.
