Alison B is an educator, artist and storyteller with thirty years of experience engaging children and adults.
Book me for storytelling performances, professional development workshops, classroom residencies, private art lessons, puppetry…
Alison B has been performing, teaching and creating unique programming for all ages for 30 years. Best known for her Ghost Stories and her one woman show Deconstructing Barbie, she’s shared stories with children and adults in museums, independent bookstores, schools, libraries, theatres, and festivals from Pittsburgh to New York City, often accompanied by her original puppets. Alison has collaborated and held residencies with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Carnegie Museum of Art, Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Frick Art & Historical Center, First Night Pittsburgh, Attack Theatre, Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, Gateway to the Arts and the Mattress Factory. Alison has 30 years of teaching experience in public, private and charter school settings. She holds a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership in the Arts from Bank Street College of Education and Parsons School of Design in New York City. She holds PA certification in Early Childhood and Art K-12, and has been a certified yoga instructor since 2000.
What People Are Saying
“All of the teachers have commented that yours is the best program that we have come to our school!”
— Pam P.
“Alison brings a great combination of traits that make her an outstanding teacher. She is confident, intelligent, and eloquent. Alison’s delivery of instruction demonstrates expertise while letting me, as the learner, feel confident that I can do it too. My young daughter and I both have enjoyed learning with Alison. In her classes, I always think to myself, “She is going to help me know how to do this thing!.”
— Lisa W.
“She is engaging, energetic, and empathetic to student needs and concerns..”
— Sara M.
“Ms. B. I like how you tell powerful stories. You are a good storyteller. I like how you teach us for the day we need to be an arts teacher.”
Alison K. Babusci
Artist Statement
I sew, I tell stories. I am a threadholder both literally and figuratively. I cross disciplines from performance to visual art - but in every case - I tell a story. I weave strands of narrative, colorful textiles and emotional threads to create a world where a child-like curiosity is honored and imagination is free to create without boundaries.
Working within a feminist tradition, I hold on to the threads of stories between families, between women, and relate them to the threads we wear and craft. My work draws on ancient understandings of storytellers as cultural threadholders, connecting past, present, and future with creative narrative and shared traditions. I seek to recycle and revisit both objects and stories.
I believe in the power of story - from a human’s personal narrative to an object’s unique provenance. In my career, I have also explored the places and moments where these threads cross and tangle. Where storyteller and teacher become one. Where teacher and student become artists together. Where traditions within families and communities both lift women and girls up, and cast them down. I strive to touch the hearts of listeners and viewers and to discover our common threads. (Photo by Keliy Anderson-Staley - click on it to see her website.)
“I like how you tell your story.When you tell your story I tell a story too.” Love, Nakeya
