The Farnsworth Art Museum has the world on a string – or in the palm of its hands, depending on where you look.

Marionettes, puppets and masks take center stage in the new exhibit, “Characters in Hand: Puppets by Maine Puppeteers,” which runs through Feb. 24, 2002. The Rockland exhibit includes work by 16 craftsmen.

Walking into the show is like walking down Sesame Street. Suddenly, you’re surrounded by strange, wonderful faces, larger-than-life characters and whimsical creatures with mussel-shell eyes or sparkly green skin. On big, boldly painted stages, handmade “actors” pose in scenes from mythology and modern-day city life. And gigantic “Belly Dancers” beckon you into the exhibit with their satin, shimmer and jangly jewelry.

“It’s not our usual fare,” curator Helen Fisher said as she looked around one of two galleries full of masks and puppets hanging from strings, perched on rods and wrapped around gloves.

About two years ago, contemporary art curator Suzette McAvoy came up with the idea after her daughter attended a puppet show in Belfast and fell in love with puppetry. Fisher and her colleagues worked for 18 months to assemble the show, traveling around the state to meet the puppeteers and get a sense of their work.

“At first we thought we wouldn’t have enough [puppet makers], but in fact we found 16 that were just wonderful,” Fisher said. “They’re all very different. They all sort of express themselves in a very different way.”

The resulting collection is as diverse as its makers, ranging from Susan Merrill’s expressive masks woven from naturally dyed wool to Ashley Bryan’s sculptural puppets made from treasures that wash up on the beach near his home on Little Cranberry Island.

While the pieces illustrate the caliber of work by the state’s contemporary puppeteers, they also evoke some of the craft’s rich history. Today, puppets, marionettes and masks are usually used for education or entertainment in a theatrical setting. While the exact origins of puppetry aren’t known, the art form dates back to ancient times, when priests and shamans used puppets as an intermediary between man and the spiritual world. For that reason, Fisher said, there’s always been an air of mystery and mysticism surrounding puppets.

“As I was researching the history of puppeteering, it became apparent that some people love puppets and other people really find them spooky,” she said. “Puppets became invested with this huge power that was intimidating.”

There’s nothing intimidating about this show, however, so it’s perfect for kids. The bright colors and interesting materials will hold the attention of even the youngest viewers, while grown-ups will appreciate the detail and craftsmanship involved.

Though puppetry is the common theme, it takes many different forms at the Farnsworth. There are the intricately carved, delicate figures from “The Dragon’s Daughter,” created by John and Carol Farrell of Figures of Speech Theatre in Freeport. The Farrells created the puppets in the tradition of Japanese Noh and Bunraku theater. Each looks like a human in miniature, with realistic features and subtle, graceful details.

In contrast, author-illustrator Ashley Bryan’s flotsam-and-jetsam puppets look like nothing you’ve ever seen before. They have faces and hands of curving bone, eyeballs made from seashells, and flowing robes in multicolored fishing nets. They look like a fascinating cross between tribal amulets and creatures from the deep, and they’ll cause you to make up your own stories about these whimsical characters.

Dr. Hans Waecker’s fascination with puppets started when he was a boy in Germany. In World War II, he was captured by American forces and sent to a POW camp in Nebraska, where he made a set of Kasperl (the equivalent of the English “Punch and Judy”) puppets to entertain the fellow prisoners. He immigrated to the United States and worked as a physician, which took up most of his time, but when he retired, he teamed up with artist Martha Feehan to form the Island Hand Puppets in Georgetown. The characters they have created have rosy faces and merry features that bring to mind King Friday and Lady Elaine Fairchilde from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

Nearby, Michael Romanyshyn and Susan Dennison of the Temple Stream Theater in Temple have set the stage for “In New York,” where string puppets “speak” to one another through words taped to their clothes. In the background, a pair of rats sniff the ground. The scene is bold and gritty.

Susan Barrett Merrill’s woven masks, on the other hand, are soft and refined. She captures expression through a fold of fabric, a tuck here, a wrinkle there. The Brooksville artist is involved in every step of the process, from shearing the sheep for the wool to growing the plants used to dye the yarn. The masks embody a connectedness to nature and a sense of spirituality that reflects her involvement in the work.

Merrill’s husband, Richard, also brings a sense of spirit to his work. His shadow-puppet rendition of the Native American story “The Legend of Jumping Mouse,” is housed in a simple, Eastern-inspired box with translucent walls. On one panel, the tin and wire puppets sit in front of the wall, revealing the mechanics of their movement. It’s fascinating to see how they work. Nearby, his Persian sage Nasruddin serves as a wise watchdog.

Also fascinating are the mechanics of Mary Weaver’s and Joseph Ascrizzi’s marionettes, some left costumeless so you can see how they move. Weaver, of the Playhouse in Belfast, commissioned Ascrizzi of Freedom to make the cast of characters more than 20 years ago, but they didn’t revive the project until 2000. The carved wooden bodies come in all shapes, sizes and colors, and the facial expressions are absolutely priceless. They all have names, including the bone-headed “Turtle Man” and the Tinkerbellesque “Lily,” who holds a string of stars.

Nancy Nye’s “Nativity Box Theater” is what your Advent calendar would look like if it could come to life. Surrounding it are her whimsical characters from “Brer Rabbit,” including a fluffy, goofy-faced bunny in pants and a smiling fox with a big, hungry-looking tongue. The whole display elicited an “Oh, sweet,” from a visiting schoolchild as he walked by.

On a larger scale, Nance Parker of the Shoestring Theater in Portland set up her Sicilian marionettes on a vibrant stage. The expressive, big-featured puppets were frozen in a scene from “The Odyssey.” Offstage, a red-faced Cyclops hung out on the wall, his awkward wooden feet dangling beneath a fur jumpsuit. Parker’s characters are exaggerated, playfully rendered and completely fun.

The nearby puppets created by Linda Stec and Sandra Piechocki of Belfast’s Out of Hand Productions have no strings attached, but they’re equally entertaining. Their “Green Monster” emerges from a hatbox like a shimmering, toothy Oscar the Grouch. And their fluffy white snow creatures don’t look cold at all. They look like huggable stuffed animals.

These share a wall with Frances Silenzi Walker’s smooth clay puppets. Their strong, simple lines are elegant, yet they still capture the whimsy that engages young audiences. The New York native is the founder of Lionwitch Theater in Freedom, and she often incorporates humor and seriousness in her puppets. Her “Ghost of Garbage,” made from a silk handkerchief dipped in something red, is no exception. It’s a wisp of a puppet, but its fringe hair and silver eyes draw you in.

That’s the beauty in this show – the puppets all draw you in. Perhaps it’s the ancient allure of puppetry working its magic, but more likely it has to do with the talent of these local puppeteers. For an hour or so, you just get lost in their stories, or you start making up your own, and that’s when the real magic begins.

“Characters in Hand: Puppets by Maine Puppeteers” runs through Feb. 24, 2002, at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland. Hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Dec. 31; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday after Jan. 1; and 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sunday after Jan. 1. For information, call 596-6457 or visit www.farnsworthmuseum.org.