UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette - International Puppetry Association) was founded in Prague in 1929 (the then Czechoslovak magazine Loutkář was UNIMA's first official journal in years 1929-1930). In 1981, the French puppeteer Jacques Félix moved UNIMA's headquarters to Charleville-Mézières, France, location of the Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes since 1972. UNIMA is affiliated to UNESCO and it is a member of the International Theatre Institute.
There are National centers throughout the world, which include:
UNIMA-USA founded by Jim Henson in 1966. In 1992 the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta became the headquarters for UNIMA-USA
UNIMA Australia
UNIMA Pakistan
British UNIMA
UNIMA France - THEMAA
World congresses have been held in:
1929: Prague (Presidency: Jindřich Veselý)
1929: Paris
1930: Liège
1933: Ljubljana (New presidency: Josef Skupa) (New General Secretary: Jan Malík)
1957: Prague (New presidency: Max Jacob)
1958: Bucharest
1960: Bochum-Braunschweig
1962: Warsaw
1966: Munich
1969: Prague (New presidency: Jan Bussell)
1972: Charleville-Mézières (New General Secretary: Henryk Jurkowski)
1976: Moscow (New presidency: Sergej Obrazcov)
1980: Washington D.C. (New General Secretary: Jacques Felix)
1984: Dresden (New presidency: Henryk Jurkowski)
1988: Nagoya
1992: Ljubljana (New presidency: Sirppa Sivori-Asp)
1996: Budapest
2000: Magdeburg (New presidency: Margareta Niculescu)
2004: Rijeka (New presidency: Massimo Schuster) (New General Secretary: Miguel Arreche)
2008: Perth (New presidency: Dadi Pudumjee) (New General Secretary: Jacques Trudeau)
2012: Chengdu
2016: Tolosa
