Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, Puppet museum at University of Connecticut in Mansfield, United States.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is a public museum operated by the University of Connecticut in Storrs. Its permanent collection of over 2,500 puppets from around the world includes marionettes, glove puppets, rod puppets, shadow puppets, body puppets, and stage materials. The museum moved to the Storrs Center in 2014 and shares space with Barnes & Noble.

The Ballard Institute is named after Frank W. Ballard (1929–2010), who founded UConn's Puppet Arts Program, the first graduate and undergraduate puppetry programs in the United States. The museum was previously located on UConn's Depot Campus and moved to the newly constructed Storrs Center in 2014, where it shares space with Barnes & Noble.

The collection spans marionettes, glove, rod, shadow and body puppets from around the world, alongside stage materials. The Kay Janney Library and Archives holds more than 2,500 books, scripts, manuscripts, clippings and posters on puppet theater history, open to researchers by appointment. Managing director John Bell, a former Bread and Puppet Theater member, leads the institute, which runs puppet-making workshops and joins local parades.

The museum occupies part of the Storrs Center development near the main UConn campus, sharing its building with a Barnes & Noble bookstore. The Kay Janney Library and Archives, holding books, scripts, posters and audio-visual material, is open to visiting researchers by appointment rather than on a walk-in basis.

The Kay Janney Library and Archives holds the Puppeteers of America Audio-Visual Collection, over 700 items and the largest media collection on puppetry in the United States. The same library keeps more than 2,500 books, scripts, manuscripts, clippings and posters, open to visiting researchers by appointment.