For some, April means showers that usher in spring. But for many Ann Arborites, April is a time for fools — specifically, the 14-foot tall puppet variety on display at the 4th annual FestiFools Parade, happening on Main Street on Sunday from 4-5 p.m.

Mark Tucker poses in the Kipke Drive studio where the giant FestiFools puppets are made every year by volunteers. This year's FestiFools Parade takes place Sunday on Main Street in downtown Ann Arbor.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

FestiFools creative director Mark Tucker — a professor at the University of Michigan who teaches art classes for non-art majors — says the idea for the event was planted in his mind long ago, when he was artistic director for the Michigan Thanksgiving Parade.

“I had always wanted to do an event that really had absolutely no commercial appeal,” Tucker said. “So that was 1 thing that was in my head for a long time. And then, … I teach a class called Art in Public Spaces, which essentially takes students out of the classroom and puts the community into classroom to mix them up together and make something that’s going to be designed by 1 group and enjoyed by another group. That, I found, was a way to raise the bar on what my students would make, and also would raise interest in the community for the final show.”

FestiFools has done that and more, growing in popularity while drawing increasing numbers of volunteers, participants, student groups and young people into its fold each year. (A new educational outreach program, Fools in Schools, aims to involve K-12 students in the future, and 826Michigan, Burns Park Elementary, Summers-Knoll School, and the library are getting kids involved in this year’s parade.)

“It started out as a 1-time class project, although it was never intended to be a show in Ann Arbor,” said Tucker. “At first, we thought we would take it to other communities, like Flint or Ypsilanti or Detroit, but the logistics of getting my students out to those places — we ended up doing the 1st year in Ann Arbor. And then we were pleasantly surprised how much the Ann Arbor community embraced the whole concept. … So now we sort of bridge that fine line between making the stuff that’s fun and foolish and also making sure that it’s a rich educational experience for the students that are involved in it.”

Both non-art majors in Tucker’s class and students from the U-M School of Art & Design have built puppets for the parade, many of which are inspired by this year’s LS&A theme involving museums. To this end, students visited campus museums early in the semester and were asked to pick something “that they would like to set free.”

University of Michigan freshman Jamie Solomon, Los Angeles, paints the face of 1 of the many giant puppets that will grace Main Street this Sunday for the annual FestiFools Parade in downtown Ann Arbor.

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

Consequently, 2 of this year’s puppets are a stuffy-looking man and a woman at an art gallery opening. “They’re just very snooty art show-goers, and they will be smoking long cigarettes, and passing out trays of fake wine and cheese to the audience,” said Tucker. “They have a frame that comes together, and they will frame people in the audience, and then the puppets step right up to the frame and take a look at the art inside it, and decide whether or not they like it. I think those kinds of interactive pieces are a lot of fun.”

In the FestiFools studio near U-M stadium, it's hard to see students and volunteers these days, so packed is the space with in-progress giant heads and bodies. There's a mermaid who's trying to learn how to swim (her arms have orange "floaties" on them); the head of Vincent VanGogh; Mother Nature, with greenery and red mushrooms in her hair; and an "Obsolete Mummy," wrapped in flags from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Ann Arbor News, among others, with phone cord arms, 45 record glasses, and a roll of film you can pull from the mouth.

Puppet-building takes place each year from January through the event in April, and during that time, various community and student groups and individual volunteers stop by to get involved.

Of course, the event also welcomes independently-made puppets, so last year, Tucker spotted about 6 puppets that were created in people’s garages or basements.

“I have no idea, really, (what will be there) until these people show up,” said Tucker. “And that’s the beauty of it, actually, is that it starts to become more and more community-built. … When all of these pieces get together with the audience, there’s a kind of magic you can’t predict. It’s different every year, how that feels.”

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.