Valeska Populoh is a performer, artist and educator living in Baltimore, MD. Valeska has worked with a variety of community arts organizations and puppet theaters, including Bread and Puppet Theater, Nanaprojects and Black Cherry Puppet Theater, where she organizes a puppet series called Puppet Slamwich! She has participated in the O'Neill National Puppetry Conference, served on the organizing committee for Baltimore's Transmodern Festival and performed at the International Toy Theater Festival in New York. She currently teaches in the Fibers Department at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Valeska's work is influenced by metaphor, storytelling and the effects of industrialization and ecological devastation on our relationships with one another, to the places we inhabit and to the natural world. She captures narrative elements in drawings and collage, then utilizes repurposed and recycled materials to construct puppets, masks and costumes. These invented characters are then brought to life and into the public realm by her or the help of collaborators through staged actions and performances. A theme she explores repeatedly through these characters is the possibility of personal and societal transformation through right action or labor motivated by care and compassion. This work also extends to collaborating with other artists, community organizations and performance groups to invent, create and curate cultural actions and performance events.