The Puppetry Department of the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatre Academy in Warsaw, seated in Białystok, was founded in 1975. The Rector of the School, which was back then called the State Higher School of Theatre, was Prof. Tadeusz Łomnicki, one of the most renown Polish actors of all times. It was due to his decision that the three-year Puppetry Actors' Studio, which had been functioning since 1 September 1974 by the Białystok Puppet Theatre and managed by the Theatre's director, Krzysztof Rau, was turned into an out-of-town Puppetry Department of the Warsaw State School of Theatre. The students of the Studio became students of a higher school of artistic education and one of the few (the second one in Poland - the Wrocław Academy being the first) such institutions training puppet masters.

The foundation of the Studio and then the Puppetry Department in Białystok was an initiative "resulting from the state and needs of puppetry", having at its disposal 26 professional puppet theatres and only one puppetry school in Wrocław. The 1970's saw for the first time in Poland a stability in educating puppeteers, especially when the Białystok school was created alongside the Wrocław institution.

The first Dean of the Puppetry Department was Jan Wilkowski - one of the most outstanding Polish puppeteers of the post-war era, an actor and a director, the creator of great performances of Polish puppetry : "Guignol in Trouble" by Wilkowski and Moszczyński, "On Zwyrtala the Musician" based on Przerwa-Tetmajer, "Confession in Wood" based on own screenplay, "Decameron 8.5" based on Boccaccio, "The Green Goose" by Gałczyński. He was also the author of a cycle of plays about the Rymcimci Bear - the favourite hero of children and of the audience of puppet TV series: "Little Theatre in a Basket", "Ula from Class Ib", "Ula from Class II b", "Ula and the World", "Adventures of Dzięcielinek the Goblin". Jan Wilkowski was the "spirit" of the Puppetry Department, later also of the Department of Puppet Theatre Directing, the professor and master of Białystok puppeteers for many years until his death in 1997.

The first Vice Dean of the Puppetry Department, its founder and the true organiser of the school was Krzysztof Rau - a puppeteer, director of puppet theatres, first in Białystok and then in Bielsko-Biała. Krzysztof Rau was also the Vice Rector of the Warsaw State School of Theatre until 1990.

The Puppetry Department has been directed and managed by actors, directors and puppet theatre directors: Tomasz Jaworski, Jan Plewako, Wojciech Kobrzyński, Wieslaw Czołpiński.

In 1980 the Department of Puppet Theatre Directing was founded, initially headed by Henryk Jurkowski, later by Wojciech Wieczorkiewicz and Stanisław Ochmański. During the early 1990's, both departments were transferred into one Department of Puppetry, with two faculties: acting and directing.

During the 30 years of the school's existence, 352 students graduated from the Puppetry Department, including 35 theatre directors. The graduates work in almost all the puppet theatres in Poland, in many they constitute the majority of the theatre's companies. As many as half of Polish puppet theatres are directed by the Białystok alumni. Many of the puppeteers have been employed in drama theatres, in the radio and TV, due to the fact that the school offers complete actor's training, satisfying the needs of modern theatre (visual theatre, theatre of the object, puppet theatre, mask theatre and actor's theatre).