The Jim Henson Exhibition—including puppets from The Muppet Show and Sesame Street—will now have a permanent home, thanks to funds raised in a Kickstarter campaign.
The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to create a permanent home for The Jim Henson Exhibition: a collection of his original puppets and two interactive experiences to accompany the exhibit. In just one month, the museum met their goal of raising $140,000 to fund this project. Now, the exhibit will be opening on Saturday, July 22, according to a press release.
The first goal in the Kickstarter was to raise $40,000 to preserve and install the puppets, and it only took two days for this goal to be met. Then, the museum asked for a second stretch goal of $100,000 to help restore more puppets within Henson’s collection, including Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, the Swedish Chef, Big Bird, Elmo, characters from Fraggle Rock, and even rare puppets from Henson’s early work in the 1950s and 1960s.
At the end of April, the Museum of the Moving Image increased this stretch goal to $125,000 to add in two interactive experiences: Puppet on the Screen for visitors to watch themselves perform as a puppet on a television monitor, and Design an Anything Muppet Character: a way for visitors to create their very own Muppet characters. The Kickstarter ended after a month and successfully raised $144,230 with 2,072 backers to bring this project into fruition at the museum.
The Jim Henson Exhibition will also feature character sketches, storyboards, scripts, photographs, costumes, behind-the-scenes footage, and film and television clips, along with education programs and public events to complement the exhibit. There will be 47 puppets on display, according to the press release. A traveling version of this exhibit called The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited opened at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Washington this month.
For more information, visit the Museum of the Moving Image’s website.
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Main image: The Jim Henson Exhibition will open on July 22 at the Museum of the Moving Image.
Courtesy Museum of the Moving Image