The Jim Henson Exhibition Is Opening in July at the Museum of the Moving Image

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.