![]() “For instance, with the India exhibit we’re opening, we’ll have two very rare performances of the puppetry of India. “We have a whole series of special events taking place all year long,” Anthony said. Visitors can attend live performances and movie screenings, or take classes to learn how to build a puppet. The current special exhibit features the puppetry of India. In addition to the Jim Henson Collection, visitors can also browse the Global Collection and special exhibits. While still based in the same Spring Street location, the center added a new facility in 2015, which allowed it to increase the size of the Worlds of Puppetry Museum. Many retired Muppets and Sesame Street characters, including Kermit, Miss Piggy and Big Bird, are housed in the Jim Henson Collection at the center’s Worlds of Puppetry Museum. Henson remained involved in the Center for Puppetry Arts, and after his death in 1990, his family continued their support. “When we were working on that plan, I asked Jim Henson if he and Kermit the Frog would come and cut the ribbon to open the center, and he agreed.” Everybody liked those ideas,” said Anthony, who now serves as the center’s Barbara and Bill Wylly executive director. This article originally appeared in our July 2014 under the headline “Muppets at Work.“I talked with them about taking over the school and putting these programs in place on a year-round basis. “You’ll want to come here because you have so many options.” “More choices will make coming to Atlanta better,” he says. Anthony envisions the center working in concert with intown attractions (especially those around Centennial Park) instead of competing with them. With expanded facilities to showcase the Henson treasures, officials expect museum attendance to at least double. Most come for the shows and workshops only about 7,500 buy tickets just for the museum. On average, the center draws 150,000 visitors annually. “The family’s very committed to what’s happening here.” The center “was very much a part of his whole life,” says Erickson. ![]() Henson supported the facility with appearances and donations until his death in 1990. In the 1970s, the Mississippi native brainstormed the idea of an international puppetry center with Anthony, who was the Atlanta-based president of Puppeteers of America. The center itself was partly Henson’s idea. “If you’re a Henson nut, you’ll see a lot of the stuff you like,” says Vince Anthony, center founder and executive director. ![]() Together it will be the largest Henson collection in the world. Expect an interactive exhibit inspired by Henson’s workshop and iconic, one-of-a-kind puppets such as Big Bird, Elmo, and those strangely perky Fraggle Rock creatures. Visitors will pass under a new electronic marquee to find a vast array of international puppetry artifacts-including rarely displayed Mesoamerican pieces that predate Columbus’s westward voyage-and a rotating exhibit pulled from more than 400 objects built by Henson and his colleagues, courtesy of a bulk donation that was initiated in 2007. The $14 million–plus expansion, funded by private and corporate donations, will bring the center’s hodgepodge of museum, theater, and workshops to the lip of Spring Street, juxtaposing a sweeping modern structure with the center’s current home, the former Spring Street Elementary School.
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