Sunday, February 24, 2008

Center for Puppetry Arts

For my birthday this weekend, I decided I wanted to go to the Center for Puppetry Arts museum in Atlanta, GA. So I did. It was my second visit, my first having been about six years ago. For anyone who is interested in the art of puppetry, or is a Jim Henson fan, etc., I would recommend making a visit. Anyway, I thought I'd share a small sampling of pictures with you.

The museum is currently hosting a temporary exhibit showcasing some of Jim Henson's works. This is a very limited precursor to the full Jim Henson wing of the museum that is scheduled to open in 2012. Unfortunately, this exhibit has very restrictive anti-photography rules, so the only pictures I could take of it were of the Kermit the Frog poser puppet at the entrance. Puppets you can see inside are a selection of the ones Jim worked and voiced himself, including Rowlf, Swedish Chef, Dr. Teeth, Ernie, and more!




The rest of the museum features a wide variety of puppets from all cultures throughout history. One thing you quickly learn at the museum is that puppets can be creepy!






Remember what I said before about puppets sometimes being creepy? Sometimes they're not creepy at all. Sometimes they're just pure, unfiltered Nightmare Fuel.



Some more random selections.




Here are a few of the Henson puppets from the museum's permanent exhibit...Pigs in Space, Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. (That fourth picture, the one of th goat-like head, is actually not one of the Henson ones, I just wanted an even number of pictures in this section! So there!)




The other temporary exhibit currently being featured at the museum is devoted to Salem the cat from the Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV series. They had some of the puppets and a huge variety of props and costumes related to the puppet. I never watched that show, but it was still somewhat interesting to see all the goods.


5 comments:

DICK! said...

And this is one awesome post! This makes me want to go back! I bet the Jim Henson stuff was awesome! I was telling Jessica you had posted some "puppetry" pictures and cailey said, "What?! A Puppet Tree?!?" It was quite funny. I guess you had to be there. But Jessica and I thought it would be funny if you actually drew a puppet tree. Or maybe not.

Anonymous said...

great.
now that is a museum trip!

Chris_Garrison said...

I love puppets! Let's put on a puppet show.

They used to have Hoggle, from Labyrinth, in a glass case at the Unclaimed Baggage store in Scottsboro, Alabama. Along with other amazing things the airlines had lost, and that hadn't been claimed. I got kind of afraid that Henson Productions didn't actually know Hoggle was there, so I called them in New York. They knew he was there, and they were letting them keep him. He was rotting away pretty badly. I don't know if they still have him or not.

Andrew said...

Thanks for the comments, all.

Dick: I love the idea of the puppet tree!

Chris: Interesting factoid about Hoggle now residing in Scotsboro...I had no idea!

DICK! said...

I knew that about Hoggle! I saw him there! Cool.