The successful debut of "The Muppets" at movie theaters this holiday season should be a boon for the Center for Puppetry Arts' delayed plans to build a museum wing dedicated to the puppetry of Jim Henson.
The Jim Henson Wing was announced in 2007, just before the recession hit, in response to a gift from Henson's family of 500 to 700 puppets, props, scenic elements, posters, sketches, drawings, films and videos. At the time, the tentative opening date was 2012, but the weak economy didn't help an involved fund-raising campaign that has targeted local and national donors.
But puppetry center founder and executive director Vince Anthony said there is enthusiasm among potential funders for the project, and that conversations about contributions are getting more specific, with a 2014 or ‘15 opening still possible.
"It takes a long time to try to identify several hundred donors and try to get with each of of them," Anthony said. "We're trying to understand what kind of project they envision and what kind of project we envision and trying to line up those two visions. ... I have to say, we've had great interest."
Certainly a $42.3 million bow at the box office over Thanksgiving weekend by "The Muppets," the first major release starring Henson's best-known creations since Disney secured rights to the franchise in 2004, suggests America's affection for Kermit, Miss Piggy and the crew remains strong.
The puppetry center did not release a fund-raising goal when the Henson Wing campaign was announced, and Anthony remains reticent on that and other project details.
"Once you announce the target publicly, you're subject to making that number," he said. "At this point, we don't know exactly what the target number is ... there's wiggle room."
Yet Anthony did allow that the "quiet phase" of measuring donor interest in the Henson Wing was transitioning into a new period of seeking leadership gifts, and that preliminary conversations have been held with architecture firms.
One major matter at least -- the site -- appears settled. At the time of the announcement in 2007, there was talk that the center might sell its valuable property on Spring Street, beside the entrance to the 17th Street Bridge over the Downtown Connector. But Anthony said that the center now plans to stay put, and the wing would connect to the former schoolhouse where Henson and Kermit cut the ribbon at the grand opening in 1978.
The center currently showcases three exhibits on long-term display of Henson's career that serve of a sort of sampler platter of the greater riches to come: "Jim Henson: A Man and His Frog," "Puppeteer" and "Wonders from His Workshop." Anthony said that pieces from the trio of exhibits in the center's atrium would be folded into the larger grouping from the Henson family and reconfigured in the new wing.
"We're going to really try our best to represent Jim's entire career, so we'll show a lot of the icons obviously," Anthony said. "But we'll also show a lot of other stuff that the public may not be as well aware of, because we want to show the depth and breadth" of Henson's creativity.
Anthony witnessed that up close and early. As president of the Puppeteers of America, he met and became fast friends with Henson during involved preparations for the World Puppet Festival in Washington in 1980. The international fest included exhibitions at the Smithsonian and Corcoran Gallery of Art and an educational component -- elements that Anthony was considering for a full-time center he hoped to found in Atlanta. Henson encouraged his friend, lent financial support, chaired the center's first capital campaign and even gave a rare live performance at its 10th anniversary.
When Henson died at age 53 in 1990, Anthony said, "The loss was really staggering. A genius was taken from us."
The passing of the puppets' creator and driving force may at least partly explain the decade-plus lapse between feature films starring the Muppets, not seen on the big screen since 1999's "Muppets From Space." Yet Anthony said he could sense the spirit of his old friend in the $40 million "The Muppets."
"There is so much of Jim in it," he said. "Jim's values and philosophy on kindness, understanding and individuality were in all his movies; it really felt like a Jim Henson film."
On view
Jim Henson exhibits
On long-term exhibit at Center for Puppetry Arts. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays (also open during performances). $8.25. Exhibits free with ticket to any performance of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," continuing through Dec. 31 ($16.50). 1404 Spring St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-873-3391, www.puppet.org.
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