Since 1978, the Center has introduced millions of visitors to the wonder and art of puppetry and has touched the lives of many through enchanting performances, curriculum-based workshops, and the hands-on Museum, as well as Digital Learning and Outreach Programs. This article originally appeared in our July 2014 under the headline “Muppets at Work.The Center for Puppetry Arts is a unique cultural treasure - a magical place where children and adults are educated, enlightened and entertained. “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.
Coincidentally, next year also marks the sixtieth birthday of Miss Piggy’s little green beau. A 16,000-square-foot expansion is forging ahead this summer, with hopes of wrapping during the 2015 summer tourist season. Leaders of the Midtown center, already home to one of America’s largest puppet collections, hope to elicit reactions like Erickson’s from a more global visitor base.
“She’s beautiful,” says Bonnie Erickson, who created Miss Piggy and now directs the Jim Henson Legacy. The starry-eyed swine sports the feathery boa and sarong she wore in 1996’s Muppet Treasure Island, her curlicue locks blonde as ever. In the Center for Puppetry Arts’ atrium, a coterie of America’s puppetry elite stand in a semicircle, contemplating an acrylic-encased Miss Piggy.
0 kommentar(er)
