5/24/2017
By Ivan Pereira
After years of planning and a little help from their fans, the Muppets are finally going to take over the Museum of the Moving Image this summer.
The Long Island City museum announced Wednesday that its long-awaited Jim Henson exhibition will open on July 22. The permanent exhibit will host more than 300 objects from the filmmaker’s career, including 47 puppets, such as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and Big Bird, and sketches, props and other memorabilia.
The opening follows years of delays and setbacks.
In 2013, Mayor Michael Bloomberg provided $2.75 million to construct the new space in the museum for the exhibit, but MOMI still needed additional funding to preserve and install the items, which were loaned by the Jim Henson Company Archives.
It launched a Kickstarter campaign last month to cover the $40,000 cost, which raked in over $144,000.
The museum opened a traveling version of the Henson exhibit, “The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited,” this week in Seattle. Advanced tickets for the MOMI exhibit are not yet available, according to the museum.
