Hensons Donate Puppets: Kermit's New $5 Million NY Home
The Muppet family is moving to New York, but this time their sights will be set on Queens, where they will find a new home at the Museum of the Moving Image.
Developed by Jim Henson in 1955, the Muppets grew to mass popularity in the late '70s and '80s with memorable characters like Kermit the Frog and Little Miss Piggy. In 1984 the characters starred in "The Muppets Take Manhattan."
Even to this day, the half-century-old characters have not been forgotten. They made their most recent film debut in 2011, appearing in a movie with Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller. And they were also on a small exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. That exhibit has done so well for the museum, organizers have now announced that a whole new building will be built and dedicated to the Muppet family.
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To fill the building, Jim Henson's family has donated over 400 items collected by Henson throughout his career. Cheryl Henson, daughter of the creator, has said that the new museum space is just what her late mother would have wanted. Jane Henson died last month at the age of 78.
"She loved the Muppet characters as though they were part of her own family," Cheryl Henson said of her mother at a news conference covered by the Associated Press. "It was her dream to have these dear friends find a good home where they could be seen and enjoyed, and where new audiences could learn about the many facets of my father's work."
The museum's director, who will help head the new $5 million project, said the museum was happy to honor Henson.
"Jim Henson created indelible, memorable characters that live with us throughout a variety of media," said Carl Goodman, executive director of the Museum of the Moving Image.
