Jim Henson’s Fantastic World at the National Heritage Museum
Note: this is a guest post by Peggy, Crazy Kids Boston’s Editor-at-Large.
As an avid Jim Henson fan, I was quite excited to hear about the National Heritage Museum’s current exhibit titled “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World,” a traveling exhibit organized by the Jim Henson Legacy and funded by The Biography Channel. Touted as featuring “100 original artworks, including drawings, cartoons and storyboards that illustrate Henson’s talent as a storyteller and visionary” as well as “puppets and television and movie props, photographs of Henson and his collaborators at work and original video productions, including excerpts from Henson’s early career and experimental films,” the exhibit seemed like a Henson devotee’s dream come true. Having some free time over April vacation, I grabbed a fellow enthusiast and checked it out.
The National Heritage Museum is a modern, beautifully kept site founded and supported by a grant from the Scottish Rite Masons. There are tables outside for sitting and relaxing or enjoying food from the museum’s small cafe. The bright main atrium features a small gift shop and the cafe, as well as additional tables and chairs. The young lady who greeted us was friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable, directing us to the various exhibits currently on display. We first took a walk through “Treasured Lands: The Fifty-Eight U.S. National Parks in Focus,” which featured gorgeous landscape photography by Quang-Tuan Luong, who traveled across the U.S. capturing our national parks on film. The photographs were beautiful and interesting enough to hold the attention of older children. The exhibit leaves you feeling the need to either pack and tent and hop on a plane or grab your camera and start snapping your surroundings. It was well worth the 15 minutes it took to stroll through.
Having read Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol mostly for the interesting historical (and pseudo-historical) tidbits he dispenses, as well as the mythology he builds around the Masons, I was excited to check out “The Initiated Eye: Secrets, Symbols, Freemasonry and the Architecture of Washington, D.C.” The exhibit is described as exploring “the Masonic ideals and symbols made manifest in our nation’s capital city.” It features Masonic artifacts, as well as “oil paintings by artist Peter Waddell based on the architecture of Washington, D.C., and the role that our founding fathers and prominent citizens—many of whom were Freemasons—played in establishing the layout, design and construction of the city.” While the exhibit does indeed feature those things, it failed to hold my attention – the colorful modern paintings divulged very few secrets, and I found myself wishing for a Brown-like guide to the exhibit which would point out the details of symbolism in a way the plaques next to the paintings did not. Having no connections to Freemasonry myself, the exhibit failed to deliver any sense of excitement, other than mild interest at recognizing certain places from recent trips to D.C.
Since we grew up in Massachusetts and feel thoroughly versed in the state’s role in the American Revolution, we elected to skip “Sowing the Seeds of Liberty: Lexington and the American Revolution,” described as “the Museum’s new cornerstone exhibition on Lexington and the American Revolution” which is “designed to stimulate new ways of thinking about the battle at Lexington on April 19, 1775.” We did check out the 200-year-old 15-star flag, displayed in a beautiful conference room, but then hurried on to our main event.
It did not disappoint. The exhibit features everything it promises and more. Organized chronologically, it consists mainly of sketches, drawings, storyboards, pictures, sales pitches and other printed material from all stages of Henson’s life, but the real treasures are the glass cases containing actual puppets Henson worked with, including Kermit the Frog, Rowlf, Bert and Ernie, and Fraggles Gobo and Cantus. There is also a room with props from one of Henson’s most popular movies, The Dark Crystal. Several screens loop videos of his early work, such as talk show appearances, commercials, and some little-known experimental films, and a small room shows a longer biographical film. While “The Muppet Show”, “Sesame Street” and The Dark Crystal are featured, the focus seems to be on Henson’s earlier and lesser-known works. Posters he created in high school, his commercial work, and his less-successful television and film attempts give Henson fans a fuller understanding of his body of work. It ends roughly where Henson’s life did (1990) and does not feature any of the later Muppet works done through Disney.
Children will be excited to see characters they know up close, but as photography is not permitted, and most of the exhibit’s interest lies in closely reading the materials, the exhibit is best for older children and those who are already fans or who want to know more about the fascinating man behind so many beloved characters and programs. I was most struck with the way every scrap of paper Henson touched seemed to have been preserved – doodles, ideas jotted on notepads, silly drawings, cartoons, early conceptions of well-known works – it all became fascinating in retrospect. How many of us think, when doodling in the margins of a notebook during a meeting, that our work could one day be displayed in a museum? Henson was truly a visionary, and the exhibit allows a full appreciation of his mind and work. More information on the touring exhibit can be found at http://sites.si.edu/henson/index.html.
The National Heritage Museum is located at 33 Marrett Road (At the intersection of Route 2A and Massachusetts Avenue), Lexington, MA and can be reached at (781) 861-6559. Admission to the museum and all exhibits is free, and hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 am to 4:30 pm, and Sundays from noon to 4:30 pm. More information, including special events and group information, is found at http://www.nationalheritagemuseum.org/. I would recommend both the museum and exhibit for ages 9 and up.
What did you do this weekend?