Sunday, April 10 | 10am–3pm
ADMISSION: Art-making activities free and open to all; Museum admission $16 for adults and free for visitors under age 18
Join us for a fun day celebrating imagination and creativity through hands-on art making! Explore The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited to discover the boundless imagination of Jim Henson and his innovative approach to puppetry and storytelling. Then, use your own imagination to create miniature pop-up puppet theater books, hand puppets, and more. Plus, interact with roving puppeteers, view student-made books in the Ezra Jack Keats Bookmaking project, and enjoy a nosh at Wise Sons Delicatessen!
All art making activities will take place outside The Museum on Jessie Square Plaza, and are free and open to all. Entering the exhibition requires advanced purchase of timed tickets.
Dennis "The Red" Eustace has been a puppeteer for over two decades delighting children and families in a live setting. He spontaneously weaves stories, cracks jokes, and creates magic moments tailored to any situation. The only thing better than having Dennis at your event is to have his puppets!
C.K. Itamura is a recipient of the 2019 Discovered Awards for Emerging Visual Artists, made possible, in part, by Creative Sonoma and Community Foundation Sonoma County. Itamura is an Artist-in-Residence of The Imaginists, Chalk Hill Residency, and In Cahoots Residency; a Co-Founder of Book Arts Roadshow; a board member of Berkeley Commonplace; a Guesthouse custodian artist of The Imaginists; an advisory committee member of Write Now! SF Bay; and a former director of San Francisco Center for the Book.
Toni Mikulka is often called the pied piper of her family. Toni started theater at the age of five in local community productions in her hometown of Suffern, NY. She excelled in theater and lacrosse athletics in high school where her passion for community arts and teamwork was cemented. Toni studied Anthropology and Art at the State University of New York, where she graduated in 2005 with honors, and immediately went on to work for six years in nonprofit development for the arts, and even won the PBS Development award for Best Fundraising Event. She made a career change in 2010 when she was accepted to the Bread and Puppet Theater Company, in Glover, Vermont, and subsequently went on to work in set design and puppet performance. In 2011, she received a grant from the Fremont Arts Council to start Giant Puppets Save the World in Seattle. There Toni apprenticed with giant puppet artists and taught workshops for the Seattle Solstice Parade and the Procession of the Species Parade in Olympia, WA. Afterwards, she followed creative pursuits to NYC with a performance art company as a resident Puppet Master. Longing for the West Coast culture, she settled back in California in winter of 2012 to work at Habitot Children’s Museum in Berkeley as a puppeteer teacher and nonprofit manager. In the Bay Area she finds a robust artist community with many puppetry partners and leads direct actions with street theater to protest climate change.
Jonathan Youtt creates and performs politically and environmentally conscious puppetry. Since 2002 he has created puppetry edu-tainment dealing with a myriad of issues including urban farming, waste reduction, media consolidation, sustainability, democracy, circus sideshows, and bicycle safety and alternative transportation advocacy. He is excited to be currently working with Common Vision on a series of Stopwaste.org educational videos.
The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited celebrates the legacy of Jim Henson (1936–1990), trailblazing puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker. Featuring more than 150 objects drawn from the beloved worlds of Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and more, the exhibition highlights Henson’s groundbreaking work for film and television, his indelible mark on popular culture, and the profound social impact of his work. It also includes material from Henson’s experimental film projects and his early work, presenting him as a restlessly creative performer and technical innovator. Discover how Henson and his team of builders, performers, and writers created an unparalleled body of work, sharing characters and stories that represent diverse backgrounds and abilities. These stories continue to delight audiences and inspire people of all ages to look beyond differences and cultivate a more compassionate, inclusive world.
The CJM strives for a welcoming environment for all of our visitors. In addition to ample space for wheelchairs and a friendly environment for service animals, sign language interpretation (ASL) can be scheduled for all programs with at least two weeks notice.
FM assistive listening devices (ALDs) for sound enhancement are available for all talks and tours. Please note that we would like to maintain this as a scent-free environment, and encourage visitors to refrain from using scented products out of respect for visitors with allergies or chemical sensitivities. For additional accommodation requests, please contact The CJM’s Access and Community Engagement Manager at access@thecjm.org or 415.655.7856.
For more information, email families@thecjm.org or call 415.655.7881.
The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited is a traveling exhibition organized by Museum of the Moving Image (Astoria, New York) in cooperation with The Jim Henson Company, The Muppets Studio, and Sesame Workshop.
Major support for The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited is generously provided by The Jane Henson Foundation, at the request of Heather Henson.
Family Programs are made possible by major support from Bank of America. Additional support is provided by Blick Art Materials.
Header image: Dallis Willard
Exhibition image: Jim Henson and his iconic creation Kermit the Frog, in front of a mural by Coulter Watt. Kermit the Frog © Disney/Muppets. Courtesy The Jim Henson Company/Museum of the Moving Image. Photo: John E. Barrett.