Worlds of Puppetry Museum in Atlanta, Georgia Made in Museums - Travels to Curious Museums

Confession:  I am a secret puppet person (I just didn’t know it)
I certainly didn’t think of myself as a puppet person before I visited the Worlds of Puppetry Museum in Atlanta, Georgia.  But after visiting and talking to Jill Malool, Director of the museum, I realized I’ve been a closet puppet person for years.  Roaming through their amazing collection, I kept seeing puppets that reminded me of various times in my life. 
Of course, there’s the classic Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street (sorry, Big Bird, Oscar is still my favorite).  And we all know Kermit and the fabulous Miss Piggy from The Muppets.  I then remembered that my sister Vicki and I had Ernie and Cookie Monster hand puppets when we were little that I had totally forgotten about until I was walking through the Jim Henson Collection (strangely, I don’t remember having a Bert). 
I turned the corner and saw Gumby and The Corpse Bride characters showcasing stop motion puppetry.  I remember watching Gumby on Sunday mornings before church.  There are puppets from the Mystery Science Theater 3000 (that show still cracks me up!).  Then I wandered over into the Global Collection and saw marionettes, which reminded me of all the puppet shows I’ve seen growing up. 
At the time I visited was also the opening of the Dark Crystal exhibit.  I hadn’t thought about that movie in years, but seeing the Mystics, Skeksis, Garthim and Jen reminded me of what a fantastic movie that was and how it was all created with puppetry.  
I also saw puppets I had never seen before:  shadow puppets from India, puppets that “walk on water” from Vietnam, and almost life-size puppets from Japan.  And in a variety of materials:  wood, fiberglass, leather, paper, felt.  And I think they have puppets from every country and region in the world:  Italy, Central Europe, Indonesia, Myanmar, Turkey, China, Taiwan, Egypt, Korea, Japan and Mali.  Puppetry can be traced back hundreds, and even thousands of years in some regions.  It didn’t hit me until I stood in the middle of the Global Collection and saw all the creativity around me that The Worlds of Puppetry Museum showcases how cultures around the world and throughout time have expressed themselves through puppetry to tell their stories and share their history. 
So let’s get started in traveling through their amazing collection!
Museum Highlights:
The Worlds of Puppetry Museum – the original museum started out in an old elementary school building, but then has been added on since then.  On the behind-the-scenes tour you get to visit the old classrooms upstairs where they offer puppetry making classes for kids. 
Jim Henson Collection:
Muppet Workshop – when you enter the Jim Henson collection there are a series of workstations with corkboards on the wall covering a specific aspect of how to make a puppet.  Pinned to the board are hand sketches showing how a particular puppet moves, photographs of Jim Henson, little pieces of fur and felt, and some of the most interesting notes about how to make a puppet come to life. 
Big Bird – since his debut in 1969, Big Bird has remained as curious as an inquisitive six-year-old.  So how do you animate a giant puppet like Big Bird?  Listen to how the puppeteer works his mouth, and both wings, while at the same time being able to see where he’s going inside this giant puppet.  Jill, the Director of the museum, shares a wonder story between two generations and how they connect through this yellow bird. 
Oscar the Grouch - my favorite Sesame Street character.   The same puppeteer, Caroll Spinney, made both Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch come alive.  We all know the green Oscar of today, but you can see the original drawings for Oscar that pink was his original color. 
Another fun fact about Oscar’s color from the behind-the-scenes tour?  In the first season on Sesame Street Oscar was actually orange, but the orange color didn’