I am a huge fan of puppetry - especially the Muppe...

I am a huge fan of puppetry - especially the Muppets. I found out that the Jim Henson collection was here a year or two back but we don't get to Atlanta that often. So when my daughter's class got tickets to see the Pete the Cat puppet show there, I was glad to use that excuse to go with the family.

It was what I hoped it would be. For starters, the puppetry show exhibited the considerable talents of the puppetry staff who wrote and performed the delightful, flawlessly executed musical puppet show. I would pay to watch it again -- and I'm hardly the target audience. The general puppetry museum highlights puppetry from around the world and throughout time, with some remarkable samples that would impress any puppet connoisseur. Currently they have an exhibit devoted to showcasing many of the pieces from Jim Henson's movie "The Labyrinth" (starring David Bowie and a teenage Jennifer Connelly), all within a styrofoam "maze", naturally!

But the highlight for me was of course the Jim Henson collection that traced his career from small-time local TV all the way through the Jim Henson Hour. It was surreal and sublime for me to be able to get within inches (protected by glass) of Ernie and Bert, Grover, Rowlf, Fozzie, Scooter, Ma and Emmet Otter, Mokey the Fraggle, and a massive Garthim from the Dark Crystal, just to name a few. No, they by no means had them all (e.g. no Telly Monster, Swedish Chef, Bunsen & Beaker, Sgt. Floyd Pepper), but I was in awe of the ones they did have. Be aware that my only slight disappointment was the fact that the Kermit and Robin they have on display are photo models, meaning that we've no doubt seen them somewhere posed in pictures, but they aren't actual puppets ever performed by Henson or Nelson.

The Center for Puppetry Arts is housed within a building that's much older than it is but looks much newer; Jim and Jane Henson actually cut the ribbon when this place opened in 1978. In addition to the museum exhibits, they have an in-house puppet crew that designs and makes puppets and sets, and creates their own music for their shows. They also have a little workshop to give the youngsters a chance to build a very rudimentary puppet (paper in our case) and put on a little show for each other. They have a fairly small gift shop with some puppets and other related crafts and memorabilia, as reasonably priced as those things go.

It was all I could do not to walk out of there with an annual membership...and I still haven't ruled it out. I highly encourage the young at heart to visit.