Image: Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
The exhibition will occupy Gallery 1.1 (The Fairfax Gallery), Gallery 1.2, Gallery 1.3 (Eric and Marion Taylor Gallery), and the River Room (Sue and Brian King River Room).
Described as exclusive to Brisbane, the exhibition celebrates 70 years of creativity and innovation at The Jim Henson Company. Founded by Jim and Jane Henson in 1955, the company is associated with ‘Fraggle Rock’, ‘Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock’, ‘The Dark Crystal’, ‘Labyrinth’, the Muppets and ‘Sesame Street’.
More than 500 objects will be featured, including handcrafted puppets, animatronic creatures, large-scale puppeteering sets, props, costumes, original drawings and moving-image clips. The exhibition will explore practical puppetry, animatronic and digital innovations, creature design, and developments in on-screen puppeteering. It will also include film and props from the ‘Magic Dance’ scene in ‘Labyrinth’, as well as Skeksis, Mystic and Aughra from ‘The Dark Crystal’.
Timed-entry tickets are priced from $18 to $42, with day-pass Flexi tickets at $56 and five-visit Multi Pass tickets from $57 to $120. The final exhibition session begins at 4pm daily, and the exhibition closes at 5pm.
Lisa Henson, CEO of The Jim Henson Company, will speak with writer and broadcaster Benjamin Law about 70 years of the company’s creativity and innovation. The ticketed event will address puppetry, animatronics and digital animation, and is wheelchair accessible and Auslan interpreted.
The following day, 13 September, Karen Falk and exhibition curator Amanda Slack-Smith will present the ticketed talk ‘Stories From the Henson Archive’ at GOMA, from 10.30am to 11.30am. Falk is described as an Archives Director and historian.
A free online livestream and Q&A, ‘Behind the Scenes — Live’, is scheduled for 8am AEST on Monday 14 September. Goldman, Executive Vice President of Branding at The Jim Henson Company, will also appear in a free, booking-required conversation at GOMA at 2.30pm that day.
Three free film programmes will run at the Australian Cinémathèque, GOMA, throughout the exhibition: ‘Screened to be Believed: The Jim Henson Company’; ‘Where the Wild Things Are Made: Jim Henson’s Creature Shop’; and ‘Beyond Henson: Puppetry and World Cinema’. ‘Labyrinth’ will screen on 13 September and 6 November 2026, and on 8 January and 17 April 2027.
During Queensland state school holidays, ‘The Sock Puppet Studio’ will run daily from 10am to 3.30pm, inviting visitors of all ages to build and perform characters from ordinary materials.
