Image: Bermuda National Gallery, Hamilton
The Bermuda National Gallery will close 'The Art of Michael K. Frith: From Pencil to Puppet' on August 15 with an artist talk featuring Michael K. Frith and special guests Lisa Henson, Jennifer Barnhart and Kathryn Mullen. The conversation is scheduled for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the gallery in Hamilton, with tickets priced at $30 for members, $45 for non-members and $20 for students. According to the gallery’s event listing, the programme is also free for teachers and “free for puppets.”
The talk is tied to the final public day of the retrospective, which BNG describes as the first full retrospective of Bermudian creative Michael K. Frith and one of the gallery’s most popular exhibitions to date. The gallery says the exhibition has drawn students, teachers and other visitors during its run, and that the evening will offer one last opportunity to visit the show before it closes. BNG also notes that the event will take place on multiple levels of the gallery and will require the use of stairs.
Frith’s retrospective charts a career that spans children’s publishing, illustration, television and puppet design. The gallery’s exhibition text says Frith began his career as a children’s book editor and illustrator, working with Theodor Seuss Geisel, known as Dr. Seuss, before joining Jim Henson Productions. Over more than 20 years there, he designed many Muppet characters, including Dr. Teeth and Fozzie Bear, and served as conceptual designer and co-creator of 'Fraggle Rock', a project BNG says was directly inspired by his childhood growing up in Bermuda.
The gallery’s materials also place Frith’s work within a broader creative arc that includes his later co-founding of Sirius Thinking in 1996 and the reading series 'Between the Lions'. The exhibition page further states that he left broadcast television after the events of 9/11 to establish No Strings Productions, which makes educational puppet films for populations at risk in developing countries. BNG frames the retrospective as a celebration of Frith’s life, legacy and contribution to entertainment, education and popular culture.
Lisa Henson, identified by BNG as chief executive of The Jim Henson Company, is listed among the speakers for the evening. The gallery’s event page says she oversees television and feature film production and has recently produced Guillermo del Toro’s 'Pinocchio' for Netflix, among other projects. The same page notes that Henson and Frith both served as presidents of The Harvard Lampoon.
Jennifer Barnhart and Kathryn Mullen are also billed as speakers. BNG identifies Barnhart as a puppeteer and Emmy-nominated performer on 'Sesame Street', while Mullen is described as the third full-time female puppeteer at Jim Henson Productions and a performer on 'The Muppet Show', 'Fraggle Rock', 'The Dark Crystal', 'Allegra’s Window' and 'Between the Lions'. The gallery says the event is intended to celebrate Frith’s career and the closing of the exhibition in the Main Galleries.
Tickets for the talk are available through BNG, and the retrospective remains on view through August 15, 2026.
