Well before doors opened for visitors to the Detroit Institute of Arts this morning at Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), a television crew from Fox 2 Detroit was on site and inside to broadcast happenings live. Saline Journal was there second. [1,2]
In 1971, legendary puppeteer Jim Henson donated a Kermit the Frog puppet that he’d created in 1969 to the DIA. Although an earlier iteration of the character made its television debut in 1955, it was the year of this rendition and its association with premier of Sesame Street that made it famous. [3-8]
DIA materials noted that the prototype was “created from a discarded coat belonging to Henson’s mother and two ping pong ball halves for eyes.” Other sources note the contribution of blue jeans from that had been worn by Mr Henson himself. Of broader technological significance, a newer version of Kermit was made in brighter green after 1963, “when color television became more popular.” [9]
Particularly important in terms of culture, children were exposed to important messages about the importance of embracing as important most unique aspects of themselves as they saw “the frog struggling with his green color but accepting himself in the end.” [10]
As covered previously in Saline Journal, puppets continue to play a vital role in entertainment today. During his capacity-crowd talk at Grand Rapids Comic-Con in 2018, former Henson Company puppeteer Tim Rose detailed use of these pseudo-actors in their place for major Star Wars movie productions. [11]
He credited puppets as indispensable to what had made the first Jurassic Park motion picture work, their absence in Jurassic World as a factor in why the recent Jurassic World had not worked. [12,13]
While all of the above considerations make for an important argument to show Kermit the Frog in a case openly visible to the general to the public in service to historical study as well as the next generation of imaginative children, this must be balanced against concerns for preservation. More than twenty years have passed since Kermit took a place in any case on the floor of Detroit Institute of Arts.
Aside from a one-night member event in 2011, that would have been back in 1999 — before the current DIA Puppet Gallery opened. That’s longer than the lifetimes of youth who grew up watching Sesame Street, and are now high school students who’ll graduate this coming spring. [14,15]
“Kermit is not on view often because textiles and works on paper can only be on view infrequently and for limited amounts of time because of the damage that light exposure can cause,” DIA Regional Public Relations Manager Megan Hawthorne told =Saline Journal this morning. Given the role of the color green to this artifact, such attention to care the affects of light in this case give all the greater reason for concern. [16,17]
During its year-end report to the community on City of Saline caretaking responsibilities on behalf of the Bixby Marionettes Trust, Arts and Culture Committee representative John Anderson detailed constructions, processes, and expense information that DIA had shared with him in terms of how much is involved in responsible stewardship over such irreplaceable works here.
Kermit the Frog will be on display at the Detroit Institute of Arts through the end of March 2020 during scheduled museum hours. Viewing is included as part of admission.
References
- Detroit Institute of Arts (home page).
- Fox 2 Detroit (home page).
- “Jim Henson (1936-1990)” IMDb.
- “Jim Henson: Founder (1936-1990)” The Jim Henson Company.
- “Kermit the Frog” Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- “Meet the Muppets” Gabriela Sama (November 8, 2019) National Museum of American History.
- “Sesame Street” IMDb.
- Sesame Street (home page).
- “Color TV Transformed the Way Americans Saw the World, and the World Saw America” Susan Murray (January 25, 2019) Smithsonian Magazine.
- “Sesame Street: It’s Not Easy Being Green (Kermit’s Song)” Sesame Street (December 11, 2008) YouTube.
- “‘Puppets Still Give Far More Realistic Performances In Movies Than Computer Graphics, Don’t You Think?’ Tim Rose, Puppeteer” Dell Deaton (November 13, 2018) Saline Journal.
- “Jurassic Park (1993)” IMDb.
- “Jurassic World (2018)” IMDb.
- “DIA To Open Puppet Gallery” (December 5, 2010) 62 CBS Detroit.
- “New on View: The Puppets Are Coming, The Puppets Are Coming!” Detroit Institute of Arts (December 8, 2010) YouTube.
- “Five Things to Know about Light in Your Museum Space” Todd S Mahon (March 31, 2019) American Association for State and Local History (AASLH).
- “The Environment: 2.4 Protection from Light Damage” Donia Conn (2012) Northeast Document Conservation Center.
- “Year-end report on Bixby Marionette Trust disposition outlined steady, important forward progress” Dell Deaton (December 11, 2019) Saline Journal.
- “Bixby Marionettes Trust” Saline.
