About the Foundation

The Jim Henson Foundation was founded as a private family foundation in 1982 by Muppets creator Jim Henson to promote and develop the art of puppetry in the United States. Since 1992, Cheryl Henson has been the President of the Foundation. Cheryl grew up building and performing puppets and attending puppet festivals. She is a dedicated advocate for puppetry and is the primary funder of the activities of the Foundation.

Since its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than 1200 grants to over 400 American artists for the creation and development of innovative live puppet theater. Past grant recipients include MacArthur Fellow Julie Taymor, Doris Duke Award recipient Janie Geiser, MacArthur Fellow Lee Breuer’s company Mabou Mines, 2014 National Medal of Arts recipient Ping Chong, Rome Prize recipient Dan Hurlin, MacArthur Fellow and Doris Duke Performing Artist Award recipient Basil Twist, Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship recipient Robin Frohardt, Drama Desk awardee James Ortiz, Roman Paska, director of the Institut International de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mézières (1999-2002), Center for Puppetry Arts “Puppetry Now” artist Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins and Ralph Lee of the Mettawee River Theatre Company.  To learn more about our many grant recipients see “Past Awards” on this website or use the search function to see all grants awarded to any one artist.

From 1992-2000, the Foundation produced the largest international festival of puppet theater in the United States. Plans for the festival were begun by Jim and Cheryl Henson in 1989. After Jim’s untimely passing in 1990, work on the festival continued in his memory. Under the leadership of Executive Producer Cheryl Henson, Producing Director Leslee Asch, and Associate Producer Anne Dennin, the festivals brought the very best puppetry from all over the world to New York, garnering increased attention for contemporary puppet theater, winning both the Drama Desk and the Obie Award and receiving coverage from prestigious sources including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, CBS Sunday Morning, Good Morning America, and National Public Radio. You can learn more about the five Henson International Festivals of Puppet theater here.

As the primary grant-making institution with a mission to promote puppetry in the United States, the Jim Henson Foundation has become a major advocate and resource for puppet artists. The Jim Henson Foundation Collection of Puppet Theater in the Theater on Film and Tape Archive of the New York Public Library for Performing Arts provides a permanent home for Henson International Festival performances, enhancing awareness and understanding of the field among theater students and professionals. Puppet Happenings provides information on puppet performances and activities in the greater New York area, along with events involving the Foundation’s grant recipients throughout the country.

From 2011-2014, the Foundation presented Puppets on Film, an annual festival with BAMcinematek at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Curated by former Foundation Manager Lindsey “Z” Briggs and Cheryl Henson, this festival brought together a range of new and classic puppet films, documentaries, and compilations of short puppet films, including films produced by Heather Henson’s program Handmade Puppet Dreams.

In 2014, the Foundation initiated an annual Henson Puppet Residency at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut in honor of Jane Henson’s passing. Jane was a founder of the National Puppetry Conference at the O’Neill, an ongoing program begun in 1990 which gathers professional puppeteers every summer to learn and create new work together. The Foundation also took on producing Jane’s smaller residency program Puppetry at the Carriage House. In 2015, the Foundation created the Allelu Award travel grant in honor of longtime board member and friend Allelu Kurten.

Between 2017-2021, the Foundation partnered with the Yale Child Study Center to conduct the first clinical research study examining the relationship between children on the autism spectrum and puppets. A paper on the study was published on August 4th 2021 by The International Society for Autism Research. While the study was underway, Z Briggs developed the workshop Making Connections Through Puppetry to teach educators & therapists how to utilize puppets when working with children on the autism spectrum.

In 2019, the Foundation mounted the exhibition American Puppet Theater Today: The Photography of Richard Termine at the Festival Mondial in Charleville-Meziere, France. The exhibition was remounted in September 2021 at The LaMama Galleria with an additional section dedicated to Puppetry During the Pandemic featuring Richard’s photographs of resilient New York artists performing and collaborating during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has since been exhibited at the Festival de Casteliers in Montreal, Canada in 2022, The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival and the University of Maryland’s Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library in 2023 and will be at UConn’s Ballard Museum of Puppetry in early 2025.

Throughout the various activities of the Foundation, the primary mission remains supporting the development of new full-length works of innovative contemporary professional American puppet theater, with a focus on excellence in puppet design, performance, and execution.  Funding is awarded through an annual grant application cycle. With three categories of Artist Grants: Production, Workshop and Family, and Presenter’s Grants to New York City theaters presenting this work. Foundation grants can be used to support shows through various stages of development and presentation. The Foundation looks to support emerging American artists from a range of backgrounds, ethnicities, and geographic regions while continuing to support established artists working in active puppet theater communities and with organizations known for presenting excellent puppet theater.

The Henson Foundation’s board and staff are made up primarily of artists who are professional puppeteers and active members of the puppet theater community. During their two-year term, each board member uses their knowledge of the craft to carefully review all of the annual letters of intent and applications submitted by artists creating new and innovative works of puppetry. Officers of the Foundation are elected annually and remain on the board as long as they continue to serve as Officers. The Foundation is grateful for the service of all of our board members, past and present, and we are proud to support our community.