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 through grants to artists creating new works of puppet theater. Cheryl Henson has been the President of the Foundation since 1992. The Foundation has a 10 person board of directors, made up primarily of professionals in puppetry, who review grant applications.
Please visit our website for more information on the history of the foundation and the make up of the board and staff.
The Henson Foundation Grants:
Artist Grants:
The Jim Henson Foundation awards grants each year for the creation of innovative new works of contemporary puppet theater. Our definition of a puppet is an object that is given the appearance of life through direct or indirect manipulation by the human hand. The Foundation’s Board of Directors judges applications based on the excellence of the puppetry including puppet design, manipulation and theatrical execution.
Production Grants $10,000
Workshop Grants $4,000
Family Grants $5,000
Presenters Grants: (invitation only)
The Jim Henson Foundation Presenter’s Grants were created in 2004 to continue the work started by the Henson International Festivals of Puppet Theater in the 1990s. These grants were established to promote the presentation of excellence in contemporary puppet theater in New York City. Presenter’s Grants are only available to theaters in New York City that have a history of presenting puppet theater.
$5,000 for a single show or a series of three or more family shows or workshop presentations
$10,000 for a series or Festival of three or more shows or presentations
The Jim Henson Foundation Residency at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center:
This is an annual residency for an artist or company working towards the completion of a new piece of contemporary puppet theater. Applications are open to all, however preference is given to works that have received a Production Grant from The Jim Henson Foundation, and have a Presenter committed to premiering the work. To learn more about The Jim Henson Foundation Residency, visit: theoneill.org
For more details on all grants and more about the Foundation, please visit our website.
Report: We require you to submit a Multi-page PDF that includes the following:
- A letter describing the outcome of your project and what the grant enabled you to accomplish.
- A budget indicating how your funds were spent.
- A small selection of programs, press clippings, photographs, and other supplementary materials.
Video Sample: A video file containing 4 minutes of the final production. This is a requirement for all Production, Workshop & Family Grants. Workshop grant final reports need to submit video highlighting the puppetry in the piece and how the grant allowed for the work to progress.
- All video submissions should be high quality .mov, .mp4 or .m4v files. We prefer .mov files whenever possible.
- File should be no larger than 2GB
- File should be 3-4 minutes, but no longer than 4 minutes.
- The video you submit needs to showcase excellence of the puppetry in the work. Please do not send video that contains little to no puppetry.