The great American Muppet fan road trip just got another stop.
Magruder Park in Hyattsville, Maryland is installing a beautiful, ornate flower planter covered with images of the Sam and Friends characters as a tribute to Jim Henson. That’s right — the Sam and Friends characters! Did you ever think you’d see the day? Everyone knows Kermit, but the fact that there now exist concrete sculptures of Sam, Yorick, and Harry the Hipster is as wonderful as it is unlikely. It makes more sense when you realize that Jim was living in the area when he first started working in television and created Sam and Friends for a local station. That’s the inspiration behind the installation, which will also be surrounded with benches bearing Jim Henson quotes.
Hyattsville Today has all the details and a slideshow of the installation under construction, and you can tell it was a real labor of love for the city and for the artist, Bill Culbertson. He’s been in working on it since 2011, collaborating with the Smithsonian Institute, Jane Henson, and Bonnie Erickson along the way. You can watch his nifty artist’s rendering here:
Hyattsville Today reports that the installation will get a dedication ceremony later this summer. And from now on, every Muppet fan who makes a pilgrimage to the Jim Henson statue at the University of Maryland should take a trip down the road to see Moldy Hay immortalized forever.
Click here to take a selfie with Yorick on the Tough Pigs forum!
by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com
