Sesame Street puppets created by Jim Henson on display at museum in his home state Mississippi

Jim Henson puppets at Mississippi museum

JACKSON, Miss. — The kooky, fanged creatures drawn on the wall of the new exhibit in Mississippi let visitors know they’re about to enter a world of magic created by master puppeteer Jim Henson.

The characters are part of the exhibition, “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World,” which has begun its run at the Mississippi Museum of Art. The exhibit brings many of the late creator’s popular characters — like Kermit the Frog and Bert and Ernie from “Sesame Street” — back to the place where he was born.

Henson died at age 53 in 1990 after pioneering puppetry for television and film. His childhood was spent in the Mississippi Delta town of Leland, where he would chase frogs along Deer Creek as he developed a lifelong love of nature.

The galleries are full of hand-drawn pencil sketches of fantasy creatures. One shows an early rendering of Big Bird with far fewer feathers on his head than appear in current “Sesame Street” episodes. Next to it, Henson sketched a man inside the bird costume with an arm extended to control the beak.

The exhibition includes an interactive theater that gives kids a chance to show off their puppetry skills.

The show costs $12 for adults and $6 for children aged 6 and up.

After Jackson, the exhibit moves on to the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Mass. in April; Fresno Metropolitan Museum in Fresno, Calif., in July and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. It’s already been to eight other locations.

Much of Henson’s collection will have a permanent home at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. The center announced in 2007 that it will become the definitive Henson museum with between 500 and 700 Henson pieces in a wing named for the beloved puppeteer as part of a new building set to open in 2012.