Photographs by Corrado Serra.
“The modern American mass-culture industry was born at Coney Island, and the constant novelty of the resort made it a seductively liberating subject for artists. What these artists saw from 1861 to 2008 at Coney Island, and the varied ways in which they chose to portray it, mirrored the aspirations and disappointments of the era and the country. Taken together, these tableaux of wonder and menace, hope and despair, dreams and nightmares become metaphors for the collective soul of a nation.” — Dr. Robin Jaffee Frank, exhibition curator

If you’re feeling lucky, give our wheel of chance a spin and let it guide you on your way into the world of Coney Island…

Right: W. F. Mangels Co. Carousel Works, Windmill Shooting Gallery Target and Shooting Gallery Target, ca. 1907-1920

Left: Mae West and Jimmy Durante, ca. 1910. Right: Nieman Studios, Inc., Shackles The Great, sideshow banner, 1940
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