Join Dr. Robin Jaffee Frank for a captivating look at Coney Island and its iconic place in the history of American art and culture. Called “America’s Playground,” Coney Island is a world-famous resort and national cultural symbol that has inspired art, music, literature, and film. The curator and author of an acclaimed exhibition and book on Coney Island, Robin will explore the site’s enduring status as a subject for artists. Special attention will be given to a work on view at the Museum: Ralph Fasenella’s Workers’ Holiday—Coney Island, 1965, a monumental tribute to the Brooklyn beach infused with political and religious symbolism. Many artists perceived this iconic place as a prism through which to view the American experience. Their visions of Coney Island imagined the future and later recalled the past, conveying changing ideas about leisure, and exploring the mixing of people of different races, ethnicities, and classes, transcending social boundaries. How artists chose to portray America’s Playground—in tableaux of wonder and menace, hope and despair, dreams and nightmares—mirrored the aspirations and disappointments of the era. Seen through their eyes, Coney Island becomes both a place and an idea—one that reflects the collective soul of our nation.

FREE. Space is limited, pre-registration is required.