“Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861–2008”

The Brooklyn Museum celebrates a legendary borough landmark with this exhibition charting the ups and downs of America's first theme park, Coney Island, and it’s hold on the artistic imagination. William Merritt Chase, John Henry Twachtman, Joseph Stella Reginald Marsh, Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, Weegee and Bruce Davidson are just some of the painters and photographers whose works are included here, along with carousel animals, sideshow ephemera and street art, to tell Coney Island’s story—from its beginning as a resort for the wealthy and its heyday as a mecca for the city’s working and middle classes to its decline at the end of the 20th century and recent rebirth.