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Environmental and Heritage Center hosts Coney Island exhibit

Story Link: https://www.gwinnettcounty.com/web/gwinnett/home/stories/viewstory/-/story/ConeyIslandexhibit_121019

A traveling exhibit exploring Coney Island will be on display at the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center through March 16, 2020.

The exhibit, adapted from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art’s flagship exhibition “Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861 – 2008,” brings to life the excitement of Coney Island, showing visitors how its magnetic world of attractions has become a touchstone for American mass culture and popular recreation.

The exhibition investigates the rise of American leisure and traces Coney Island’s influence on amusement parks and popular culture throughout the country. Photographs, ephemera, film clips, and hands-on interactives immerse visitors in the experience of Coney Island.

This exhibition was organized by Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, in partnership with Mid-America Arts Alliance, Kansas City, Missouri. This exhibition is made possible by NEH on the Road, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is adapted from the traveling exhibition “Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861 – 2008” and organized by Robin Jaffee Frank, Ph.D., former Chief Curator and Krieble Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. It was supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Henry Luce Foundation, and the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, Inc. It was adapted and toured for NEH on the Road by Mid-America Arts Alliance. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Admission is free. The Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center is located at 2020 Clean Water Drive in Buford.