Displaying items by tag: coney island

It is a microcosm of American popular culture in all its ersatz glory, the anti-Disneyland, a realm of tawdry spectacle and mindless distraction catering to the basic instincts of hoi polloi. It is, of course, Coney Island, whose history and culture are chronicled in “Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008,” opening Friday, Nov. 20, at the Brooklyn Museum.

Coney Island has ridden a roller coaster of highs and lows since Civil War times, when it was already a leisure destination.

New York’s Coney Island has long attracted a human merry-go-round of strivers, oddballs, hucksters, thrill-seekers, sun-worshippers—and some famous artists, too.

With its new show, “Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008,” the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Conn., dives into the oceanfront playground’s role as a muse to painters, photographers, filmmakers and other artists. The museum calls the show the first one dedicated solely to art about Coney Island and the largest museum exhibition to focus entirely on the entertainment mecca in Brooklyn, N.Y. It opens Jan. 31 before starting a three-city U.S. tour.

For a picturesque ride, few railroads in New York rival Amtrak’s Empire line along the Hudson River.

The West End line on the D train, between Sunset Park and Coney Island in Brooklyn, would not seem to be among them.

What it lacks in scenery, however, it makes up in art. Twelve of the 14 stations between 36th Street and the Stillwell Avenue terminus now offer some kind of visual delight: mosaic proletarians, cast-bronze bees and a 20-foot-long translucent hot dog. (You’ll never guess where.)