Coney Island has a history as dizzying as any of the roller coasters, carousels, sideshows, and other frenetic attractions that have operated on its piece of Brooklyn shore. Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861–2008, organized and originally staged at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum in Connecticut and now on view at the Brooklyn Museum, focuses on the artists who have been inspired by Coney Island over the past 150 years. Whether we’re looking at 19th-century Impressionistic vistas by John Henry Twachtman and William Meritt Chase of the seaside landscape, interrupted by a 300-foot tower for a steam elevator; an elephant-shaped hotel; or the anonymously created Cyclops head from the 1950s that once ogled its eye from the Spook-A-Rama, there’s a shared fantasy that’s both tantalizing and trepidatious. From nearly the beginning, Coney Island was a New York City escape of both dreams and nightmares.

Thrills, Fantasy, and Nightmares in 150 Years of Art Inspired by Coney Island