Outdoor Banner Art Display at Shore Theater

Shore Theater


The Coney Island History Project is pleased to continue our series of outdoor exhibits with a display of banner art on the gates of the Shore Theater. Formerly known as the Loew's Coney Island, the building is located at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues across from Stillwell Terminal and Nathan’s Famous.

The banners on display include a collaboration with PS 90, The Magnet School for Environmental Studies and Community Wellness, which is located up the block from the History Project on West 12th Street. Our Hall of Fame banner honoring the Shore Theater and a banner celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Wonder Wheel are also on display. In the summer of 2021, the PS 90 banners were on view at City of Water Day in Kaiser Park and installed at PS 90 and Maimonides Park. The art pictured on the colorful 14 foot by 3 foot banner and the smaller banners was created by the school’s students under the guidance of Ms. Luz Morales.

"The student artists were asked to illustrate the natural world vs. the built world surrounding Coney Island Creek,” said Charles Denson, director of the Coney Island History Project. “We decided to use the traditional Coney Island banner medium to display the incredible artwork that the students produced for this project. The banners will be used to initiate a dialogue about the ecology of Coney Island. We’ve enjoyed a years-long partnership with PS 90, and enjoy lending support to our neighbor’s program of environmental studies and community wellness. These young students are the environmental stewards of the future."

Shore Theater

“The Magnet School for Environmental Studies and Community Wellness is committed to learning about climate change and the role our community can play to combat it,” said Greta Hawkins, the school’s principal. “Expressing our appreciation of the natural wonders of our oceans through art is part and parcel of our studies at the school. We have a partnership with Mr. Denson and are grateful to the important work of the Coney Island History Project. The banner is representative of our longstanding collaboration with CIHP, and it is our students' way of connecting the natural environment with their Coney Island community. Aren't they amazing?"

Thank you to Edouard Yadgarov of Pye Properties for his interest in the school project and permission to display the banners at the Shore. Pye Properties purchased the long vacant building and received approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for their plan to restore and develop it into a hotel and spa. The seven-story, neo-Renaissance style theater and vaudeville house and adjacent 14-story office building opened in 1925 and operated for half a century. Both structures had been closed and sealed up for decades. The theater's facade was granted landmark status in 2010 and inducted into the History Project's Coney Island Hall of Fame in the architecture category.

Shore Theater
 

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