'Long Island in the '70s' exhibit opens at Long Island Museum in Stony Brook
For many, the 1970s was the time of youth. For others, it’s history they’ve read and heard about. Now you can relive or experience that era for the first time in "Long Island in the ’70s," a new exhibit at the Long Island Museum in Stony Brook that runs through Oct. 18.
Disco mirror balls weren’t the only things spinning in the 1970s. It was a decade of celebration, but also of tension. The Vietnam War ended, but veterans returned to what was sometimes not a hero’s welcome. The country was at peace, but there was internal friction. There was prosperity, but there were gas shortages.
An AMC Matador station wagon is parked outside a replica of a 1970s-era home in the "Long Island in the '70s" exhibit. Credit: Morgan Campbell
Feminism, environmentalism, Watergate, punk rock, new wave, Wonder Woman, Stevie Wonder, "Star Wars," minis, midis, maxis, safety pins — the ’70s saw them all. And they all come to life in the exhibition, which has an inside/outside recreation of a ’70s- style Long Island home as its centerpiece, complete with a working lava lamp, a Zenith console television and an AMC Matador station wagon parked out front. It’s like stepping into a life-sized time capsule.
"There’s a history lesson but also a kind of dessert where people are able to step back into a reimagined space and really identify with the toys, the interiors, and outside, on the road," says museum director Joshua Ruff, who created the exhibition along with curator, Nina Sangimino.
"Long Island in the ’70s"
WHEN | WHERE Through Oct. 18, 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursday (free admission after 5 p.m.) and 12-5 p.m. Friday-Sunday, The Long Island Museum, 1200 Rte. 25A, Stony Brook
INFO $15, $10 seniors and students, free ages 5 and younger; 631-751-0066, longislandmuseum.org
Museum curator Nina Sangimino, left, and co-executive director Joshua Ruff said the exhibit stands as a history lesson and a nostalgic delight. Credit: Morgan Campbell
"It’s a really fun show," Sangimino adds, "We had so many people saying, ‘Oh, my gosh, I remembered that. I had that. My mom had that couch.’ ”
Pretty much everyone asks how they got the station wagon into the gallery. (The answer: Through a loading dock.)
From Barbie to Billy Joel
Putting the show together involved an array of staff, along with museum members and the wider community. "Our collections managers were really wonderful in doing a lot of thrifting and antiquing," Sangimino says. "It was a long slow process with some fun late-night eBay finds." Both museum personnel and friends were glad to dig out vintage platform shoes and old toys to put on display.
The fashion section shows off some groovy threads. Credit: Morgan Campbell
Among the highlights are everything from Malibu Barbie to signed Islanders' hockey pucks, paintings by iconic Long Island artists and photographs documenting protests against LILCO. Photographer Rick Kopstein shared images from his archives capturing the everyday, like shopping at a mall and riding the Long Island Rail Road, and the extraordinary, like when Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie and his orchestra played Westbury Music Fair in 1977.
Protest against everything from the Long Island Sound bridge to nuclear power were all the rage in the '70s. Credit: Morgan Campbell
There’s a timeline with pictures featuring Hicksville's own Billy Joel, the 1975 movie blockbuster "Jaws," Muhammad Ali and the Apollo 13 astronauts. But, in keeping with the museum’s mission, the show is Long Island specific, with documentation that includes music venue My Father’s Place and protests against the planned Shoreham nuclear facility.
Yet, it’s also about the country as a whole. "Rising costs and inflation, political controversies and crises, those are things that resonate," Ruff says. "I think people can see portions of the ’70s and scratch their heads a little bit and connect the dots. For us, it’s more about a chance really to take people back to a moment in time."
Simon Says and a Lite-Brite are among the toys on display. Credit: Morgan Campbell
Beyond the exhibit
Special events tied to the exhibition include free outdoor concerts featuring music of the ’70s, an artmaking workshop, and films and discussions. (See the website for dates and times.)
Whether it’s a shag rug, a disco jumpsuit, a painting like Howard Kanovitz’s 1974 "Hamptons Drive-In" — Sangimino’s pick — or Ruff’s dream toy from when he was a kid, the Star Wars Millennium Falcon model, everyone has a favorite item. Yours might be the ruffled tuxedo shirt, a concert poster from when Chicago and the Allman Brothers Band played at Stony Brook University, or a political campaign button.
An "Impeach Nixon" button in the exhibit. Credit: Morgan Campbell
Some things have changed, and some have stayed the same. That’s part of the story the museum is trying to tell. "Tastes have changed," Ruff says. "I think that what’s the same is that Long Island is still a place where people are working really hard to keep the American dream here, and to keep the American dream alive."
