Here it is, the elusive Coney Island installation I mentioned earlier. Funnily enough, the Sneak Peek of the Curio Box I wrote about didn’t make its way into the cabinet. That’s the way things go when your collecting is out of control. The cabinet was part of the “Collector’s Cabinet” exhibit, which featured the private collections from a number of different curio collectors. Dylan and I were honored to be invited to curate a cabinet with some of our favorite pieces.

The “Collector’s Cabinet” was part of a week-long series of lectures topped off by an epic 2-Day weekend symposium at the Coney Island Museum. The Congress for Curious People was hosted up by co-Observatory founder and author of Morbid Anatomy, Joanna Ebenstein, with the aim of exploring education and spectacle, collectors of curiosities, historical fairground displays and more. Dylan and I made it out to a few lectures and Saturday’s symposium day. Everything we saw completely embodied the spirit of the (current and antiquated) world of sideshows and curios in thoughtful yet wonder-full panels and lectures. This was the first annual; next year is not to be missed. Sadly the cabinets have all been disassembled and our bear head/bobcat head/pheasant head/other heads are back in their rightful places on our apartment walls. Not to worry! There is still time to see the other exhibit created in conjunction with the Congress for Curious People; the absolutely stunning Secret Museum show at Observatory, which is up until May 16th. I was in attendance opening night, and as I tried to take in the glorious cacophony of Joanna’s photographs, all I could think was, “If I didn’t already know her, I’d be dying to meet her now.” She has completely transformed our little room into something spectacular. I won’t try to describe it. Just go.