Long Island Museum: ‘Gatsby at 100’ Exhibit + ‘Giants and Gems’ Exhibit Open Thursday, July 24th

THE LONG ISLAND MUSEUM LAUNCHES

TWO NEW EXHIBITIONS ON JULY 24^th,

AS LIM’S ART MUSEUM RE-OPENS

FOR NEW SUMMER / FALL SEASON

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Opening of ‘Gatsby at 100′ Celebrates Centennial Year of The Great Gatsby,

and ‘Giants and Gems’ Offers New Perspectives

from the Largest and Smallest of LIM’s Collection.

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The Long Island Museum is re-opening its Art Museum on July 24^th with the launch of two new immersive exhibitions, offering unique new perspectives on both history and art.  Gatsby at 100, which celebrates the centennial year of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby will be on view through October 19, 2025, and Giants and Gems, a unique juxtaposition of the largest and smallest items from LIM’s art, history, and carriage collections, will run through December 21, 2025.

The Gatsby at 100 exhibition will be featured in the Art Museum’s Costigan Gallery, and Giants and Gems: The Largest and Smallest from LIM’s Collection will be on view in the museum’s Main Gallery.  Each exhibition offers museum goers the opportunity to engulf themselves in unique collections of artifacts with ties to both Long Island and literary history: in the Gatsby exhibition, visitors will be transported into the opulent world of one of the world’s most beloved novels, and through Giants and Gems, they will be able to experience different points of view in art and history, both literally and figuratively.

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 “Our Gatsby exhibition has been created in celebration of this literary centennial anniversary, and transports visitors into the context of Fitzgerald’s novel and how it has been an enduring source of story-telling over these last 100 years,” said Joshua Ruff, Co-Executive Director, Collections and Programming at The Long Island Museum.  “Similarly, our Giants and Gems exhibition will provide visitors with an opportunity to also transport themselves into a new way of viewing art, interacting with works in unusual ways and gaining a new perspective that lends itself to discovery.” 

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Gatsby at 100 (July 24 – October 19, 2025)

F. Scott Fitzgerald at a Great Neck Party

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In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940), his wife Zelda (1900–1948), and their infant daughter Scottie (1921–1986), moved into a Mediterranean-style house at 6 Gateway Drive in Great Neck. Fitzgerald immersed himself in the local community and created an indelible island of imagination, something that resembled but also caricatured what the North Shore of Long Island actually was in the 1920s. On April 10, 1925, The Great Gatsby was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons. The novel received mixed reviews and was not an immediate commercial success. However, it has since taken on a much larger significance in literary and popular culture, achieving a place in the canon of great American novels. This exhibition will focus on the history of the book’s creation and reception, as well as both the mythology and the reality of the area that it depicted. Objects will include items from private and public collections related to the book, the Gold Coast, and to the Fitzgeralds’ lives, period clothing from the LIM’s collection, Jazz Age artwork, and a well-developed vignette.

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Giants and Gems (July 24 – December 21, 2025)

Giants and Gems: The Largest and Smallest from LIM’s Collection will juxtapose the largest and the smallest works from the LIM’s Art, History and Carriage collections, including fine arts, crafts, costumes, and household objects. Viewers will be confronted by the effects of varying scale and consider the way this artistic decision impacts the viewing experience. When an artist conceives of a new work, one of their first decisions must be about the size of the final piece. Will it be larger than life, enveloping the viewer’s entire field of vision? Or will it be scaled down, forcing both the artist and the viewer to come close to it and treat it delicately? Size and scale are important components in both the intellectual and emotional responses to art. Taking a recognizable object or figure and dramatically enlarging or miniaturizing it disorients the viewer, allowing a new experience with something familiar. This new perspective lends itself to discovery as the viewer must interact with and view the object in an unusual way, often seeing details and reading meanings missed in the conventional object.

Painting to the left by Bill Durham.

Painting to the right by Edward Moran.

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Both Gatsby at 100 and Giants and Gems will be on view on Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. until  7:00 p.m., and Fridays through Sundays from noon until 5:00 p.m. at the LIM’s Art Museum, located at 1200 Route 25A in Stony Brook.  For more information about both exhibitions, as well as a complete description of all current exhibitions, programs and events, visit www.longislandmuseum.org.

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The Long Island Museum

Founded in 1939 and accredited by AAM since 1973, The Long Island Museum is home to more than 60,000 artifacts, The Long Island Museum inspires and engages visitors of diverse ages, backgrounds, and abilities by connecting them with the region’s art and history, a world-class carriage collection, and energizing programs that foster a creative and inclusive community.

For more about LIM’s exhibitions and programming, visit longislandmuseum.org.

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Visit AAQ Portfolios:

Dorothy and Ward Melville Carriage Collection …. link

Long Island Museum: The Carriage Collection …. link

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