A new exhibition at the Long Island Museum runs 14 May through 18 October 2026, using photography, fashion, music memorabilia, and historical objects—alongside an immersive 1970s suburban living room—to revisit how the decade reshaped life on Long Island polit
Long Island Museum is turning the spotlight back on the 1970s, not for an easy trip down disco memory lane, but for a closer look at how the decade remade day-to-day life across the region—politically, socially, and creatively.
The exhibition. Long Island in the ’70s. will be on view from 14 May through 18 October 2026 at the museum in Stony Brook. at 1200 Route 25A.. Curated by Nina Sangimino. the show brings together photography. fashion. music memorabilia. and historical objects to frame a period marked by rapid suburban expansion and environmental activism.
Instead of centering only the most familiar images from the era. the exhibition sets out to follow the tensions and transformations that ran alongside them.. Visitors will encounter clothing. toys. sports memorabilia. and artworks from the museum’s collection. as well as photography by Rick Kopstein. Meryl Meisler. and Joanne Mulberg.. One immersive option—a fully realised 1970s suburban living room—sets the decade in motion. turning the setting into part of the viewing experience.
The galleries also track Long Island’s shifting social and political climate.. The exhibition includes protests surrounding the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant. and it looks at the region’s experiences at the close of the Vietnam War.. Other sections trace how suburbia pushed eastward into Suffolk County. note the arrival of the New York Islanders in 1972. and follow the increasing presence of artists on the East End.
Put side by side. the exhibition’s ingredients line up into a single picture of the decade as more than a style moment: rapid suburban expansion and environmental activism sit next to protests around the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant. while the close of the Vietnam War and the New York Islanders’ 1972 arrival land in the same storyline as the eastward growth of suburbia into Suffolk County and the artists who increasingly shaped the East End.
Long Island in the ’70s is on view at the Long Island Museum through 18 October 2026.
Long Island Museum Long Island in the ’70s Nina Sangimino Rick Kopstein Meryl Meisler Joanne Mulberg Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant protests Vietnam War New York Islanders 1972 suburban expansion environmental activism Stony Brook