SIDESHOWS, MUSEUMS, GALLERIES, AND MEDIA.
“SWORD SWALLOWER, SERPENTINA, AND REAL HUMAN SHRUNKEN HEAD WERE MY FIRST BANNERS FOR A REAL SIDESHOW.”
— Toni-Lee Sangastiano
“ORIGINAL POSTCARD INVITE FOR THE OPENING RECEPTION FOR OUR
1997 BANNERLINE ”
— Toni-Lee Sangastiano
THE GRAPHIC DESIGN CONNECTION AND HOW I BEGAN.
As one of the earliest forms of advertising and part of graphic design history, sideshow banners incorporate hand-lettering and an alluring fantastic pitch to the public to see what is alive on the inside. I am following in the footsteps of sideshow banner painters of the past, my banners keep this art form alive, and I am one of a handful of women who have a history of painting sideshow banners in the United States. Coney Island Circus Sideshow Artist-in-Residence, Professor Marie Roberts (my mentor) has been painting sideshow banners since the 1990s. Similar to the history of sign painting, there are few women painting sideshow banners. I am not even sure there were any women sideshow banner painters in the United States until the postmodern reinvention of the sideshow.
How did you start painting sideshow banners?
TL: As a junior at Fairleigh Dickinson University in the late 1990s, I was head of the art club and my advisor was Professor was Marie Roberts. Dick Zigun, who was an adjunct Professor and the Artistic Director of Sideshows by the Seashore, needed a new bannerline and he presented this project to the art club. Additionally, Zigun taught Alternative Art Class and it opened my eyes to a whole new world of subcultures and their artistic practices. These events informed the creative visions for my first sideshow banners and coincided with postmodernism.
In total, I painted three 4 x 5 foot banners: Sword Swallower, Painproof, and Serpentina, and three 9 x 6 foot banners, Real
Human Shrunken Head, and two Coney Island Museum banners. The entire project morphed into several independent studies and later inspired my senior honors thesis, “The History of Sideshow Banners,” as well as my dissertation for my PhD at the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts (IDSVA), “Dialogic Dissensus: The Postmodern Sideshow.”
Did you always have an interest in the sideshow?
TL: No, I didn’t even know what sideshow was until my junior year of college and I have a super vague memory of going to a circus once as a kid. As an adult, I have enjoyed going to the sideshow and circuses. ✪
FREAK SHOW ALLEY MURAL AT THE CONEY ISLAND BREWERY, MCU STADIUM, BROOKLYN, NY.
This 2019 project was a synchronistic homecoming of where it all began in 1997 in Coney Island with my first banners, my journey from New Jersey to 15+ years of living in Vermont, former students now amazing designers, and Burlington-based Alchemy & Science. You can see more images of this mural and the many other places my banners have flown. Visit the Coney Island Brewery and see the freak show at Sideshows by the Seashore the next time you are in Coney Island or check out their virtual programming while you are at home.
Freak Show Alley. Coney Island Brewery Mural. 2019. 300 sq. ft. custom mural. Photo: Norman Blake.
Dave Navarro in an episode of Inked in front of my banner.
Circus Day in America bannerline outside the Circus Barn buliding. Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT. Photo: Andy Duback
The premiere of the film P.T. Barnum The Lost Legend by Corey Boutillier and the commissioned banner I made for him.
Nano Nick. Freak Show Alley. Coney Island Brewery Mural. 2019. 300 sq. ft. custom mural. Photo: Norman Blake.
Freak Show Alley. Coney Island Brewery Mural. 2019. 300 sq. ft. custom mural. Photo: Norman Blake.
Freak Show Alley. Coney Island Brewery Mural. 2019. 300 sq. ft. custom mural. Photo: Norman Blake.
Freak Show Alley. Coney Island Brewery Mural. 2019. 300 sq. ft. custom mural. Photo: Norman Blake.
Circus Day in America bannerline outside the Circus Barn buliding. Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT. Photo: Andy Duback
Freak Show Alley. Coney Island Brewery Mural. 2019. 300 sq. ft. custom mural. Photo: Norman Blake.
Freak Show Alley. Coney Island Brewery Mural. 2019. 300 sq. ft. custom mural. Photo: Norman Blake.
Freak Show Alley. Coney Island Brewery Mural. 2019. 300 sq. ft. custom mural. Photo: Norman Blake.
Freak Show Alley. Coney Island Brewery Mural. 2019. 300 sq. ft. custom mural. Photo: Norman Blake.
Freak Show Alley. Coney Island Brewery Mural. 2019. 300 sq. ft. custom mural. Photo: Norman Blake.
Papering the Town, Circus Posters in America exhibition, Pizzagalli Center, Shelburne Museum, VT. Commissioned banner and light sculptures of elephants.
Freak Show Alley. Coney Island Brewery Mural. 2019. 300 sq. ft. custom mural. Photo: Norman Blake.
My banners at the Honolulu Museum of Art School.
My Sword Swallower banner in an episode of Inked.
My booth at the Sideshow Gathering Convention, a now historical event from 2002-2012.
My Sword Swallower banner in an episode of Inked.
Mini bannerline in Texas and now there's 4 banners.
Early 2000s lettering I did at the sideshow in Coney Island...
My booth at the Sideshow Gathering Convention, a now historical event from 2002-2012. My parents are sitting in my booth so this was the first or second year of the Gathering. Great times!
Photo by the late Matt Thorson for an article in Seven Days. Matt took this photo in my old studio in Burlington, VT. I had that studio for over 15 years, it was a wonderful space and so much creativity was born in that space.
More early 2000s lettering I did at the sideshow in Coney Island...this spot was popular with a certain crowd
Close up of my first couple of banners for Sideshows by the Seashore, Coney Island, 1997.
MFA end of semester critique and completed banner commissions in 2002.
MFA end of semester critique and completed banner commissions in 2002. Printed banners were already shipped to my clients.
Another version of my booth at the Sideshow Gathering Convention, a now historical event from 2002-2012.
PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: CONEY ISLAND BREWERY MURAL
Dream it.
This mural is over 20+ years in the making!!!! How, you say? Alright, stick with me through this super quick journey of decades of synchronicities…Ready? In 1996, I learned how to paint my first sideshow banners through Coney Island’s Sideshows by the Seashore Artist-in-residence Marie Roberts and Artistic Director, Dick Zigun. I was fortunate to have both Marie and Dick as my professors at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
I continued to paint banners, moved to Vermont in 2005 and taught graphic design. Many of my graphic design students interned or became employees of Alchemy & Science Brewing, which also happened to be right across from my former studio in Burlington. In 2014, A & S bought the Coney Island beer brand and in 2019, the Coney Island Brewery expansion project began!
Build it.
I left VT and moved to DC. Shortly thereafter, I was contacted to create a sideshow-Coney Island-beer themed mural back where it all began for me in early 2019.
My former student from 2006, got to critique the professor’s work for this project and then she met my professors from FDU at the opening!!!! Life is funny that way and this was an amazingly fun project to work on during the summer of 2019. The mural took 14 days total to complete with daily visits to the beach to stick my toes in the sand and the sea.
Grow it.
The anti-graffiti coat is — Exterior Performance Coatings, Inc VandlGuard IsoFree Urethane Non-Sacrificial Anti-Graffiti Wall & Mural | Low Temp 40°F in clear satin finish. Since the mural is in a hallway with a lot of traffic….brewery + bathrooms, leaning on the wall while you wait for the bathrooms…you get the point, it will now be safely protected and easily cleaned as needed. The only problems now will be with the traffic jams ogling the art in the hallway while trying to get to the restrooms!!!!