New Exhibit - Monsters & Mermaids

Visit our new family-friendly exhibition exploring nautical myths and legends. We invite you to discover the ocean's influence on how cultures were shaped and continue to shape us.

On view through Labor Day 2026

See a Fiji Mermaid!

Stand under a 26' long Giant Squid created out of marine debris
Discover how sailors used myths to help explain nature, and how legends continue to inspire human creativity today

Explore how human interest in mermaids is timeless, from cave paintings to fashion trends to Starbucks coffee cups

Try your hand at sketching sea creatures based on historical descriptions

The museum is hosting ongoing community programming tied to this exhibition's themes through the year.

Check our calendar of events!

Events Calendar

Photo of sample craft showing octopus on a plant pot

Craft photo of a clay kraken and ship in a jar

Come meet "Medusa!"

Cindy Roe posing with her installation team beneath the Medusa sculpture in the whaleboat gallery.

Medusa is a new 26-foot-long giant squid sculpture by Cindy Pease Roe, and is made entirely from plastic debris collected from Long Island beaches.

Cindy Pease Roe is a multi-media artist based in Greenport, NY and the founder of UpSculpt. She is known for addressing environmental issues through her art. She created the new kraken/giant squid sculpture, "Medusa," for this exhibition fashioned out of debris collected from local shores. Her sculpture encourages wonderous reflection on how our environmental impacts are changing the ocean's stories.

The museum thanks New York State Council for the Arts and Suffolk County for their Support of Artist Grant Award in the commissioning and installation of this new artwork.

Artist statement in a speech bubble: Few people will encounter a living squid in the wild, and even fewer will ever encounter a giant squid. Through the power of art, I hope viewers will experience this breathtaking, strange creature in a novel context -- viewing the kraken symbol out of human-made refuse that now invade the squid's environment. Who is really afraid of who? The squid symbol has changed from a legend we only fear, to one full of awe that we must protect.

Additional statement by the artist: By utilizing items like bottle caps, fencing, rope, and fishing gear from ocean cleanups, I intended to capture the essence of this magnificent, mysterious, and once-antagonistic creature that is at the origin of one of the ocean's biggest, larger-than-life legendary creatures, while showcasing the potential of marine plastic debris in this large-scale sculpture.

Cindy's Artist Statement

This project was supported in part by funds from:

& Our Members & Supporters.

Thank you!

The material in our exhibitions and programs are produced with assistance from the National Maritime Heritage Grants program, administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the museum's and do not necessarily reflect he views of the Department of the Interior.

A crowd of visitors sit watching a museum lecture

Wonderful museum. The children enjoy being able to handle things in the section of the museum where there is a replica of a general store, historical costumes to try on and even the lower bunk of a ship bed to lie down. Lovely staff too."
Laura D.

SEA You Soon!

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