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Freaks of nature have been the subject of fascination, disgust and pity for centuries, shunted off to the curtained-off shadowlands of carnivals and circuses. A new exhibit at Yale School of Art Gallery shines a full light on them and treats them with sympathy and respect.

“Side Show,” a satellite exhibit of the Wadsworth Atheneum’s Coney Island exhibit, is lively, colorful and sometimes creepy, and it puts the onus on the viewer, rather than the “freaks,” to explain themselves.

“What makes us want to escape our own reality by entering a circus tent?” curator Lisa Kereszi asks. “Sometimes it’s empathy, but there’s a more negative side to it, so we can gawk and gape and feel better about ourselves.”

Kereszi, a photographer, also is showing her work in the Atheneum exhibit, which was organized by Robin Jaffee Frank, who was Kereszi’s colleague when Frank was a curator at Yale University Art Gallery. The Atheneum show and the Yale show, in addition to shows at Real Art Ways in Hartford and the Westport Arts Center, have created “a Coney Island moment” in Connecticut that will run through the spring, Frank said.

“Side Show” features more than 70 works by 29 artists. Five original sideshow banners advertising acts with names like “Sealo” the human seal, “Nature’s Mistakes,” a lobster boy and a sword-swallower are exhibited among banners created in the style of sideshows, promotional cards, photographs, historical ephemera and works of art inspired by circus and carnival culture.

Joe Coleman created an acrylic on panel painting of film director Tod Browning, who directed the classic “Dracula” as well as the cult classic “Freaks.” In the painting, Browning is surrounded by the stars of “Freaks,” including the half-boy, the armless girl and conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. Overhead, Johnny Meah’s faux side show banner “Them” flips the concept of “us and them,” just as the exhibit itself does

“They are on stage gossiping about the people in the audience,” Kereszi said. “To the audience, ‘them’ is the freaks. To the freaks, ‘them’ is the audience.”

Diane Arbus, legendary for her photos of people on the fringes of society, is a natural for this exhibit, which features three of her works: “A Jewish giant at home with his parents in the Bronx, N.Y.C.,” “Man from World War Zero and his wife, the Alligator Lady” and “Albino Sword Swallower at a Carnival.” That same giant, Eddie Carmel, is shown on a “pitch card,” publicizing his shows, as well as several oversized signet rings that were given away as souvenirs.

A drawing by Riva Lehrer of “American Horror Story” star Mat Fraser gazes across the gallery at a drawing by James G. Mundie, “Olympia (Betty Lou Williams),” of a black woman with a parasitic twin (a partial body growing out of her torso).

Two side-by-side items demonstrate the timeless fascination with abnormal humanity. An 1825 hand-colored etching of “The Living Skeleton” sits next to the “Blow-Off,” a regular side show feature that pumped even more money out of the public by promising daring, dangerous sights to see. Inside the “Blow-Off” are stills from John Waters’ 1970 film “Multiple Maniacs,” a comedy that takes place in “Lady Divine’s Cavalcade of Perversions.”

Side shows are no longer popular, but Kereszi said there is a modern-day equivalent: reality shows. “I think we still have that need, but it’s been beamed into our own homes,” she said.

‘Teratology’

Another exhibit related to “freak shows” will be presented at Yale’s Cushing Medical Library. “Teratology: The Science and History of Human Monstrosity” includes more than 40 books, prints and broadsides dating back to the 15th century on the subject of human abnormality.

Courtney Thompson, the curator of “Teratology,” said through history, the birth of “monsters” or “prodigies” was perceived in a shifting variety of ways. In centuries past, it was considered an evil omen. During the age of exploration, second- and third-hand accounts of freakish residents of faraway lands were replaced by more knowledgeable accounts, which led to increasing levels of scientific scrutiny but still skepticism.

Much of the confusion, Thompson said, arose from religious concerns: Did God make a mistake? Should a parasitic twin be baptized?

The exhibit includes printed materials featuring conjoined twins, abnormally obese men, a woman with elephantiasis and other unfortunates.

“SIDE SHOW” will be up until March 20 at Yale School of Art gallery, 32 Edgewood St. in New Haven. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Sunday noon to 6 p.m. Yale’s Cushing Medical Library is at 333 Cedar St. in New Haven. “Teratology” will be on view until May 31. The Cushing’s hours are Monday to Thursday 8 a.m. to midnight, Friday 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday 9:30 a.m. to midnight.

Editor’s note: This text has been edited from a previous version to correct a reference to the location of the exhibit.