Children and art can be tricky: crass or schmaltzy or just plain hideous. The photography-heavy new exhibit at Newport Art Museum thankfully dodges those bullets, blending local favorites (Jesse Burke, Aaron Siskind) with heavyweights like Sally Mann and Charles “Teenie” Harris, whose remarkable photos chronicle Pittsburgh children in the 1950s. The most remarkable features an integrated swimming pool, where a young black man teaches a white boy how to swim while curious onlookers gaze directly at the camera. Nearby, Lindsay Morris’s contemporary photographs document a gender-inclusive, gender-creative summer camp. The other sort of camp comes in a room dominated by a wall of bronzed baby shoes; don’t miss Charles Dana Gibson’s illustration of a dour old New England couple on a sofa, baby Cupid battling the Grim Reaper by the front door.
Forever Young: Representations of Childhood and Adolescence runs through December 31
pictured: Jen Corace, Discovery
