Long Wharf Theatre, in conjunction with its production of No Child ... , running on Stage II from March 17 through April 18, will host a display of forthright self-portraits from local middle and elementary school children.
Hamden Middle School and Davis Street School will participate in the Stage II lobby exhibit. Fifty students from each school will display 10" x 10" self-portraits in the medium of their choosing, mounted on black tiles donated by Hull's Art Supply and Framing in New Haven. Lou Cox, owner of Channel 1, a skate shop and gallery on State Street in New Haven, connected the theatre with the schools and served as community leader in the project.There is an unabashed vibrancy to the children's work, a glimpse of the color and perspective they see in themselves and the world around them. The younger students' portraits swim in a sea of colors, the images almost willfully abstract, perhaps the manifestation of young minds changing and growing in the world. The middle school students' portraits ring a bit truer to life, for example, emphasizing the vibrant green of a girl's eyes or the faux-macho pose of a boy rapidly growing into a man.Videos