Play/Pretend Gallery Exhibit

Play/Pretend Exhibit at Newport Art Museum

May 7, 2026 - January 31, 2027

*Image: Gerry Perrino, "The Dangerous Animal", Still Life with 2 Tours, oil on panel, 11.5 x 8.125 inches

The Newport Art Museum presents Play / Pretend — a cross-generational exhibition exploring how imagination shapes identity from childhood through adulthood.

From building blanket forts to inventing elaborate storylines for dolls and action figures, childhood play allows us to test roles and imagine new possibilities. As adults, that instinct evolves. We continue to construct narratives about who we are and how we are perceived. Play / Pretend traces this continuum between early imagination and adult self-construction, revealing play as a lifelong act of discovery.

Featuring historic dolls and automata, works from the Redwood Library & Athenaeum, and contemporary artists including Tom Deininger, Gerry Perrino, Entang Wiharso, Christina Pell, Saberah Malik, and Rick Lazes, the exhibition places 19th- and 20th-century toys in dialogue with artists working today.

Extending this exploration beyond the galleries and into the Museum Shop, Newport-based artist Sam Heydt will create a special pop-up environment that dissolves the boundary between observer and participant — inviting visitors to reconsider play not as something we outgrow, but as an enduring act of discovery.