An Exhibition Whose Curator Is 17

The New York Times

YOUTH, it turns out, is not always wasted on the young. Through Aug. 4 the New York Open Center in Manhattan is hosting the inaugural exhibition of the Teen Art Gallery, with paintings, collages, sculptures and photographs by 38 artists. The oldest artist in the show just turned 20, the youngest is 15; they all live in the New York region.

Exhibitions of art made by young people are nothing new of course. In June works by hundreds of artists in Grades 7 through 12, winners of the annual Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, filled the World Financial Center Courtyard Gallery. Meanwhile the Agora Gallery in Chelsea hosted a solo show by a 4-year-old prodigy, Aelita Andre.

What’s different about the Teen Art Gallery show is that teenagers organized it themselves, led by 17-year-old Audrey Banks, a senior at Bard High School Early College on the Lower East Side who is a painter and a fledgling curator. “This has been my No. 1 goal,” Ms. Banks said, standing amid the newly installed exhibition.