Exhibition of Prince-Themed Art Canceled for Lack of Diversity

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You don’t have to be rich to be my girl. You don’t have to be cool to rule my world. But you should probably have a few artists of color in your Prince-themed art exhibition.

A show at Somerville’s Washington Street gallery titled “Dig If U Will a Picture,” featuring “illustration, photos, paintings, mixed media, quilts, embroidery, and silkscreened prints” inspired by Minneapolis’ funkiest son, has been canceled. The gallery offered this explanation on its calendar:

After much consideration, we have decided to cancel the Prince-themed show scheduled for June 2015. In light of recent discussions, clearly a show of all white artists does not do justice to the subject, and we would be unable to reorganize the show in a truly inclusive way in the short time remaining before the scheduled opening. We are grateful for dialogue around these issues and hope to revisit this show in the future when we are able to present it with a more diverse representation of artists.

The exhibition, which would have run June 6-27, was curated by Somerville’s Marissa Falco, and would have featured works by Alex Feinstein, Alison Gordon, Anke Weckmann, Athena Mae, Brian Hart, Carolee Wheeler, Cate Rickard Barr, Edward Creamer, Erica H. Saladino, Fish McGill, Jen Ferreira, Jill Comer, Josh Ellingson, Joshua James Amberson, Lauren Leone, Lee Kilpatrick, Liz Prince, Marissa Falco, Megan Mary Creamer, Sarah Coyne, Stacie Dolin, and Summer Pierre.

Washington Street could not be reached for comment.