Way Back Home: Prince & The People's Museum in North Minneapolis

"Anderson House, 1970s" Artist: Troy Gua, from LPP series

Power to the ones who can raise a child like me

The path is set but if you look

the truth will set us free — Prince, "Way Back Home," 2014

Have you ever been so lonely

That you felt like you were the

Only one in this world? — Prince, "Anna Stesia," 1988

In the aftermath of Prince's passing, I tracked everything that was being written about him. It was an act of mourning: obsessive daily research, perhaps to atone for having never seen him perform. It was also a form of tribute, a long meditation on the way his impact moved out through the world and touched so many people. And mostly, I just wanted to stay with him, dwell deep in Prince's energy. I researched, tracked the latest articles, all while catching up on a lifetime of his performances. As his concerts, long suppressed, now flooded onto YouTube, I had trouble keeping up, and spent many months immersed in a never-ending Prince show. And scrolling that stupendously long list on PrinceVault of all his performances through his time on Earth, trying to orient myself in his wake.

Houses and their memories

In 2018, an unusual, evocative article was published by Vogue on the second anniversary of Prince's passing — a soulful journey by Rebecca Bengal who traces around various sites of Prince's houses, interviewing residents who live there now. Renowned Minnesota photographer Alec Soth takes their photos. It's a dreamy, between-realms kind of piece, with poetic images of razed houses, pyramids, deer, and encounters with wary residents on doorsteps rising up from the page — a sequence of seemingly random encounters that in the end discloses its parting gift: an appearance of Prince himself on the street where he lived.

At the time of the article, Alda Reed was living in a house that replaced Prince's original childhood home at Logan Ave in North Minneapolis. She recounted seeing someone outside in the empty street one Saturday afternoon, photographing her house. She stepped out to talk to them, then suddenly realised who it was. He smiled and asked for her business card. "He said he was doing something on his life." It was July 2015 — Prince's last year on earth. Here he was, in his black beanie and dark glasses, taking photographs of where he began.

We know now he was starting to work on his memoir, later published as a fragment in The Beautiful Ones, and he was also experimenting with a new kind of performance format, which became the Piano & a Microphone show, which takes a form of musical autobiography. You can hear people laughing at first, when Prince begins to play snatches of the music he heard and played as a child. Then as he shares memories, people begin to get what he's doing, spinning a world, taking us back with him to his beginnings, creating these dreamy hallucinatory pictures of childhood as he weaves in and out of songs, snatches of the past. Listening to those performances now, you can feel the space around him, the long, lonely hours spent at this piano, deep in his memories, tapping the past and bringing it back into life.

It's deeply moving to think of Prince in his 50s driving around Minneapolis, revisiting the homes of his past, as he starts to work out how to write it, share it, bring it to life again for himself and his audience.

The Northside

Prince spent his childhood in North Minneapolis. He moved around a few houses with his parents, then after they split, moved between relatives and then landed as a teen, in the home of his best friend, Andre Cymone, at 1244 Russell Ave North. Andre's mom Bernadette Anderson took him in and he joined an open house where musicians gathered and Prince got started on his journey. It's considered by many a possible origin point of the Minneapolis Sound.

In Bengal's article, she writes of the big-hearted owner Robin Crockett who lives there now (in 2018). Crockett grew up in the neighborhood and remembers the Anderson house was known for always being open to all and always full of music, and she cheerfully respects its connection to Prince history:

I've had people here from all over the world [...] Reporters, news crews at first, but fans, too. They'll start crying on our steps. There’s this lady who comes and says she knew him. She just wants to sit in the yard sometimes. She seems genuine about how she feels—she just wants to be in the general space. Around June 7, his birthday, people will bring flowers. I'm used to that now.

The Museum Comes Home

On June 7, 2026, The People's Museum for Prince opens at Roberts Gallery, 2400 Plymouth Avenue North, North Minneapolis. From the gallery window, you can see the street sign: Bernadette Anderson Way. It's a one minute walk to the house where Prince lived as a teen.

We didn't plan it quite like this. But Prince has a way of arranging things.

We searched for a space for the 2026 museum all over Minneapolis and we landed right here, so close to where Prince got started in his musical life and was set on the right path by a powerful woman whose influence lived with him all his life.

Queen Bernie

Bernadette's a lady, and she told me

'Whatever you do son,

a little discipline is what you need.

You need to sacrifice.' — Prince, "The Sacrifice of Victor," 1992

Bernadette Anderson — "Queen Bernie," as she was known in the neighbourhood — was a community leader whose career as a youth service provider spanned over twenty-five years. As Prince said in The Beautiful Ones: "Whenever there are documentaries about North Minneapolis they bring her up before they bring me up". She was a civil rights advocate, a woman who believed in discipline, in showing up, in holding people to what they were capable of. And she held Prince.

Prince moved between North Minneapolis homes during his childhood. The People's Museum traces his complete journey through those addresses in our ongoing Houses of Prince project, a collaboration with Twin Cities-based historian and Prince scholar Kristen Zschomler. But it was Bernadette's home where teenage Prince found refuge during the most formative years of his life. Her son André was his best friend and bandmate; her home became the rehearsal space for Grand Central, the band that was the beginning of everything. But Bernadette was more than a host. She was — and Prince knew this, and said so — the person who kept him in school. Who gave him structure when his own family couldn't. Maybe she saw who he was becoming before most people could. Or maybe it wasn't so much about Prince being special, but more about Bernadette herself — looking out for this sensitive, talented, troubled teen, seeing he needed help to get his life set in the right direction.

When Prince began writing his memoir in early 2016, he intended to devote an entire chapter to her. What he left behind is heartbreakingly brief — but it's his most unguarded writing. In The Beautiful Ones, he wrote:

Fred Anderson and his wife Bernadette were friends of my parents and, though Eye never asked, Eye believe now that Bernadette & my mother secretly had each other's back when it came 2 their husbands. 4 that matter Eye think that the entire planet has been maintained this long by the feminine principle. Eye can always let my guard down when there's a woman present.

From a man as notoriously private as Prince, who shared primarily through his music, these fragments of memoir provide precious glimpses into his unique way of understanding the world.

In September 2024, the City of Minneapolis renamed a portion of Russell Avenue North as Bernadette Anderson Way. The dedication ceremony was a block party. Live music, of course. Her daughters Patricia and Sylvia spoke to the gathered community. The renaming recognises a woman who spent decades advocating for North Minneapolis youth, who believed in what a community could do for its children, who modelled exactly the kind of care and discipline that helped someone like Prince find his way.

You can read more about Bernadette and the street naming at bernadetteandersonway.com  and on our Houses of Prince page which has more information and links Ƭ̵̬̊

Roberts Gallery on Bernadette Anderson Way

This June, The People's Museum opens at Roberts Gallery, owned by celebrated Twin Cities artist Peyton Scott Russell who founded Juxtaposition Arts and currently leads SPRAYFiNGER, an organization dedicated to teaching graffiti and street art to youth. Peyton's haunting portrait of George Floyd — painted as a tribute after Floyd's murder and placed at the site of his death — is a world-famous image of power and remembrance.

Peyton's connection to Prince is both deeply personal and very public.

A 3:30am secret mission to honour Prince

On May 3, 2016, Prince's star at First Ave turned gold overnight. It seemed a little mystical, as if the intense public mourning for Prince had resulted in alchemy. First Avenue staff were as clueless as everyone else. Given it seemed so right, they let it stay.

A few weeks later, the story came out. Peyton had a vision for what he needed to do the night Prince died. Like the rest of the city he found himself at First Ave, gathering with other mourners in a spontaneous block party. He saw how the star had become a focus point. One late night, weeks after Prince's death, he staged his intervention. And not just a quick 3:30am lick of gold paint, but an artist's careful tribute: an hours-long intricate process of adorning Prince's star in 24-carat gold leaf. Today, iconic, this tribute still gleams golden amongst the sea of silver stars.

Peyton understands what it means to pay tribute to Prince through action, and we're honored to present The People's Museum in his gallery as one of the first presentations since he took ownership of the space. You can read more about Peyton's story about his work with Prince and about the star here.

North Minneapolis Voices

As all kinds of submissions of art and stories flow in from all around the world, we are also working on a special presentation on Prince's North Minneapolis roots. We're working with artists, historians, and community voices to create a sense of how this neighborhood — the houses, streets, schools, and community spaces — shaped his early years. The featured artwork in this post is not by a local artist but instead a loving recreation of the now-iconic Anderson House by Seattle-based artist Troy Gua whose extraordinary ongoing project Le Petit Prince series is beloved by many. He recreates in miniature and captures in photographs many iconic Prince moments with deep care and artistry—a surreal reimagining of Prince's life. Please visit his website and support his work if you are able. More details on the North Minneapolis project and our other collaborators coming soon.

If you have North Minneapolis stories or know someone who does — memories of the neighborhood in the 1960s, 70s, or 80s, a photograph, a connection to these places or the people in them — we would love to hear from you and include your contributions.

Planning for June 7, 2026

There will be many celebrations of Prince on his birthday all around Minneapolis. The Museum will be open all afternoon. We welcome you to stop by between other events — or visit in a quieter time through the month of June. In the coming weeks we'll post open hours and announce our programming. We anticipate relaxed, low-key community events: storytelling, music, a screen and story night, quiet time to read stories, a comfortable place to hang out and gather through Prince's birthday month. This is a grassroots museum, made of love. We welcome your participation — the People's Museum is made of your stories, your presence, your memories.

Questions? exhibition@peoplesmuseumforprince.org

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✦ Museum Updates ✦

Submissions — art and stories — are open till March 31 for curatorial priority. Given the anniversary of Prince's passing we are extending the final deadline to April 30, as we know so many will be thinking of Prince next month. To help us plan, we invite you to share your submission even as a draft or expression of interest as soon as possible. Information and submission form here

March Workshops. If you have questions about participating, need help working out how you want to share your story, or just want to gather with Prince people, join us. You can also register you interest in a multi-week deep dive story development class with us. Free to participate. Dates, info and registration here.

When Doves Podcast episode.  Listen here Curator Emma Balázs was recently a guest on the When Doves podcast, coming out soon. Many thanks to Jared Michael Delaney and Ed Miller for such a warm welcome and a fun, rich, wide-ranging discussion on everything Prince and all about the museum. Their surprise at my favourite album was a source of delight.

Pop Conference in Los Angeles. We're excited to be participating in the 2026 Pop Conference at USC Thornton (March 12–14). Our presentation: "People's Museum for Prince: Joyful resistance to legacy crystallisation" — popconference.org

Atlanta Screening of Dearly Beloved, first film produced by The People's Museum screens March 22 5pm. Screens in the short program Still Here. The festival offered us 50% off tickets- please contact us for the code. More info here