ART

Gays Protest at Mapplethorpe Show: An invitational showing of the controversial Robert Mapplethorpe photographic exhibit was shut down early Monday night after 250 homosexual demonstrators gathered outside Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Arts chanting, “We’re here, we’re queer, we’ll never be silent again.” The demonstrators were members of the Boston chapter of a gay and lesbian coalition calling itself “Queer Nation.” Mapplethorpe’s exhibit of 120 works includes more than a dozen homoerotic pictures that have drawn bitter public protest wherever the show has stopped. The Boston showing opens to the public today.