| FOUNDATION NEWS • The Foundation wants everyone to know we have a new staff person in our office. He is Matthew Blouin, and he has taken on the mighty task of running our office. Matthew was a volunteer archivist with the Foundation prior to coming on staff. We think that his orientation toward detail within the archive department will be a great asset in the day-to-day working of the administration, as well as the artist relations area of the Foundation. Mary Jane Richardson left the Foundation at the end of October for other employment. We invite all artists to call the Foundation and introduce yourselves to Matthew. • In order for the Foundation to move into high gear, we need help! What kind of help? Can you help?!? • We're hoping to make a major change for this year's Tom's Bar – the annual celebration of Tom of Finland's birthday. It's not definite yet, but it looks as if we may hold it at The Faultline – Los Angeles's premiere leather/fetish bar – as one of their Sunday afternoon parties! If we do, it would be a “parking lot” party, in which the bar gets permission from the authorities to devote their parking lot, as well as the bar, to the event. This would make an exciting 2001 Tom's Bar – so watch for the announcement! No matter what the location this year, you can always count on stimulating sights like this at Tom's Bar • The Foundation is looking at the possibility of producing a Tom of Finland animated short, and we are seeking animators, financial backers, and others knowledgeable about the workings of this type of film production. Please contact us if we can use your talents and abilities in making this project happen. • The Foundation is presently working on organizing an Art Fair for the east coast. We don't have a date yet, but we are negotiating on a space to hold the event. So... we need your support for this. We need to find artists who are on the Eastern seaboard, along with those of you who would be willing to volunteer your time to make this weekend happen. We are looking at the month of June, so time is upon us. We're not sure if we can support a two day fair, but we will definitely plan a Friday night cocktail event – most likely a fundraiser for the Foundation – with the fair to happen on Saturday and possibly extending into Sunday. We are working with Pet Silvia, an artist based in New York, along with Tom Dennison, a generous donor to the operating fund of the Foundation. Please contact us if you are an artist, or would like to volunteer to assist with this upcoming weekend event. • The Foundation is very much interested in expanding our erotic art book collection. If you are a publisher, or if you have books on the subject of the erotic arts in general, or a specific artist, and would be willing to donate such to the Foundation, we would be very grateful. Also, for those collectors who would like to find a permanent home for your book collection, and would consider putting the Foundation in your will as the beneficiary of such, please contact Durk to discuss the details. • The Foundation's procedure for accepting donations of original art into the Permanent Collection is as follows. You – an artist or a collector – contact the Foundation, and send a description or a copy of the work you would like to donate. The Foundation will respond within thirty days, notifying you if said work or works fall into the range of what we want to add to the collection, on the premise that it will never be sold and will always be preserved for future generations to appreciate. If a work is not accepted into the Permanent Collection, the Foundation may ask if you would be willing to allow us to sell the work, and use the money raised to further our mission in the preservation field of the arts. We have not really taken advantage of all the fine artists out there with whom we have contact, and thus this is the beginning of an outreach to artists and collectors. Please help us build the Permanent Collection into a long-lived showcase for erotic art. Please don't hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions about donating art.
• RICARD VON HAK AUDRADY donated “The Blue Ghost” (right) • JOHN HARTER, artist, made his second donation of $5,000 in this quarter. We want to thank him for his generosity and understanding of what it takes to operate the Foundation. • JOHN MORAN donated more than 70 books, catalogs, posters, prints, limited edition lithographs, and originals of Olivia, Sorayama, and several other artists' work. • MICHAEL MITCHELL donated a water color during his visit at the Erotic Art Fair. • LUIGI CAIFFA donated two originals – one water color and one mixed media sugar work, when he attended the 2000 Erotic Art Fair. JAY JORGENSEN donated his winning photo from last year's Emerging Erotic Artist Contest.
We thank all the above and hope that it will inspire others to follow suit!
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| • CONTRIBUTORS' COCKTAIL PARTY As a special thank you to our members at the Seaman and Commander level ($100 and above), we are planning to hold a cocktail party on Friday, June 15, as a kickoff for the L. A. Gay Pride Weekend. Each of these special contributors will also receive two tickets to the Tom of Finland Company's “Man-O-Rama” dance party that weekend. So for those Seaman and Commanders in the L.A. area, mark the date on your calendar. Those of you from out of town, consider coming in for the weekend – in addition to these two great events, there's the always festive Pride Parade on Sunday. And those of you who haven't upgraded to Seaman or Commander level, what are you waiting for?!? • In November, during Palm Springs Gay Pride, Wolf's Den, the noted leather bar in Cathedral City, hosted an exhibition of art from the Foundation's Permanent Collection. In addition to an opening reception, the bar held a Fundraiser for the Foundation – the first such event to be held in the desert – which netted almost $700. Many thanks to Bill O'Connell, owner of Wolf's Den, for his generosity and hospitality – and a big thanks to Taurus Webster, who personally hung all the art and made sure it looked good! • On Thursday, December 14, Tom's Volunteers gathered at the Echo Park house for the annual Holiday Potluck party. Two turkeys personally cooked by Foundation president Durk Dehner, and a honey-baked ham supplied by Board member Mike Goldie, found themselves surrounded by dozens of side dishes, salads, and desserts brought by the guests. After everyone had stuffed himself, the leftovers were loaded onto plates under Durk's supervision, and a caravan of cars trekked downtown to distribute the food to L. A.'s homeless. It was a great night of fun and camaraderie, and a chance for the Foundation's volunteers – without whom our events would simply not happen – to meet and mingle in a purely social setting. We can never have enough volunteers. So if you live within striking range of Los Angeles, and want to get in with the “In” crowd of Tom's Men (and Women!), give a call to Volunteer Coordinator Dan Berkowitz at 323-654-4552. Depending on your schedule, you can do a little, or you can do a lot – but know that however much you do helps the Foundation and the cause of erotic art.
The Foundation plans to host a cocktail type forum for artists whose work is geared towards the heterosexual marketplace. The Foundation has always been dedicated to promoting all erotic art, and in that spirit we want to find out from artists whose work is heterosexual in nature how we can bring more collectors to our events who are interested in purchasing such works. Any artists interested in being invited to this forum please contact our office at 213-250-1685, and we will send you an invitation as soon as we have a date. Work like this by painter Kimberly Fox is bringing new diversity to the Foundation
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