Your Voices

Declare Our Ownership!

Friends,

Not all of you may know, that while Tom lived here he would host salons for his fellow artists in the TOM House drawing room on Sunday afternoons. 

Given the Board’s recent announcement of leaving TOM HOUSE, made under pressure from the public to be transparent, it is time I address the motivation behind what moved Tom and I to set up the Tom of Finland Foundation. As an artist Tom wanted to leave behind an archive that represented him. The deeper and overpowering force at work was to have a vehicle that would be the embodiment of his everlasting message for our community, that we deserve to celebrate who we are, that Mother Nature created us as whole and complete. Centuries have passed, and we as a people have never been given the same status in our societies as our heteronormative counterparts, and most likely never will. So, it's up to us to carve out that life experience for ourselves. 

When one does a deep dive into Tom's work, beyond the muscles, the oversized penises, the uniforms, boots and leather what is left, his actual message to us, “I wanted to show Gays they can feel happy together”. Tom wanted us to know we can aspire to be who we are, no matter whether the world around us condones it or not. 

I grew up in an era where we were classified as an aberration, not a man nor a woman, but some type of misfit of nature.  Deep within my soul, I knew that who I was came out of nature, and no matter if the society around me condoned it, it was a wonderful gift and society just did not have the awareness to realize it.

Tom and I set in motion the space for fellow artists to discover what it felt like to be in an environment which fostered uninhibited expressions. A place where everyone deserves to manifest who they are and who they desire to become. That is why TOM House is such a special place and rare, if not uniquely one of a kind. It is a place in the world that evokes within us the feeling that we can be that person we so much desire to become. 

Many of you have recently spoken to this: the idea to separate this huge collection of art, ephemera, books and periodicals that contain our collective queer history dating back to the early 1940s from this place, TOM House is ludicrous. 

We created an atmosphere that inspires those who visit and stay here to create their own essence of expression. It is the source; it is likened to bathe in the waters that feed our creative souls. 

Visitors come here on tours from all over the world. They all find enormous value in discovering more of who they are from experiencing TOM House. Tom’s art and his having lived here is the driving force that brings people here, and what awaits them is an experience not unlike an English country garden of erotic art in so many expressions. 

As many of you have said, visiting here is life changing. I cannot understand how individuals on the Board of Directors can disrespect such a magical place, yet the reality speaks for itself. Each of us must do whatever it takes to protect our cultural experience and our landmark. In 2016, the City of Los Angeles recognized its importance.

There must be other self-serving forces that are at work here, because anyone who is in tune with their own sensitive self-awareness would not decide to destroy such a beautiful expression of who we are. There are very few places in the world we can call ours, and TOM House is one of them. 

What's happening is very Trumpian in its style. As public radio has had to depend on its listeners to underwrite their presence, we too must depend on ourselves and each other to maintain our past, present and future cultural experiences and legacies. No more than $25 recurring monthly is all it would take from a committed community, and then we all have a vested interest in nurturing programs like the Artist in Residency program, the drawing classes, the weekly tours that educate our populace on the stories tied to our artists past and present.

We need to hold on to it and stop this grab for prestige and power, we must declare our ownership of this public cultural heritage collection and financially support it to enable it to stand on its own feet and be secure in its future. This collection does not belong to the New York five; it belongs to us, the public. I have had honor of being its guardian for forty years. So we need to speak up. Otherwise, it will be stolen from us because we did not fight for what rightfully belongs to our community.