Tom of Finland Foundation celebrating 40th Anniversary with multiple Palm Springs events
The local events aim to raise awareness and support for the foundation, which helps promote Tom of Finland’s artwork and supports erotic arts and LGBTQ artists worldwide.
Palm Springs will come alive with leather, art, and celebration in just a few short weeks as the Tom of Finland Foundation (ToFF) marks its 40th anniversary with a week of events from Oct. 23 to Nov. 3 in collaboration with Leather Pride Week.
Finnish artist Touko Laaksonen, widely known as Tom of Finland, is famous for his iconic, highly stylized depictions of homoerotic masculinity. The nonprofit foundation was founded in 1984 by the artist and his partner, Durk Dehner.
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The foundation holds events worldwide and has been present at the Palm Springs Leather Pride event since around 2010, hosting a booth and presenting artwork. According to Edward Cella, the foundation’s chief executive officer, the foundation’s 40th anniversary is the perfect time to expand that presence in Palm Springs.
The Palm Springs events aim to raise awareness and support for the foundation, which helps promote Tom of Finland’s artwork and supports erotic arts and LGBTQ artists.
“We really wanted to reach out to these communities that matter to us and that are important and are centers of queer culture, and Palm Springs is seen as an important hub and center of queer culture that aligns with the foundation’s mission,” says Cella.
The week will open with a talk by Dehner, who serves as ToFF president and co-founder.
The talk, “Protecting, Preserving and Promoting the Erotic Arts with Durk Dehner,” will be held at the Mizell Center on Oct. 23 at 6 p.m. A reception with Dehner precedes the talk at 5:30 p.m.
Concurrent with the talk at Mizell will be a public reception and exhibition opening at Artworks Gallery (610 South Belardo Rd.) called “Made at TOM House,” featuring works by more than a dozen artists from around the world who have participated in the foundation’s artist residency program in Los Angeles.
The following evening, Oct. 24, a keynote panel discussion and presentation — “Two Toms” — will be held at the Palm Springs Cultural Center. It will feature Dehner and world-renowned photographer Tom Bianchi, who expanded upon and amplified the artistic voice and perspective Tom of Finland pioneered.
The panel discussion will be followed by a cocktail hour featuring Tom of Finland Vodka, during which attendees can preview “Tom of Finland Visions of Desire,” an exhibition of original Thomas Finland drawings, many of which have never been seen in public.
The works will be organized chronologically from the 1940s into the 1980s so that viewers can see the progression of his work and the many phases of his life. The exhibition will be open to the public through Nov. 3.
The week will also feature a film screening of “Thomas Finland,” a fictionalized biography of Tom’s life released in 2018 that received international acclaim.
Before the screening of the full-length feature film, there will be a 20-minute preview of a documentary film called “House of Leather,” a documentary created by Jameson Rockmore, a past artist-in-residence of the Tom of Finland Foundation.
The film tracks the experience of three individuals, one from China, one from Thailand, and one from America, who come to Tom’s house and their experiences of what they come to learn about themselves and how they learn about their artistic practice.
In addition, Tool Shed will host a cigar social on Saturday the 26th from 2 to 5 p.m.
It’s not difficult to imagine why a celebration is in order.
Tom of Finland created his artwork at a time when homosexuality was illegal in many parts of the world, and such expressions were considered taboo.
The distribution of his drawings in the 1950s-1970s could have resulted in prison sentences, yet he persisted in expressing his artistic vision. His work aimed to depict sexuality in a healthy, positive, and life-affirming way rather than as something shameful — opening the gates for not only other artists to explore their work but for gay men to feel comfortable and free to express their sexuality.
That was certainly the case for local Tom of Finland board members Jesse Rosenberg and Ken Avedisian, who met on a street corner in Palm Springs on the first day of Leather Pride in 2018 and moved back to Palm Springs together one year later — “A magical love story,” Rosenberg says.
Rosenberg and Avedisian were instrumental in bringing the 40th-anniversary events to Palm Springs, according to Cella. Since they moved to Palm Springs, both have been extremely active in the community and both have a significant background in nonprofit and charitable work that they bring to the foundation.
Avedisian co-founded a large annual fundraising event for cystic fibrosis in Los Angeles that raised nearly $2 million per year. He also sat on the National Board of the American Institute of Wine and Food for many years, where he worked alongside Julia Child.
Rosenberg has been involved in the Big Brother program for 10 years, mentoring young men. He also holds a popular local yoga class and operates a life coaching business, donating all proceeds to charity. Together, they host a monthly cigar social that has raised tens of thousands of dollars for various charities.
“And so, two years ago we decided to align ourselves with Tom of Finland Foundation for lots of reasons, personal passion reasons, as well as wanting to help the foundation in its mission,” says Rosenberg.
Rosenberg and Avedisian leveraged their local connections through their community work and were boots on the ground to bring the week’s events to fruition. The Foundation is looking forward to building deep connections in Palm Springs.
“At the heart of it all is our desire to preserve and promote Tom of Finland’s pioneering legacy — his courageous artistic vision that celebrated male sexuality and identity during repressive times,” says Cella. “By partnering with local institutions and tapping into events like Leather Pride, we hope to inspire current and future generations of LGBTQ artists to find their creative voice, just as Tom did.
“This week is about honoring the past while looking to the future of queer art and culture.”
Details: For a complete list of events celebrating Tom of Finland in Palm Springs, turn to this page of the organization’s website.
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