More pix from our flat...

Original Tom portrait of Wiki, a photo of Tom, some pics of Wiki takin by Fakir Musafar...

Tallin/Turku

We are officially going to have an Tom of Finland exhibition in Turku as it is the European Cultural Capital for 2011. What great timing for me to have moved. I really hope our museum is up and running by then. I've decided to take the fall semester off, partly do to paperwork logistics with school but also so I can focus on getting my life and our projects in Helsinki in motion. That and I need to plan my wedding(s), start Finnish lessons, spend a month in Chicago, begin studying with Juhani Roininin and maybe volunteer as a docent at the Kiasma. I'm so antsy, can't wait to get home! Here are some more pictures of Tom ephemera at the Helsinki flat...



Tom of Finland's cards and cuffs


More of Tom of Finland's leather


Mystery envelope


Tom of Finland magnets


Tom's mug and a glass from Intro (one of the first gay bars in Helsinki)

Back in LA

So now I'm in Los Angeles back at the Tom of Finland Foundation. I have some plans with family and friends but I'm especially excited about our fundraiser tomorrow night, Black and Gray! I will also be hosting the Tom of Finland Foundation Reading Group on May 16th where we will focus on LGBTQ life in prison. I have a phone meeting today with Rick Storer about my internship at the Leather Archives & Museum. I'm a little overwhelmed by the possibilities and options in working with them so this conversation should be very helpful. Anyhow here's a flier for tomorrows event!

ARLIS NA

So I had to take a trip to the states to do some work on site at the Tom of Finland Foundation and attend ARLIS NA and accept my Internship Award- what a thrill! Had a great time and a great roommie. I relaxed more this year, went to some museums enjoyed a great leadership dinner, had our first LGBTQ SIG meeting (very well attended!). Now I'm visiting my friend Skye in St. Louis (she's the Modern Graphics Librarian at Washu). I definitely surpassed my 140 hours for the semester before leaving Finland but things didn't move as quickly as I had hoped. I really need a grant and an assistant. I go to ARLIS NORDEN in June, maybe that could lead to something. When I get home there should be enough space cleared out for me to set up my desk top and start inputting the data in the accession forms. I'm thinking I should do another independent study this summer if it's not too late and work on determining what software I should be working with and setting that up.

Accession Form- Homework Post 4

Revised in red, via advice from professor Hansen...

I've been studying the accession form samples from Library of Congress and also the sample in the book Arranging & Describing. Here's what I've come up with so far, but I'm going to have to sleep on it. I think I've got a good enough idea of the collection now to know what is important to cover but every day comes with new surprises. The format in the word doc. is in tables but I'm not sure how to paste that in here. Anyhow the basics are below. I welcome feedback and advice from those of you with more experience!

Date

Accession No.

Storage Location

Creating Individual/Organization


Title


Material/Format


Quantity/Size


Condition


Scope and Content


Date Range


Arrangement


Restrictions and terms of use


Type of Acquisition


Provenance


Notes



Donor


Available for Exhibitions in Finland?

__Yes __ No

Available for Exhibitions outside of Finland?

__ Yes __ No

Accessioned By
Allison R. Schulte

Date

Homework Post 3

After weeding the leather collection (2 closets full) and finally establishing a cabinet where I can store only Tom stuff, I'm up to about 70 hrs out of 140 (if not more). I keep putting off designing an accession form because everything I come across is so very different but I need to do it this week so I have time for feedback from peers and my professor.

I've been nagging Wiki about needing more towels and finally cleared out enough space to get to the closet where they were. Of course they were Tom of Finland towels that I've never even seen before, not even at the Foundation! I can't use these in good conscience (though he tells me we have a whole box of them in storage). This means I have to go to IKEA- again, ugh. At least the bus leaves from in front of the Kiasma (the contemporary art museum). Anyhow, the other exciting news is that last night we went to dinner at the home of Juha and Kari, a lovely couple who have been together for 29 years. They were very dear friends of Tom's.


We had so much fun and the food was beautiful. Fish, potatoes, reindeer, pasha (Hungarian desert that blew my mind) and fine wines.


They brought out some of their photo albums which have pics of Tom that have not been scanned. I don't even know if our Foundation president knows they exist. Tom was modest and didn't like having his picture taken, but these are especially nice because they're so natural, just him goofing off with his friends. Juha and Kari also have a box of slides associated with Tom and a Tom of Finland original drawing that was done of Juha. They are going to bring out the other items for me to go through soon and they will be lending me the photo albums to scan. I'm working on getting our scanner set up today. I'm also going to be interviewing them but Juha says we must do this in Finnish, otherwise he won't be able to express himself properly. I'm starting lessons this fall, but sheesh that's not a language one learns over night!
Lastly they had an original work by an artist named Veikko Lundstrom. He is an artist that I had not heard of but was a good friend of Tom's and made a lot of leather for the gay community in Finland. He also did some amazing art such as wall hangings and flowers all made from leather. I'd really like to document his work and learn more about him so that I can share it with the Leather Archives & Museum (I'll be interning there this year). Wiki says Veikkos's (who is deceased) best friend works on the Viking line- the ship we take to go to Estonia. This man may be able to provide some art for me to bring the the L A & M and also some history on both Tom and Veikkos.

Treasures!

I just found a box full of personal photos and Poloroids, model photos, fan letters, correspondences, original negatives of pix Tom took for Wiki's portrait and more. We're working on getting the scanner set up. I may bring the negs back with me to LA and use the nice negative scanners in the CalArts mac lab. I also went through "Leather Closet #2" Which was full of Tom's personal leather jackets and uniforms.
I'm going to have to look into some more fundraising for materials and supplies... maybe I can raise some through the Facebook Page.