By Joseph S. Amster

The Tom of Finland Foundation's vision of an erotic art museum looks for a home in West Hollywood.

When Touko Laaksonen, aka Tom of Finland, began creating his "dirty drawings" in the 1950s, he never would have imagined the worldwide fame it would one day bring him. Now, nearly 14 years after his death in 1991 and 21 years after the Tom of Finland Foundation was founded by Laaksonen and business partner Durk Dehner, the foundation has begun laying the groundwork for the Tom of Finland Erotic Art Museum, which Dehner hopes to house in West Hollywood, the location of the foundation's Erotic Art Weekend coming up on Oct. 8-9.

Dehner has begun a fund-raising campaign, not only for the eventual museum, but also to make improvements to the foundation's headquarters -- formerly Tom's home. "We're at a place where we can afford for the staff to have new desks and things like that, so we're allocating money for that and to repair the front porch that needs structural improvements," says Dehner. "We also have a fund that is really about the museum. Earlier in the year, because we got an award from the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce as an arts organization, I shared with the whole room that was there -- and that included the mayor, the councilmembers, and a lot of the businesspeople -- that we had this amazing and very valuable collection, and it will only grow. I asked them to think about having the Tom of Finland Erotic Art Museum in West Hollywood and that somehow collectively, with the city, merchants, the foundation, and our endowments that we could make this happen."

The foundation's collection has grown to the point to where a museum is the only way it can be exhibited properly. In addition to Tom's vast body of work, there are pieces from around the world. "We have some unique pieces. We have early 20th-century Japanese pillow paintings, 1930s Italian fascist erotic art, lots of Tom, and sculpture. We got a large donation from a man named Scott O'Hara, and he had over 500 pieces in his collection. He examined us upside-down, and finally decided that this was the place where he wanted his collection to be," says Dehner. "We could make our collection double within a year if we had the room to have more work. Right now, we are so completely inundated in our art storage areas that we can't take on any more work. There are lots of other collections out there, and I think that if we can pull this together, they'll know that there is a place for them to come to. That in itself would be a hallmark."

Dehner believes the eventual museum will serve as a cultural landmark for West Hollywood, as well as attracting an audience beyond the gay community. "Whatever form a museum takes, we have to make sure it's really comfortable. It could be a place that tourists would come to from all over the world to enjoy and indulge in," he says.

The Tom of Finland Foundation Erotic Art Fair takes place Oct. 8 and 9 in West Hollywood's Plummer Park, with 75 artists, life drawing, and a symposium every afternoon. Ivy Bottini will receive a lifetime achievement award at the Oct. 8 awards banquet at the Wyndam Bel Age, 1020 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood at 8 p.m. Admission to the fair is $10 for both days. For more information, go to www.tomoffinlandfoundation.org.