Today is Juneteenth

It is a day to commemorate the date when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed — after the Civil War’s end and two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. This holiday honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday.

Our Foundation would like to take this opportunity to highlight Donald Shorter, one of the Black artists in our collection who participated in our Artist-in-Residence program in 2023.

During the residency, Shorter created a series of eleven 35mm film photographs with Brooklyn based photographer Benjamin Fredrickson for his exhibition “Baby boy” which also included a film and a play by him. These works explore leather identity, culture, and sexual expression while the photographs take an intimate look into a BDSM scene in the Pleasure Park at TOM House.

Shorter is a multi-disciplinary artist with a passion for storytelling through choreography, dance, directing, writing, acting, and more. A former principal dancer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (2003-2007), Shorter has toured in Broadway shows such as: La Cage Aux Folles, A Chorus Line, and Hairspray.

Published: 19th June 2025

Categorised in: Events