Here’s a toast to you: the artists, the open-minded, the spectators, the risk takers, the outcasts, the cool kids, the dreamers, the speakers, the movers, the shakers.
Thank you for every time you pulled up to one of our exhibitions. Thank you for every time you shared one of our posts. Thank you for every time you added pieces from our walls to your collection. Thank you for every time you held a space. Thank you for every time you believed in us.
None of this could have been possible without your support, for that we want to give our deepest gratitudes to you.
This year leaves us thankful.
The abundance of exhibitions and programming that took place this year, took us to a new level: You Can Dance Underwater & Not Get Wet, Ecce Homo, Spoiled, Scribe, Spectrum, Sculptures and Small Objects, Pleasure Symposium, Tales By Moonlight, ITUTU: Diddy Ain’t Invent The Remix, Red Dot Mixer, Black October, and NADA 2022.
We shifted our perspective of how we viewed our sexuality, without being bound by gender biases with Spectrum.
Giving ourselves the permission to be reinvented as we mixed and mastered through the plethora of Black uniqueness with ITUTU: Diddy Ain’t Invent The Remix.
Orating our rich Black culture, through folklore, as we looked back to guide us forward. Telling the tales of our journey and the journey’s of our ancestors as they walked the path before our footsteps touched the ground with Tales By Moonlight.
This year was redefining.
Our second annual commemoration for Juneteenth, “Juneteenth: A Family Reunion”, was a weekend like no other. We pulled up from the Mound to the MET, with our cultivated swag as we rocked our diamonds, durags, and original handmade pieces. Then we went back home, to our block, at the Orange Mound Tower to kick-it-off with the Blackest festival ever, oozing with all of the swag and talent.
At our family reunion, we were introduced to new family members and memories: we sang together, danced together, laughed together, and talked about our future together.
This year was breathtaking.
Straight off the walls in Memphis and onto the walls in Miami, TONE takes NADA for the second year in a row with Rahn Marion as our spotlighted artist. Taking pieces from his debut solo exhibition Ecce Homo straight to NADA.
NADA gave us an opportunity to thrive beyond our city limits. We will continue to be a bridge that helps close the gap between Black creativity and equity.
This year we opened the floor for conversations, opened our eyes to see beyond the capacity of our own understanding, and opened our hearts to be able to dream beautiful Black dreams.
Our biggest dream yet, standing at 230-ft tall in the first Black community, the Orange Mound Tower. Through our co-ownership with Unapologetic, we were able to expand beyond the doors of TONE and begin planting the seeds of hope in our own backyard.
Our team is full of innovators, believers, and plenty of Black folk who have the capacity to see the Orange Mound Tower for its inability to be incapable of anything besides greatness.
Supporting Black artistry takes a village, and you are a part of that village. The places we will go will be limitless, but we need your support: for our artists and our community.