Wharton Studio Museum

Make a Giving is Gorges gift today to Wharton Studio Museum -- www.givingisgorges.org/organizations/wharton-studio-museum -- and help WSM make noise about silent film! We're developing the historic Wharton Studio building in Stewart Park with Friends of Stewart Park and the City of Ithaca and WSM brings you all kinds of engaging film-related programming every year. You can also make a gift at ... https://whartonstudiomuseum.org/ Thank you for your support! It is truly appreciated!

Tomorrow is Giving is Gorges! Won’t you please consider supporting Wharton Studio Museum and its mission to bring to light Ithaca’s unique role in early American moviemaking and bring back to life the amazing artifact from that era that is the historic Wharton Studio Building in Stewart Park!

Exciting day at the TCHC as we began to install Serial Style: The Business of Being Irene Castle, a new exhibit produced in partnership with Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection!

Giving is Gorges is this Wednesday, June 23. Hope you will support WSM and many other local nonprofits doing creative and important work in the visual and performing arts, advocacy, programs for children, social action, preservation, and everything in between. It feels good to give!

Exciting news from our friends at Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection! WSM is so glad to have collaborated with CFTC on an exhibit in 2016, and, in 2021, look out for another joint project focused on Irene Castle!

WSM’s intern extraordinaire Aurora Ricardo stars as actress Edith Day in Episode 3 of a new kids’ video series created and produced by The History Center! Edith Day played the lead in A Romance of the Air, filmed in Ithaca and released in 1918. WSM is very glad to have consulted on this new kids’ video series Learning to Fly with Tommy focused on Thomas Aviation, an Ithaca company dating back to the early part of the 20th.... Aurora’s starred in several student films over the years and did a beautiful job with creating her own costume for this role! Thank you to Cindy Kjellander-Cantu and Roger Segelken for including WSM in this fun project. Look for Aurora in one other episode from the series (not about the Whartons.)

Our Photo Players exhibit pictured above was designed specifically for the wall at Gimme! Coffee on W. State Street as part of WSM’s county-wide exhibit Romance, Exploits, & Peril: When Movies Were Made in Ithaca. The exhibit eventually came down, and then seven years later was re-installed at Gimme! for the summer of 2019. It is now located in the Tompkins Center for History & Culture just off the main Atrium ( see photo below) as an extension of WSM’s permanent ...exhibit at the TCHC. This portrait gallery of Wharton Studio luminaries was conceived of by architect Todd Zwigard and WSM executive director Diana Riesman, designed by Joe LaMarre (pictured below) at Uncommonplace, and text is by Julie Simmons-Lynch. Drop in to the TCHC in downtown Ithaca and take a look. Make an appointment through The History Center in Tompkins County if you want to visit the main exhibit hall. See more

On Tuesday, donors like you helped WSM raise $2,000! This generosity completely funded an educational workshop, an intern's income for a month, and construction of the Finger Lakes Film Trail's new website! In addition, gifts will help fund a projector for WSM's permanent exhibit in downtown Ithaca and prizes for Silents Roar! Youth Film Festival. Thank you for making Giving Tuesday such a success!

You only have 7 hours left to make a Giving Tuesday gift that inspires, empowers, and educates! Your gift builds experience and launches important conversations. It can expose broad audiences to the magic of silent film or encourage one young person to deepen their love of film or history. Donors like you know that every penny countsespecially in the arts. Please choose to make Wharton Studio Museum your giving priority!... #silentfilm #givingtuesday #ithacany #ithacagram

The absolutely perfect silent film clip to watch when you are taking a break from working and sitting outside on a November 5th afternoon and it is about 65F!

Today, Giving Tuesday, is about generosity. It is about joining together to create a better future. One of the most powerful ways to create a bright future is to support the vital role the arts play in our world. When you make a gift to Wharton Studio Museum today, you help celebrate and promote the arts by shining a spotlight on Ithaca's important silent film history. www.whartonstudiomuseum.org/giving-tuesday

Kudos to writer Michael Watson and illustrator Theresa Chiechi on this terrific review of ITHAQA, their exciting new series! WSM’s been following Ithaqa Comic Book’s journey from idea to full-blown series for the past couple of years. WSM’s executive director treasures her signed copy! Set at the tail-end of the Wharton Studio era Ted Wharton is a character! ITHAQA’s a compelling Lovecraftian read! Issues 1, 2, and 3 are available at Buffalo Street Books in downtown Ithaca, or via ithaqacomic.com

Join us TODAY at 3pm to celebrate volumes 2 & 3 of ITHAQA, a comedy-turned-Lovecraftian horror story set in the 1920s against the backdrop of the Wharton Studio, Cornell University, and underground speakeasies in Ithaca, NY. Register online at Buffalo Street Books to see an exclusive interview with author Michael Watson and learn more about his haunting tales and processes! See you there!

WSM is super excited to have local writer Bob Proehl moderating our ITHAQA comic book panel discussion tomorrow Saturday, Oct. 24 at 3pm! ! Register now...

TOMORROW! Join Michael Watson for the launch of volumes 2 & 3 of the ITHAQA comic books! Local author Bob Proehl moderate a panel that will include Michael, Theresa Chiechi, illustrator of ITHAQA, and Diana Riesman, Executive Director of Wharton Studio Museum. Hosted by Buffalo Street Books This is a super unique virtual event that showcases a new thread of Ithaca’s colorful story. Make sure you don’t miss out by registering here: https://www.buffalostreetbooks.com//ithaqa-comic-book-laun

New issues of ITHAQA are in at Buffalo Street Books and WSM’s inviting you to join the virtual comic book launch this Saturday, October 24th from 3pm-4pm. Registration link below! Happy Silent Movie Month!

Much of The Mysteries of Myra (1916) is... a mystery!! Most of the footage from this silent serial that dove into stories of the occult, has been lost over the last century. However, thanks to our colleagues at The Serial Squadron and Ithaca Made Movies, you can watch it today! Check out the reconstructed elements of The Mysteries of MyraSpooky footage from over 100 years ago! #silentmoviemonth

Wharton Studio cinematographers and production designers pioneered some of the special effects that are still used to this day. Check out this still from "Mysteries of Myra" in 1916 featuring the villain engulfed in ghostly flames! #silentmoviemonth

This image we’ve named it Strange Onion is from Wharton Studio’s 1915 serial The New Adventures of J. Rufus Wallingford and has become our go-to photo each fall as Halloween approaches. Based on stories by George Randolph Chester that ran in the William Randolph Hearst-owned Cosmopolitan Magazine, the Wallingford serial had an endearing wackiness to it. A young Oliver Hardy makes an appearance in the first five episodes! What do you think the man is saying to the Strange Onion?! #silentmoviemonth

Where did all the silent films go? Most early motion pictures are considered lost due to how highly flammable and unstable nitrate film is. It was a dangerous proposition to store film. Additionally, many films were deliberately destroyed because they had negligible continuing financial value in this era. It is often claimed that approximately 75% of silent films produced in the US have been lost. One of those is the 15-part serial Million Dollar Reward" produced by Grossman Pictures in 1919. Ted Wharton had left the Wharton Studio building in Renwick Park (now Stewart Park) and moved to a new production space on West State Street in downtown Ithaca, and the lakefront studio building was sublet to Grossman Pictures. This behind-the-scenes still is one of the few remaining images from The Million Dollar Reward. #silentmoviemonth

Make your own comic TODAY! Register here for the online comic workshop lead by author Michael Watson www.buffalostreetbooks.com/event/make-your-own-comic The workshop starts at 10:30am EST. Great for all ages!

Find out how to make your very comic spooky or otherwise! Join us online tomorrow at 10:30am EST for the special comic book workshop led by ITHAQA comic book creator, Michael Watson. Bring a pencil and paper to the Zoom! Hosted by Buffalo Street Books and produced by WSM and The History Center in Tompkins County. Remember... October is Silent Movie Month! Register here: www.buffalostreetbooks.com/event/make-your-own-comic