Community Partners
Ithaca Aviation Heritage Foundation
Realizing that the rich heritage of aviation in Tompkins County was being forgotten, the Ithaca Aviation Heritage Foundation was formed to preserve this history. IAHF achieved the near impossible goal of locating an original Tommy Scout, bringing it home to Ithaca, restoring it to flying condition and flying it on its 100th birthday. The project employed some of the original tools and each of the manufacturing plants used by the Thomas-Morse Aircraft Corporation to build the Tommies a century earlier, effectively turning the clock back 100 years. The journey took over 10 years and an army of volunteers and supporters to complete. On September 29, 2018, IAHF’s Tommy was flown at the Tompkins International Airport, above a crowd of over 3,000 spectators. IAHF’s Tommy now resides at the center of the exhibits at The History Center of Tompkins County on The Ithaca Commons, providing an educational touchstone to the heritage of aviation in Tompkins County, and inspiration to all interested in aviation and aviation history.
The Gayogohó:nǫˀ Learning Project
The Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ Learning Project is a collaboration of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people working to promote awareness and practice of Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ (Cayuga) language and lifeways in their ancestral homelands and beyond. We hope to carry the idea of sgę́:nǫˀ gó:wah, the Great Peace, into our work, cultivating peace and cooperation through education and community outreach. Our partnership is based on a vision in which Indigenous and non-Indigenous people travel separate but parallel paths to engage in peaceful coexistence.
Historic Ithaca
Historic Ithaca promotes the value, vitality and sustainability of our built heritage, neighborhoods, and community in Ithaca and Tompkins County through education, advocacy and action. For more than 50 years, we have engaged our community in valuing our buildings, landscapes, and historic sites through tours, lectures, educational programs, workshops and the delivery of preservation services. Advocacy and action are at the forefront of our efforts to celebrate, sustain and maintain the historic and yet-to-be historic resources for future generations.
The Wharton Studio Museum
Wharton Studio Museum is preserving and celebrating Ithaca's role in early American filmmaking, and developing the historic Wharton Studio building in Stewart Park into Wharton Studio & Café with exhibits and installations about film history and the history of the park. Wharton Studio Museum produces four annual events -- Silent Movie Under the Stars (August); Silent Movie Month (October); Southern Tier Student Film Festival (spring); and Party for the Park (September, in collaboration with Friends of Stewart Park) -- in addition to other screenings, presentations and exhibits throughout the year.