On Thursday, May 16th, WSM and its producing partner The Cherry Arts will receive a Preservation Award from Historic Ithaca at its annual Preservation Awards event at La Tourelle. In 2018, WSM and The Cherry created The Missing Chapter, an original headphone walking-play based on the Wharton Studio’s popular 1916 serial Beatrice Fairfax and written by […]

  Congratulations to all the filmmakers in Silents Roar! Film Festival on April 20th, 2019 at the Roy H. Park Auditorium at Ithaca College!  What a fun night — the culmination of much hard work and creativity from high school students from all over the region. Fifteen short, black & white silent films were submitted! […]

  Silent Serial Sensations: The Wharton Brothers and the Magic of Early Cinema, the first book-length study of Ted and Leo Wharton and their extraordinary film careers, is in production by Cornell University Press, for early 2020 release. Author/historian Barbara Tepa Lupack covers the Whartons’ early years, from their experiences on stage and in the theater […]

WSM’s building a Resources page to provide some information to keep you on  top of the world of silent film. You’ll find it under Events and Exhibits, or click here.

  WSM is thrilled to announce the launch of the Finger Lakes Film Trail (FLFT), a fresh opportunity to discover the history and culture of New York State through some of its greatest innovations, by highlighting three of the most significant destinations associated with the burgeoning movie industry: Eastman Museum in Rochester, Case Research Laboratory and Cayuga Museum in Auburn, […]

  WSM, a partner in the new Tompkins Center for History & Culture (TCHC) on the Commons, is excited to be working with our design team to create and produce an exhibit on Ithaca’s silent movie history to be installed in the TCHC by its opening in April 2019.

  On October 18th, 2018, NY State Senator Tom O’Mara announced grant funding to Wharton Studio Museum and Friends of Stewart Park and presented WSM Executive Director and Co-Founder Diana Riesman and FSP Executive Director Rick Manning with a check for $450,000 for the Wharton Studio Museum and Park Visitor Center project in Stewart Park. […]

  A month-long celebration of silent film and Ithaca’s role in early movie making history, October 2018 is shaping up to be WSM’s best Silent Movie Month yet!  

WSM and Wharton Studio history were recently featured in the Ithaca Times (8/15/18 issue): Ithaca’s Cinematic Past: Ithaca spots that were seen, not heard, in film