2016 Past Exhibit

The Biggest Little Fashion City: Ithaca & Silent Film Style

Winner of the 2018 Richard Martin Exhibition Award from the Costume Society of America!

In 2016, WSM collaborated with Cornell’s Costume & Textile Collection and Cornell University's Department of Fiber Science and Apparel Design on The Biggest Little Fashion City: Ithaca and Silent Film Style, a multimedia exhibit focused on fashion during the silent film era with a focus on Irene Castle and featuring original pieces that Castle wore when she lived in Ithaca and worked for the Wharton Studio.

Location:  Level "T” of the Human Ecology Building, Cornell University, Ithaca NY.

Behind the Lens: A Snapshot of Propaganda at the Turn of the 20th Century

In 2013, WSM and The History Center collaborated to develop Behind the Lens: A Snapshot of Propaganda at the Turn of the 20th Century, a free-form architectural installation illustrating a time in the early part of the 20th century,  when radio, the printed page, and movies were tools of psychological warfare that were often colorful, dramatic, and often outrageous in scope and statement.  The exhibit featured film clips edited by Moving Box.

Location: The History Center, Ithaca, NY

2012 Past Exhibit

Trip the Light Fantastic

A re-installation from Romance, Exploits & Peril: When Movies Were Made in Ithaca

An installation celebrating Ithaca’s once numerous historic theatres, Trip the Light Fantastic was originally designed for the State Theatre Box Office window as part of Romance, Exploits & Peril exhibit in 2011 and reconfigured for a space at The History Center. The exhibit featured an 1896 mutascope and a small LED screen that played the film one would see if one cranked the mutascope.

Location: The History Center, Ithaca, NY

2011 Past Exhibit

Romance, Exploits & Peril: When Movies Were Made in Ithaca

A county-wide exhibition in eight parts, Romance, Exploits & Peril delved into Central New York's silent film past and Wharton Studio's unique role in that history. The exhibition's flagship installation, an 80-ft. long Timeline of film history, graced the Avenue of Friends in the Tompkins  County Public Library in downtown Ithaca.  Seven smaller satellite exhibits were on display throughout downtown and the area, at locations such as State Theatre Box Office, The Crescent Building (formerly the Crescent Theater), Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport, Cayuga Medical Center, Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC), Gimme! Coffee on W. State St., and Petrune on The Commons.  Funded in part by Tompkins County Tourism Program and Park Foundation.

Location: Ithaca and Tompkins County