Thriving Futures
Public Art Projects
In 2023, Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County (CCE-Tompkins) sponsored 18 murals in Ithaca around the theme of "Building a future where all people and our living environment thrive." Community members juried scores of entries to select local artists who painted murals, large and small:
· on the CCE Tompkins building;
· in the Beverly J. Martin gym; and
· on 16 electrical boxes throughout the City!
See photos from each project with the artists’ statement below.
The murals invited artists and community members to reflect on elements needed to foster healthier relationships among people and communities, and with the air, soil, plants and animals around us that sustain our life. The murals were timed to celebrate the ending of the community-based Get Your GreenBack Tompkins campaign, and the launch of Smart Energy Choices, the Southern Tier's Regional Clean Energy Hub.
Mural Documentary
Thriving Futures artists share their stories in this documentary by Shira Evergreen.
“Msit No'kmaq” by Artist Margaret Kops Kuveke at CCE Tompkins
“Msit No'kmaq” means “All My Relations” in Mi'kmaq. This mural at CCE Tompkins by local artist Margaret Kops Kuveke is inspired by her maternal Mi’kmaq heritage.
Transition to green energy and a sustainable future requires all kinds of skills, and respect for all life.
Margaret designed this mural downtown on Lincoln St. inspired by conversation about gratitude & interconnectedness with Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' (Cayuga) Sachem Sam George & Debbie George.
“Legacy Mural” by Artist Margalo Guo in the BJM Elementary School Gym
A large mural featuring portraits of Audrey J. Cooper, Beverly J. Martin, and Kirby V. Edmonds marks the beginning of an ongoing mural of local leaders for educational equity and justice, who have helped to uplift Beverly J. Martin Elementary School, the Ithaca community, and beyond. Read more about these remarkable members of Ithaca’s community at [link needed]
Thriving Futures Electrical Boxes
Do you dream of a better world? Artists from the area were asked to show us their vision of a Thriving Future. They responded with unique and impressive projects!
Bethany Parisi
Understanding the life cycles of crops and animals is important for addressing issues such as land and food justice. I have a fascination with lifecycles and how interconnected and interdependent the natural world is. I convey these through images of food sources, pollinators, plants, framed by an animal.
Artist Bio:
Bethany Parisi is a modern folk artist residing in the visually breathtaking Finger Lakes Region. Her art is heavily influenced by her observations and experiences in nature. Bethany is fascinated by both the cutting-edge technologies of digital media and timeless traditions of folk art. She seeks to bridge the gap between these seemingly contradictory worlds.
Box Location: MLK and Floral (near the foot of West Hill)
Cruz Newman
The Soulful Raccoon is just saying "Love.” Love has the power to transform anything, and love is all there is. If we slow down (our crazy minds) and reconnect with that force which is in the universe and within us, we will definitely have a better future and be more united.
My illustrations are usually inspired by nature. My common theme is animals with flowers growing on their heads which symbolize the interconnectedness of all things.
Artist Bio: Cruz was born and raised in Mérida, a beautiful valley surrounded by gigantic mountains in the Venezuelan Andes. She got a degree in Industrial design and moved to London to learn English and experience the world from a different perspective. Love and life brought Cruz to the US in 2015.
Box Location: Elmira Rd and Spencer Rd (on rt 13 by Salvation Army)
Joshua Swartwood
I seek to learn from the beauty of the natural world. As an artist, I use my craft as a way to contemplate life and human experience. Rooted in an appreciation for illustration, printmaking, and street art, my pieces often include bold imagery and symmetry. I also enjoy the influence that word play can have on an image, and how text can attach multiple meanings or ideas to visual art. My intention is that my creations would provoke thought and communicate hope, peace, justice, and life to each person who sees them.
Project Description: The theme for my mural proposal is “light”. Playing with the ideas of light as a source of illumination, as well as a measurement of weight. These images are an invitation for viewers to show up in the world and “arise & shine”. The design explores the essential function that light performs in the process of growing and thriving, while also addressing the struggle that can be involved in shining in the face of darkness or remaining buoyant within heaviness.
Box Location: Dryden Rd and College Ave (Collegetown)
“Triple Entendre”
Karolina Piorko, Maya Kamaeva, Ami Mehta
We are a group of artists and architects that see art in urban environments as a window into worlds of fantasy that lift people beyond the endless roads, pavements and walls. Our work intends to create fictional universes that inspire moments of joy and tickle the brain into imagining alternate futures.
Project Description: Our mural shows a future where humans and creatures live in harmony and symbiosis, a precious bond that once changed during the industrial age, but now can return to one of mutual care and appreciation. This future looks very similar to our present, except nature has been allowed to make a home in ours, becoming our family and friends. Inspired by scenic locations in Ithaca, the mural depicts fantasy creatures with their own personalities taking over the landscape in soft ways, creating bonds with the community that lives with them.
We hope that this mural inspires us to think of nature as our companion rather than a force to contend with.
Box Location: Cayuga St and Lincoln St (near Ithaca High School)
Muhamed Kafedzic
I have painted a pole box with infinite sakura blossoms turning the dead wooden pole, alive again.
Artist statement: My artistic identity is based on the Japanese Ukiyo-e and American Pop Art traditions, interwoven together and interpreted in a more hybrid and global key. By refusing traditional local artistic traditions and themes, my goal is to challenge stereotypical ethnic or national image of an artist from the post-war Bosnia & Herzegovina, by trying to create an identity that can open transnational and pop cultural connections.
Box Location: Dryden Rd and Maple Ave (6 corners on East Hill)
Kel Swensen
How can we hold each other? It is such a simple question, yet there is room for great complexity in every answer. Immediately, I think of hands as a symbol for connection, community, and care. I’ve depicted the tension of the question visually with a simple, open composition paired with the intricacy of the color palette that reflects what I imagine a world where we thoughtfully show up for each other would look like: bold and vibrant.
This design highlights a strong connection with nature that comes with a society designed to lift others up rather than keep them down. A society where you share fruit with your neighbor freely when you are not worried about whether you can afford to buy more or not. On our path to that world, there are so many ways we can hold our people, our communities and ourselves in the meantime. I want this mural to inspire people to reflect on ways they may do that in their own community to help us build that world together.
At its foundation, I see art as a way to interact with and shape the world. My art often grapples with themes of oppression, pain, and trauma, but also identity, connection, and care. I enjoy finding overlaps between political engagement and art making, especially in spaces where it forges opportunities to create collectively.
Box Location: Cliff St and Park Rd (by Cass Park)
Rachel Feirman
My interpretation of a thriving future is a thriving natural environment! One where the soil is given plenty of nutrients to feed plants, that in turn feeds all living creatures. I hope that with more visibility to the incredible process that goes on under our feet we can have a greater understanding that there are peaceful and productive ways to coexist with all sentient beings.
Artist Bio: Rachel Feirman is a digital and traditional freelance artist. She finds inspiration from the beauty and vibrancy found in her natural surroundings. Rachel hopes that her twists on the many aspects of our environment help to bring a newfound appreciation to your life. Her various outlets of creativity include making digitally illustrated artworks, as well as traditional art using acrylic paints, gouache, watercolor, and linocut printing.
Box Location: MLK and Stewart (East Hill)
Stacia Humby
I loved painting these life cycles of various local plants and pollinators. Here’s a cecropia moth and apple (starting as an egg and bud respectively.)
Artist statement: My work reflects the fleeting and curious nature of my attention span, testing any medium and any depth of meaning. Creating in any form is the closest I come to meditation, and I find great comfort in the clarity of thought or silence of thoughtlessness that finds me as I work.
Box Location: Plain St and MLK St (Near Diane’s Auto)
Vivinne Williams
With the two figures I wanted to show humans in the broadest way possible so that anyone can relate; the tree represents the natural world of which we are a part. The tree is either regenerating with green leaves becoming or it’s dying and these are the last living leaves.
The designs on the figures heads are meant to evoke technology (the innards of digital devices) and at the same time tribal type markings of cultures worldwide. The question is... will we incorporate technology into the natural world in a positive way? The back side mimics the actual view of streetlights and the wish of peace from Buddhist tradition.
Artist Statement: I’m an artist and meditation teacher. My first art exhibit was at age 14 in NYC and I taught art for many years in academia. I paint clouds a lot! Why? I find painting clouds incredibly calming, abstract yet realistic which is quite unusual. They are also ever changing and require an extreme mindfulness to capture convincingly.
Box Location: MLK and Cayuga (by Chanticleer)
Susan Eschbach
“We must recognize and nurture the creative parts of each other without always understanding what will be created.”
My hope, as evidenced in the Audre Lorde quote incorporated into my electrical box, is that the energy and synergy of all of us creates something we cannot even see right now but must be our vision forward. We have tremendous opportunities as artists to touch the spirits of others to motivate ongoing community and change. My 7 year old granddaughter is studying change makers and insisted I put Greta Thunberg and Wangari Maathai in the image. She is also a budding artist who painted the box together. Keeping the activism going.
I am a recently retired principal at Beverly J Martin Elementary School and previously worked in the school district as an educator. I have been a painter and poet for many years but only now, since retirement, am I able to find time in my life to be part of a beautiful project like this.
Location: Second St and Cascadilla St
Emily Hoyt
The trout in my child’s classroom at Enfield Elementary School really inspired my family and I. It demonstrated a just and sustainable future where children are empowered and knowledgeable about watershed systems, growing food, and symbiotic relationships between animals and plants. I’ve painted a mural showing fish swimming in water and the cycle of their waste being turned into nutrients to enrich a green garden of leaves and trees and foods.
Artist Bio: Emily Hoyt is a local artist and musician who lives in Ithaca with her spouse/bandmate and their two creative children. She is motivated and inspired by nature and nurturing. She likes to imagine the vastness of the universe by focusing on the tiniest things such as the minute yet magnificent details on the feathers of a bird. Her subject matter (though mostly abstract) is influenced by the natural world, faraway galaxies, and female empowerment. She strives to leave the world a little more cheerful with her art, music, and relationships (even though her propensity to joke about existential crises would have you believing otherwise) and she hopes you find some joy in her creations and interactions.
Thank you for this opportunity! Painting an electrical box has been a dream of mine since moving here and seeing the vibrant art all around our beautiful little city.
Box Location: MLK St and Aurora St (across from the Commons)
Isaac Sharp
This electrical box is a reminder to all passers-by that art can and should fill our lives and surroundings. Art doesn’t have to be made by “artists”; it doesn’t have to be “fine” or serious or hard to understand. Creating and sharing art is one of the most rewarding experiences in my life and I hope my electrical box encourages more people in our community to tap into their own creative potential.
Bio: Isaac is a strange and silly person who can often be found making strange and silly things around town. Songs, poems, puppets, and paintings are just a few of these creations. Isaac draws inspiration from his lifelong love of nature, science fiction and The Far Side.
Box Location: W. MLK near Floral (mid-block pole box)
Samarra Khaja
Artist Bio: Samarra Khaja is an immigrant of South-Asian Indian and Australian heritage and a professional illustrator, graphic designer, and award-winning author. She is the creator of a prize-winning 24’ x 120’ mural, Heartbeat Brooklyn, which can be found at the corner of 12th Street and 2nd Avenue in Brooklyn, NY. Hallmarks of her work include brightly-colored, amusing, whimsical and clever depictions of the seemingly usual; revealing the unexpected out of the everyday. Samarra chooses projects that feel purposeful with a specific mindfulness toward fostering sustainability, inclusivity and education. She spends less time on her hair and more time on drawing and eating chocolate.
Box Location: Bank Alley on the Commons (next to History and Culture Center)
Dorothy Lovelace
I’ve been drawing and producing art for over 30 years. My work often involves surreal landscapes and themes of escape, sometimes dark and sometimes outrageously joyous. My imagery regularly includes animals, nature, and people and bright vibrant colors.
Project Description: My electrical box depicts local flora and fauna surrounding books and artistic/musical tools in a fantastic storybook landscape.
Box Location: Linn St and University Ave. (across from the bottom of Cascadilla Falls)
Be Mitzvah class at Tikkun v’Or Reform Temple
Nora, Aviyah, Gefen, Lionel, Sam, Sammy, Sally, Zach, Adam, Josh, Eli Ash, Eli Warshoff with the support of adults Michael Margolin, Elan Shapiro, Marsha Accera.
Whatever strategies and solutions are needed to steer us toward a thriving future, it will require working together for a more just world. It will take all of us to figure this out and make it happen. When we think of a thriving future we think of freedom, ease, and clean water. A thriving future for us would be one where we wouldn’t have to worry about our very existence. Judaism teaches us that all creation is precious and it is our job to help protect all beings on this planet. The future is electric. A thriving future would be where “the air is clear, we are not afraid, we can see the stars, and people are free.”
Box Location: Cayuga and Tompkins (halfway between Commons and IHS)
IHS Art Club
Students Delaney Lemberg and Maggie Butcher. Artist/educator Jesse Wright.
“Food Security & Community”
This public work is a call to action for the community to consider the food security of others.
The artwork features Angels delivering food day and night to those in need.
Box Location:MLK St. and Albany St.