Please join the Tompkins Chamber and City of Ithaca officials for a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the inaugural exhibit in the Cherry Gallery!
Remarks by:
Laura Lewis, Acting Mayor, City of Ithaca
Jennifer Tavares, President & CEO, Tompkins Chamber
About the Cherry Gallery:
We’re thrilled to announce the grand opening of the Cherry Gallery. After a beautiful “soft open” summer, the Gallery will formally open on Wednesday, September 21st at noon with a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Mayor Laura Lewis.
During our “soft open summer”, the Gallery hosted Journey Beyond Time, an interactive immersive art experience from the Beyond Collective; Pursuit: Exhibition, a collection of new works by Cornell graduate students in poetry, architecture, and fine art; and Essence, a show of works by Yen Ospina and Michael Sullivan.
Two days after our ribbon cutting, our inaugural show Local Futurities will open on Friday, September 23rd from 5PM–8PM. Local Futurities is a satellite exhibition of the 2022 Cornell Biennial exhibit Futurities, Uncertain. Featuring six upstate New York artists, Local Futurities invites celebratory imaginations and enactments in line with this year’s Cornell Biennial theme. The show will run through October 30
From November 2022 through May 2023, the Gallery will present four shows on the topics of Migration, Racism, and Dispossession, generously supported by Cornell University’s Migrations Initiative. Dates and artists will be announced in the coming weeks.
The ribbon cutting also coincides with our 2022-23 membership drive, as the Cherry Arts launches into a new season of innovative programming in both performance and visual arts. Opportunities will be available to purchase memberships and enjoy Cherry member benefits throughout the year.
The Cherry is grateful to the Ithaca community for an abundance of fruitful artistic collaboration over the last half decade. We’re thrilled to be expanding into visual arts exhibition and hope you can join us for a grand opening to the Cherry Gallery and a whole new world of works!
Featured Annual Events
Economic Summit
The Tompkins Chamber presents key local issues impacting local businesses and developers, policy issues impacting the business community, and local insights from participants in a national economic outlook survey. Partnering with Ithaca Area Economic Development (IAED), the event includes important updates about our economy, workforce, upcoming projects, and strategies to move forward and achieve a sustainable economic recovery.
Annual Dinner & Awards
One of the premier business community events of the year, the Annual Meeting highlights the Chamber community and previews the goals and initiatives for the coming year. Come and celebrate the success of our business community and economic development with hundreds of local leaders and elected officials! Join us as we raise a glass to the companies, not-for-profits, and volunteers who partner with us to help our community thrive.
Golf Tournament
This day on the green combines top-notch golf with valuable networking and advertising opportunities. Held at one of the County’s finest and professionally-rated golf courses. Staggered start golf tournament with several prizes, including skins. Lunch and beverages provided.
Great Big Chamber Auction
See and be seen by the region’s top business executives and small business owners. The Great Big Chamber Thank You & Auction holds tremendous value to our sponsors, donors, and attendees as it is one of our most highly publicized and attended events. The Great Big Chamber Auction portion helps underwrite the events and programs that support our Chamber members. Traditional silent and live auction, networking, and nonprofit recognition awards.