Celebrating 10 years of the Cherry Arts!
Here’s your opportunity to fuel the next 10…
It’s no secret that these are tricky times for the arts. But the Cherry is proud to be thriving despite the challenges! To that end, we are delighted to be launching our first ever MATCHING CAMPAIGN! We’ve had the great good fortune of an anonymous donor who has offered to match every penny up to $10,000 we can raise between now and Sep 15. Can you help us reach our goal? Every dollar you commit will be doubled!
2025-26 marks the 10th Anniversary Season of the Cherry! And our plan is to raise $1,000 for every year we’ve brought thrilling and unexpected arts to our community. You may have first come to know us for original, international works of theater, but as Ithaca’s multidisciplinary hub, we never stopped innovating, expanding the landscape of the arts in our town.
Do you remember the headphone walking plays of our early years? Since then, we have expanded into movement-based theatre, aerial performances, and our gallery and studio spaces. We are also the home to many of Ithaca’s crucial arts organizations who don’t have physical spaces of their own, including our wonderful Arts Partners. With your investment, who’s to say what new amazements might blossom in Ithaca over the next 10 years!
As the campaign proceeds, keep an eye on our socials and visit this page to follow our progress and find lots of celebrations of our first 10 years, including memories of our favorite shows, interviews with collaborators, and other nuggets!
Please join us now to help ensure that Ithaca has a home for innovative arts for the next 10 years! As always, every donation of $75 and up makes you a member of the Cherry for 2025–26 season. If you’re already a member, please consider making a further contribution to help us reach our goal and double your dollars by Wed Sep 15!
10 Years of the Cherry!
2025 marks 10 years since the first Cherry production A Cherry Timedive—written by the brilliant team of Wendy Dann, Austin Bunn, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, and Saviana Stanescu and performed outdoors on the Cayuga Inlet with actors entering and exiting by canoe!
The 2015-2016 season also saw the Central New York premiere of an experimental play from Iran—the wildly popular White Rabbit, Red Rabbit. An actor received the script in an envelope in front of the audience and began! Performed at Circus Culture, this show kicked off our amazing partnerships in Ithaca’s arts community!
Rewind YEAR 2 🍒
During our 2016-2017 season, we saw the headphone walking play Storm Country dive into the history of Ithaca’s West End! And also Loza Plays (Winter Animals, Nothing to do with Love), our first Ithaca international premiere from Argentina!
YEAR 3🍒
The 2017-2018 season was a MAJOR year, with our opening production in the Artspace—What Happens Next by Saviana Stanescu. We also saw the world premiere of Rule of Thumb by Serbian playwright Iva Brdar.
YEAR 4🍒
2018-2019 was a season of big hits like the French play George Kaplan and the German play Testosterone that went to a production in Washington DC using our props built by LilyPad Puppet Theatre!
YEAR 5🍒
The 2019-2020 season was truly a year of innovation with the English-language premiere of On the Other Side of the Sea and our quick pivot when the pandemic hit—Felt Sad, Posted a Frog, featuring commissioned plays from around the world!
YEAR 6🍒
Wow! 2020-2021 was a season of ingenuity with our fabulous farce The Fan performed in Stewart Park and the critically acclaimed A Day, livestreamed across the world from the State Theatre of Ithaca!
