Partnerships aiming to minimize construction waste in Central New York, address isolation and cognitive loss through performance, and promote and nurture local startups received the annual Cornell Town-Gown Awards, announced Nov. 16 at Cinemapolis.

Known as the TOGOs and now in their 14th year, the awards celebrate cooperation between the university and the greater Ithaca community. The event, hosted by Joel M. Malina, vice president for university relations, also recognized 15 community leaders who have or will soon be retired, or are moving on from their positions in local government or nonprofit organizations.

Credit: Noël Heaney/Cornell University

“One of the things that makes Cornell special is the connections it has to Ithaca and the surrounding areas,” Interim President Michael I. Kotlikoff said. “The Cornell community and local communities are inseparable: Our students, staff, faculty live and work here.”

The award recipients were:

• REV: Ithaca Start-up Works and Madeira Trading;
• Beth Milles’ Heading into Night: a clown play about …  (forgetting) and The Cherry Arts; and
• CR0WD (Circularity, Reuse, Zero Waste Development).

Rev: Ithaca Startup Works has incubated more than 115 businesses and its member companies have created 849 new jobs, raised $205 million in capital and generated more than $123 million in revenue since opening its doors in 2014. The TOGO award for Rev highlighted its partnership with member company Madeira Trading, which works directly with growers to source sustainably harvested “super” fruits and freeze them for import and sales to North American wholesalers.

Madeira’s founder, Erika Kliauga, M.S. ’05, launched Madeira Trading in 2014 and became involved with REV in 2016. After graduating from a yearlong business development program, Madeira became a REV member company.

“Erika attributes much of the success to the advisers, support, equipment and networking she accessed at REV – first in the ‘Passenger to Pilot’ women’s entrepreneurship program and then as a REV member company,” said Krystyn Van Vliet, vice president for research and innovation. “Over the past 10 years REV has helped develop Ithaca into a startup ecosystem which is highly ranked nationally – through its work with Madeira Trading and over 100 other startup companies.”

“Heading into Night…” is a performance piece developed by Milles, associate professor in the Department of Performing and Media Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences, in collaboration with Daniel Passer of the California Institute of the Arts.

Devised as a “clown ode to loss and remembrance,” the project initially involved workshops with Lifelong, an Ithaca nonprofit dedicated to enhancing the lives of older adults in Tompkins County. The pandemic forced the plan to shift into an exploration of the loneliness caused by COVID, and how to form connections in the face of isolation and cognitive loss. Workshops with local residents through Lifelong, the Titus Towers apartment complex in Ithaca, the Greater Ithaca Activities Center and Longview shaped the play’s development.

“’Heading into Night…’ represents a synthesis of research, performance and community engagement in response to the heightened sense of loneliness many experienced during the pandemic,” said Derk Pereboom, senior associate dean for arts and humanities in A&S. “The intent is to stimulate the senses and ignite memory to create a sense of community in each audience interaction, as an offering, to assuage a loneliness heightened by pandemic-escalated cognitive challenge.”

CR0WD, founded by Historic Ithaca/Significant Elements; Ithaca ReUse; the Preservation Association of Central New York; the Susan Christopherson Center for Community Planning, part of Cornell’s Center for Transformative Action; and Cornell’s Circular Construction and Just Places labs, has become a leading voice in New York state for the benefits of deconstruction and reuse of building materials.

Community-engaged seminars and research provided the foundation for a 2021 case study in which 11 houses on College Avenue slated for demolition were “soft stripped,” to salvage reusable items such as flooring, stoves, dishwashers and baseboards. That project has led to the Waste(d) Imagination Tour, which starts on the Ithaca Commons and visits 21 key sites across town; “Deconstructing Demolition,” a 2022 exhibition at the Tompkins Center for History and Culture; and a whitepaper co-authored by Cornell researchers and collaborators that informs Assemblymember Anna Kelles’ (D-Ithaca) related legislative efforts.

“Today we are recognizing this network of planners, architects, preservationists, policymakers, salvage and reuse professionals, real estate specialists, academic and students from around New York state, working to create healthier communities through more sustainable treatment of our built environment,” said Neema Kudva, senior associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning.

Retirees:

• Kimberly Bell, Trumansburg Central School District
• Cynthia Brock, Common Council
• Jorge DeFendini, Common Council
• Jerry Dietz, CSP Management
• Eldred Harris, Ithaca City School District Board of Education
• Lisa Holmes, Tompkins County, administrator
• Moira Lang, Ithaca City School District Board of Education
• Rick Manning, Friends of Stewart Park
• John Rowley, Tompkins County judge
• Dave Smith, Tompkins Learning Partners
• Heather Stevens, Tompkins Cortland Community College
• Gary Stewart, Cornell, University Relations
• Jason Trumble, Ithaca City School District
• Scot Vanderpool, TCAT
• Fred Wilcox, Town of Ithaca Planning Board