CCE partners with Local Artists to Envision a Thriving Future
Cornell Cooperative Extension has announced new art projects in the Binghamton area after unveiling more than two dozen murals throughout the Southern Tier
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BINGHAMTON – What is a thriving future? What imagery comes to mind?
Cornell Cooperative Extension has paired its “smart energy” push to increase efficiency and use of renewables with murals throughout the Southern Tier, partnering with Ithaca Murals to promote imagery of what a thriving, smart energy future can look and feel like.
The “Thriving Futures Mural Initiative” completed its first group of 18 murals across the Ithaca Area in 2023 before deciding to expand the project with a second phase across the entire Southern Tier region.
This second phase of another 18 murals began in 2025 with artists engaging with one another and community members on what a thriving future could look like. Three of those murals are located in Binghamton.
The imagery focuses on human progress with clean, affordable energy, in harmony with plants and wildlife.
Unveiling events for these murals took place in Binghamton, Hancock, Ithaca, Trumansburg, Bath and Elmira throughout May and June.
“In all instances there were conversations [with community members] about the concept and about the communities we're trying to build,” said Karim Beers, Regional Clean Energy Hub Director at the Cornell Cooperative Extension.
“Clean energy is at the heart of this future: it saves residents money, makes homes safer and more secure; it reduces gases that are destabilizing our global climate; and it provides good, family-sustaining jobs to people in the region.”
The CCE Smart Energy Choices program, funded by the New York State Energy Agency, helps people take advantage of programs that help reduce energy use and bills through energy efficiency, improved insulation and solar energy, Beers said. He said the project is targeting people with limited income.
An unveiling event at substance abuse support nonprofit Truth Pharm in Center City Binghamton in May revealed the final of three Binghamton murals created during the project.
Called "Planting Seeds of Change", the mural, by Broome County native and former Truth Pharm Community Arts Liaison Mia Hause, represents healthy and sustainable living, multi-generational support and collaboration, and activism. It features plants and insects native to the region and attempts to demonstrate harmony with the natural environment and planting growing seeds of change.
“This experience was especially rewarding because it was my first mural, and it’s located at Truth Pharm, an organization that means so much to me,” said Hause.
“Truth Pharm provides so many necessary services to a community of people who are struggling, and they deserve to enter a bright, warm, and welcoming space every day.”
The second mural, “Flourishing” by muralist Yelyzaveta (Elle) Yatsuk, a Ukrainian-born artist who runs the collective BC Artists for Change, commemorates “the everyday efforts of both local organizations and the people of Binghamton in their efforts to create a greener future for the planet, its past and present species, and their neighbors.”
Located right by the Binghamton Bus Station at 202 State St., Yatsuk said the painting process let her converse with many locals and travelers as they came through the bus station.
“Getting to work on my mural at the Bus Junction meant that I got to know a lot of my fellow Binghamtonions, with quite a few even joining in!” said Yatsuk.
“How many of you walked past someone in the city 100 times without ever knowing their name? Public art challenges that. Suddenly strangers become collaborators. It’s hard to stay divided when you’re holding the same paintbrush. And working towards ‘thriving future’ doesn’t always start with a meeting or policy. Sometimes, it starts with someone saying ‘Can you pass me that color?’”
The third Binghamton mural, “Reunited” by Scranton-based muralist Eric Bussart, is near the heart of downtown at 93 State St. The work seeks to remind people of the connection between humans and nature, celebrating the beauty around us and encouraging them to sustain it.
The full list of murals throughout the Southern Tier created for this program can be viewed here.
More Artists to be Supported
This week, the Broome County Arts Council announced grantees for further Arts and Clean Energy Awareness projects from Cornell Cooperative Extension.
Beers said this new phase of the project works with regional arts organizations like the Broome County Arts Council to provide opportunities for visual artists of all types, not just muralists.
Each Arts and Clean Energy Awareness Grant supports the creation of new art with a community engagement element (visual art, murals, performing art, literary art, storytelling, or film) in Broome County under the theme of "Our Common Clean Energy Future," hoping to fund new art promoting an awareness of clean energy and that empowers residents to reduce their energy use and carbon footprint.
Grantee: Joseph Schultze
Johnson City-based artist of Mega Mural Creations specializing in murals and window paintings. After overcoming addiction, he rebuilt his life through art, hard work, and determination, creating bold work that makes a positive impact in his community.
Project: “Power in Bloom” (mural)
This is a large-scale mural that mixes nature, culture, and clean energy into one strong visual. I’m planning to paint bold, vibrant flowers flowing across the wall to represent growth and community, blending into solar panels and wind turbines to show renewable energy.
Grantee: Elle Yatsuk
Elle Yatsuk is a multidisciplinary artist and community-based organizer in Binghamton. Working across painting, public art, and experimental materials like coffee, her work reflects both creative expression and activism, often bringing art into shared and public spaces.
Project: “What Lies Beyond: Our Clean Energy Future” (mural)
Continuing her mural work with CCE, "What Lies Beyond" is a large-scale public mural that uses a trompe l’oeil “breakthrough wall” illusion to reveal a vivid, imagined future rooted in clean energy, environmental stewardship, and collective possibility. The mural will depict the sensation of a wall cracking open to expose a thriving, futuristic green cityscape where natural systems and human innovation exist in balance. Imagery such as solar infrastructure, wind energy, green rooftops, and re-wilded urban spaces will be woven together in an expressive, painterly style that emphasizes movement, light, and depth rather than rigid structure. The mural is designed to be both visually striking and emotionally hopeful, encouraging reflection on how clean energy systems and environmental design can reshape everyday life in Broome County.
Grantees: Kari Varner & Jacopo Mazzoni
Kari Varner makes photographs that explore the traces of industry and agriculture upon the landscape. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in locations including the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, the Kemper Art Museum and the Erie Canal Museum. She is a Lecturer in Photography at Binghamton University.
Jacopo Mazzoni is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and researcher whose work bridges artistic practice, emerging technologies, and cultural heritage. Drawing from Italian culture and history, he explores digital media, data, and interactive systems through creative research, fostering collaborations that connect technical innovation with critical inquiry and public engagement. He is a Lecturer in Digital & Data Studies at Binghamton University.
Project: “Helio-View” (drone photography, large-scale cyanotype & 3D prints)
"Helio-View" will explore the community’s power to reshape the landscape through collective action while opening a public dialogue around renewable energy, sustainability, and shared environmental responsibility. Using drone photography and photogrammetry, images of clean energy infrastructure will be transformed into large-scale cyanotype prints and 3D prints using structure from motion workflows. Aerial photography has the capacity to reveal how land, infrastructure, and community activity interact. From above, renewable energy sites, natural features, and human effort appear as part of a larger system rather than isolated elements. This perspective helps convey a sense of the whole, encouraging viewers to consider how energy, environment, and human action are interconnected and how individuals fit into these larger patterns.
Grantees: Colin Lyons, Elizabeth Mozer, Sarah Nance & Christopher Robbins
Colin Lyons grew up in the birthplace of the North American oil industry in Petrolia, Ontario. Fusing printmaking, installation, and chemical experiments, his work reflects on geoengineering, extraction, alchemy, and brownfield remediation. Lyons has participated in residencies at MacDowell, The Arctic Circle, ÖRES, Frans Masereel Centrum, Rabbit Island, and Interlude.
Elizabeth Mozer is an actress, director, theatre-maker and educator with a specialization in movement. She is an Associate Professor at Binghamton University. She has been in three Broadway shows and is a member of the Cherry Artists’ Collective. She’s written the plays Castle on the Hill and The Asylum Project.
Sarah Nance is an interdisciplinary artist based in installation and fiber. Her work blurs the separation between geologic processes and human experience, and has been performed and exhibited widely, including venues in China, France, Canada, Iceland, South Korea, Germany and Italy, as well as across the U.S.
Christopher Robbins develops collaborative public art works that create community connections. He has lived and worked in London, Tokyo, West Africa, the Fiji Islands, and former Yugoslavia, and has exhibited at the Venice Biennial of Architecture, ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art, and the National Museum of Wales, among many others.
Project: “Lithium Landscapes: The Battery Dance” (dance performance)
"Lithium Landscapes" is a participatory performance for elementary school students that turns the inner life of a rechargeable battery into a simple, memorable movement piece. Students will play the “characters” inside and around a lithium-ion battery: graphite/anode, cathode, lithium ions, electrons, electrolyte, separator, charger, and the electronics being powered. Each group will wear a distinct color so the process can be understood visually. The choreography will show the difference between charging and discharging: lithium ions moving through the electrolyte, electrons moving through the outside circuit, the charger pushing energy back into the system, and the powered device using that stored energy. This project helps connect that big regional story to young students in a way that is active, joyful, and easy to understand.
Bonus Mural
Another mural, now familiar to daily commuters on Riverside Drive, is currently being finished up.
Sugar Lips Ice Cream Shop commissioned Rebecca and Stephen Whitman of Stiletto’s Fine Arts in Vestal for a full-wall mural of people and animals eating ice cream.
They said they aim to finish the mural by early July, but you can see the work in progress if you decide to get a scoop at the popular ice cream stop.
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