More Time, and Project Director Announced
Recent silence on this website has been for a very good reason—the volunteer crew working on the Bailey Center Project have been busy! In July, we successfully wrote and submitted a grant application for property acquisition funds from the New York State Office for Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation that could support up to $675,000 toward the purchase of the Bailey properties in Ithaca. In the process, we successfully solicited thirty-five letters of support for the grant, from individuals ranging from local gardeners to top Cornell University administrators, from leaders of local history organizations to local and state legislators, and from school superintendents to representatives of the state Grange and Farm Bureau—widening our circle of support in the process. We should know whether we got the grant by early 2027.
Meanwhile, in our continued conversations with officials at Cornell University, we have secured more time to fundraise. Thanks to the momentum we have built in recent months, the university has agreed to lease the properties as student housing for one more academic year—and, at least for now, are continuing to hold them off the market for us, provided that we continue to make progress toward our goal of raising $3 million to purchase the properties and launch the Center’s work.
And, starting in August, we officially have a paid staff member! Thanks to several generous gifts to the Liberty Hyde Bailey Center Project initiative, Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) Tompkins County now has enough money in hand to pay Dr. John Linstrom to take the helm as Director of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Center Project for the coming year.
John is the Series Editor of The Liberty Hyde Bailey Library for Cornell University Press, and he comes to this new position from the faculty of Centenary College of Louisiana, where for the past two years he has been an Assistant Professor of English. Prior to that role, he worked as a Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Climate Humanities and Social Justice at the Climate Museum in New York City, as a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the English Department at New York University, and as a Museum Educator at the Museum of the City of New York. Once upon a time, he was the Executive Director of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum and Gardens in Bailey’s hometown of South Haven, Michigan—now the Bailey Center’s elder sister institution.
John is also a published poet, an enthusiastic choral singer, and a great lover of pesto made from fresh garden basil in the summer. He has just relocated to Ithaca with his family and will formally join the staff of CCE Tompkins County later this month. He will spend the next year focused on raising sufficient funds to purchase the properties in Ithaca and launch the Center, organizing with partners within and beyond the statewide CCE network to pilot the Rural-Urban Dialogue Initiative, and developing an organizational structure for the Center. You can read more about John’s background and what led him to this position in his recent Substack essay, here.
Incoming Director of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Center Project, John Linstrom, at the Climate Museum in April of 2022 for the launch of his poetry collection.
Behind all these developments is a growing network of support for the Bailey Center idea—volunteers, letter writers, institutional partners, donors—who collectively will be the reason this project succeeds. Thank you for being a part of the journey. And if you are just happening upon this website, we would warmly invite you to join our email list, make a donation, or even become a Founding Member. Your support today lays the foundation for an inspired future, here in Ithaca and across New York State.