Founded in Ithaca in 1934, Southside Community Center is a place for Black community members to find belonging and support. Southside is an Ithaca institution for discovery, empowerment, learning, and development—and as such, many of its leaders have connections to Ithaca College.
One of those leaders is IC associate professor of education Nia Nunn, who is the board president of Southside and the executive director of the Community Unity Music Education Program (CUMEP), a summer program run at Southside.
Learning on Ithaca’s Southside
"[CUMEP is] an incredible 16-day experience of kindness , creativity , and community."
Nia Nunn, IC Associate Professor of Education and CUMEP Executive Director
Many of Ithaca College’s students are the instructors and leaders for CUMEP, invited by Nunn with the intention of developing them to be community-minded educators and artists.
CUMEP was founded in 2002 by IC alumnus Fe Nunn ’80 (a longtime Ithaca City School District teacher and administrator, and Nia Nunn’s father) and IC professor of music education Baruch Whitehead. Whitehead and Fe Nunn joined forces to create the summer program to serve and uplift children from all walks of life through creativity. While CUMEP is a creative arts program, it also weaves a strong thread of social and civic responsibility into the creative arts curriculum. As Nia Nunn puts it, CUMEP is “an incredible 16-day experience of kindness, creativity, and community.”