Local artists come together for Perry City arts and events venue in Trumansburg

A group of artists is coming together to sing and jam in benefit of the Perry City Friends Meetinghouse in the village of Trumansburg, a venue that continuously supports arts and culture programming for all ages. 

The songwriting circle fundraiser is set for Feb. 18 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and will feature music from Richie Stearns, Sim Redmond, Travis Knapp, Annie Sumi, McKenzie Jones and Amy Puryear. Proceeds will go toward repairs needed across a building, located at 6324 state Route 227, that for the last few years has become a hub for discovery, learning and play. The building is also used as a place of worship for the local Quaker community.

Puryear and Sara Tro, who lead art groups for women and children and use the building for their meetings, have been instrumental in developing the space as a welcoming place for area children and their parents.

Puryear, a music teacher and singer, hosts “SingSong” classes for children ages one through four at the meetinghouse on Wednesday mornings. 

“They are by far the highlight of my week, every single week,” she said. “We get together and sit in a circle and we sing songs. Some in different languages. We do some sign language with the children. We do some dancing and some clapping, stomping and moving our bodies.”

Puryear also hosts Women’s Wellness Wednesdays, a weekly event led by local women that takes the shape of a conversation series, networking space and art workshop. She started it with a Facebook group, where women from all over the area participated in fulfilling discussion, and it continued to blossom into in-person gatherings. 

“I usually have between 10 to 25 women, sometimes more, and it is just so appreciated,” Puryear said. “Every week it is a different woman from our community leading it. It is very sweet.”

For children looking to tap into their artistic potential, Tro, an artist and photographer, helms ArtsCool, a series of classes where children get to explore professional grade materials. Every series runs for eight weeks on Tuesday afternoons.

“A lot of times kids are sort of finger paint and watery tempera paint and they only have like 50 minutes of art class,” Tro said. “I thought a lot of moms don’t have time to do this, or they don’t have the materials or the art background, so I just created my own curriculum.”

Tro said she learns from children as much as she can.

“They’re very free, and I’m just trying to keep that awake in them,” she added.

Tro also organizes the Curiosity Collective, a small network of families with experience in homeschooling. The collective uses the space at the meetinghouse to plan activities and events and meets on Thursdays.

“It’s just been such an amazing community building exercise. It feels like it really brings a lot of laughter and life to the woods especially,” she said, adding that children tend to go and play outdoors, making forts in the woods or going on walks on nearby hiking trails.

“The kids have lots of free time to play, and it is very loose,” Tro said. “It is super casual and really fun,” she added.

Puryear and Tro said that the fundraiser will be a great opportunity for residents to give back to a beloved landmark that is filling the role of a community recreational center with a great family atmosphere.

“It’s just a really sweet and unique way to hear people’s music as well,” Puryear said. “It’s a different way of sharing songs.”

Tom Joyce, a member of the Quaker congregation who sits on its buildings and grounds committee, said donations from the fundraiser would go toward issues like obtaining a new water filtration system. All in all, repairs to the building, which has been standing since the 1870s, would come to close to $100,000.

“This is just one step in the process of trying to get some more fundraising going,” Joyce said. 

Joyce also spoke on the place the meetinghouse holds in the community.

“There are no other buildings that are readily available for community use,” he added. “It’s obvious from the structure and the design of the windows that it’s an older building, and that’s of interest to people.”

Ulysses Connection appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com. Contact Eddie Velazquez at edvel37@gmail.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @ezvelazquez.

In brief: 

The village of Trumansburg Board of Trustees will hold special meetings to work on the 2024-2025 village budget. The following meetings can be followed via Zoom on the village’s website or at the village hall at 7 p.m.:

• Feb. 15
• Feb. 28
• March 4
• March 13