Triphammer Arts: The show must go on!

Driving north on Triphammer Road, you may have noticed a colorful sign with the letters “CRS,” and wondered, what’s back there? Well, the answer is the CRS Barn Studio, which hosts a variety of concerts, musicals and shows on stages overlooking the lake.

Steven Stull and Jeanne Goddard, artistic co-directors of Triphammer Arts, have lived in Lansing since 1986, after they finished grad school.

“My parents had purchased a property about a year before and said, ‘well, there is an upper floor [you can have] until you get on your feet,’” Stull said. “So, we thought, ‘well, we’ll stay a year or so until something opens up for us.’ And that was 35 years ago.”

What made them stay was the community of music, dance and theater they found in the area.

“Steve got involved with Ithaca Opera,” Goddard explained. “It’s now Opera Ithaca, … but he got involved with their material immediately. I freelanced around for one year, and then the Wells College job came open. And I went, ‘well, I’ll check it out for a little while’ and, again, met up with some terrific colleagues and said, ‘maybe we can make something out of this department here.’ And so, I was there for 29 years.”

As for their organization, Triphammer Arts, which is in residence at CRS Barn Studio, became a nonprofit in 2013, but Goddard and Stull have been teaching classes and workshops at the studio since 1990, with performances coming later. While funding arts nonprofits is not always easy, Triphammer Arts has been able to continue thanks to many local supporters, Goddard explained.

“Tompkins Trust Company is our season sponsor,” she said. “And we are delighted to have them on. And we’ve also been able to get some grants from New York State Council on the Arts through the Community Arts Partnership and another one through the Alliance of Resident Theatres.”

Though many local arts organizations canceled shows and moved to entirely virtual programming due to the pandemic, Triphammer Arts found a way to have safe, socially distanced shows — they set up a drive-in theater, which continues to host a variety of shows.

“One real side benefit was — and I actually had thought of the drive-in theater idea even before the pandemic — there were people who had their parents in residential nursing homes or facilities, and as long as they could get them into the car, they could drive over and they get a chance to go to a concert because they once they’re in the car, they didn’t have to transfer,” Stull explained.

The barn studio’s size and the amount of land has allowed Stull and Goddard to continue lessons, with social distancing and masking, and provided a space for musicians and performers to practice and do what they love.

“During the pandemic, we’d have people who like to play together, and people from the different academic institutions are usually encouraged to cross borders and collaborate with each other,” Goddard said. “But if you had a trio with one person from Ithaca College, one from Tompkins and one from Cornell, they could not go to any of those campuses because the other people couldn’t come. … We were able to feel like we could safely offer this space to just very small groups of people, occasionally.”

Stull teaches voice lessons at Cornell University and spoke to how their space allowed for lessons to continue.

“And so, even in the fall, I was actually able to teach here because I can take the piano out on the deck, we’re outside, [and] my student can be 20 feet away from me,” he said. “And there’s nothing like singing a song about these really beautiful green meadows and you go, ‘well just take a look out here and kind of imagine as opposed to being in a small little cubicle singing away.'”

As for upcoming programming, there are shows nearly every Saturday through the end of August, with other performances scattered throughout the week. This Saturday’s performances, Dance and Music to Bless our Outdoor Stages, will take place on the front deck, barn stage and drive-in stage and is really an opening party, starting at 7 p.m. with a rain date of July 31.

Other upcoming events include Cayuga Chamber Orchestra Brass Quintet at 7 p.m. Aug. 8, A Fiddle and a Song with Rick Manning at 7 p.m. Aug. 11, Beethoven String Quartets at 6 p.m. Aug. 27 and Moving Landscapes/Choreographers Showcase starting at 5 p.m. Aug. 28.

“What is so great really is that we really do a mix of so many different things,” Stull described. “It may be classical, it may be brand-new modern, it may be jazz and may be folk, and we really cover a pretty wide range. And this summer is going to probably continue that trend.”

If you are looking to attend a show, tickets are available at the gate, 2622 N. Triphammer Rd., and there are no advanced sales at this time.

“We definitely get a bit of a Lansing crowd. And we’re shameless about that. Why would you go to downtown Ithaca and fight the traffic?” Stull and Goddard said.

“Some of them are literally a mile down the road, but it’s great because I think people just really enjoy the fact that they can come, and they don’t have to put on an outfit,” Stull said. “It’s like, ‘I’m just going outside’ and some people bring their wine or their snacks or whatever with them. And so, it’s a pretty fun, really summer evening.”

Goddard and Stull invite everyone to come out to a show and spend an evening immersed in art.

“Enjoy the fact that there’s so much talent in the Ithaca, Tompkins County region,” Stull said. “This year, it’s primarily going to be local artists. It’s a chance to come back to live music and dance in a really safe and comfortable, open feeling so that you can really experience performance again.”

So come spend an evening watching and listening to some amazing talent, the sunset and the beautiful lake and land.

“The best way the public can help support artists, and continue to have art, is to come to the show,” Stull said. “Netflix will be there tomorrow, but a live show, there’s nothing like live performance.”

For more information visit Triphammer Art’s Facebook page, @triphammerarts, or website, triphammer.org.