Crandall Library Folklife Center Festival

The Folklife Center located on the lower level of Crandall Library will be celebrating its 30th anniversary on Tuesday, July 25th, 2023! This free festival will take place outside of Crandall library in City Park from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and will feature live music, crafts, and specialty food.

Entering Crandall Library and walking down the stairs to the Folklife Center hooks you into the history and culture of our region instantly… The folklife gallery surrounds you with an intimate knowledge of the lives of the people who lived and worked in our communities. The gallery’s pieces harken back to a time not so long ago, and traditions both long forgotten and still engraved in our hearts and minds.

The Folklife Center was founded in 1993, as a place to catalog research culture, traditions and history in the southern Adirondacks and upper Hudson Valley. During the celebration, folk artists will be demonstrating their crafts and food traditions… There will be music all day, and hands-on activities for the entire family. 

Todd DeGarmo – Founding Director for the Folklife Center – said: “It’s our 30th anniversary as a department at the library. I have been here since 1986. I started out doing projects, like festivals, quilt shows and children activities on and off through grant funding… 30 years ago the board decided that we should consolidate all of this work into a department. We had a consultant come in from RPI, and he showed us the potential of growing the collection,” Todd said.

DeGarmo is an anthropologist/ folklorist who has been the director of the Folklife Center since its inception… The center began with a part-time archivist, and has only grown from there. Currently, DeGarmo works with Amanda Franzoni, who specializes in research and special collections; Trisha Dalton, who is a historian and librarian; and Kevin Rogan, a media specialist. 

In 1993, the Folklife Center took over an underutilized area in the library and created archives based on the local research, cultures, traditions, neighbors, and music… This research was consolidated and stored in the same space, and made available to the public. 

A portion of DeGarmo’s work is grant writing. Through grants, the Folklife Center has been able to shine a spotlight on cultural aspects of this area… For instance, “Battenkill Inspired”, a series of mini-video documentaries that tell the story of life and work along the Battenkill River. This series examines the impact of the Battenkill River on the history, local art and activities of the region, and features grassroots history with stories of the local communities.

Currently, the Folklife Center is featuring the Champlain Canal Stories: 200 Years from Waterford to Whitehall. This series is located in the main Folklife Gallery, and will be on display until December of 2023. 

“We like to sponsor a variety of events… Some big events, some more intimate. We seem to kind of fly under the radar… We have film festivals, we are starting a Ukulele Club, (and) we have the Shutter Squad,” DeGramo said. The Shutter Squad is a workshop for kids between the ages of 10 to 13… Over the course of six weeks, they learn the principles of photography.

For more information, please visit crandalllibrary.org