ABOUT
The Olympic Folk Foundation is a new organization centered around preserving and fostering the Olympic Peninsula’s character and that character’s artistic expression, in particular its rich tradition of singer songwriters and folk music artists. Our goal is to create a community which celebrates the innate, cultural legacy created by the long history of the Olympic Peninsula artists and storytellers who work in the longest and richest tradition of American expression, one that has held from Leadbelly to Bob Dylan to Taylor Swift: the folk song.Â
Our Mission
You have met several Olympic folk singers and songwriters already. You’ve met them working in the boatyard, at the coop, at the library, at the hospital, and even here in Council Chambers.
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Olympic folk artists have washed your dishes after dinner at the Silverwater, framed your house, been to your Super Bowl party, and cashed your rent check. These artists have been 86’d from our bars. They have also served the drinks to their fellow artists before 86ing them.
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By fostering this existing culture of song-writing, song-singing, and song-playing, we strengthen the bonds these song-playing residents feel towards their community. It is also our aim to encourage the casual artist, say the retired public administrator who plays ukulele in the evening or the youth who just inherited a banjo. In turn, the community receives the pride of a distinct artistic scene made up of its residents telling their stories through the most durable, cheap, and world-popular musical medium: the folk song.
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The second wing of this bird is conservation. It is a (stunningly beautiful) geographic reality that Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula is isolated. This has left many of the most talented musicians of the Peninsula to hone their craft in relative obscurity, mostly through home recordings or open mics. It is our goal to find these voices and, whether through live events, recording sessions, promotion, or distribution, give them a place within the context of each other and within the community.Â
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Much like Centrum’s brilliant efforts to preserve and celebrate the artistry of the Blues, Fiddle Tunes, and Jazz and bring them to the people of Port Townsend, the Olympic Folk Foundation aims to preserve and celebrate the hitherto unnamed craft of the Olympic folk song.Â
ARTIST SUPPORT
Support artists in sharing, recording, and archiving their music.
CELEBRATION
Host events that showcase the folk that hail from the Olympic Peninsula and celebrate the community of artists.
OLYMPIC PRIDE
Build upon to uniquely beautiful culture by emphasizing olympic pride.
CONSERVATION
To conserve the folk music that exists and capture that which is being created, make it available to listen and archive.