Riverfolk Raises $22,256 in One Day; Local Arts Organization Humbled, Rejuvenated

Sel de Terre entertains the crowd at the Wild Acord during the May 6th Silent Auction to support Riverfolk.

The Riverfolk Music and Arts Organization raised $22,256 dollars on Tuesday, May 6th. Riverfolk had been invited to participate in the national Give Local America campaign. $500,000 in matching money was offered to the Ann Arbor Area if local charities could raise the same amount in 24 hours. Riverfolk was one of 50 nonprofits who worked to raise $10,000 so that they could get $10,000 more.

Riverfolk, and its sibling organizations the Cultural Arts Strings Program and the Summer Gazebo Concerts, emailed local arts enthusaists, reached out to Facebook fans and spread the word to as many people in the community as possible. In addition to collecting money through online donations, Dee Miles of the Wild Acorn (and a Riverfolk board member), hosted a day long silent auction. The auction was accompanied by a day of music from the Cultural Art Strings Kids, the Xantippe Classical Trio, Sel de Terr Cajun Music, and Wayne Holcombe's Bluegrass Friends. The auction raised $710, and the total raised from local (and even some national) arts supporters was $12,256. This was more than enough to earn the full match amount.

Riverfolk Music was originally founded in 2000 by Manchester local Mark Palms. For ten years, Palms and Riverfolk hosted a yearly music festival that brought performers and fans to Manchester from all over the country. From 2000-2013, Riverfolk paid out to artists more than $160,000, paid local businesses more than $280,000 and gave over $14,000 in scholarships to local students. But in 2010, after the financial collapse and the onset of the Great Recession, fewer people could afford to come to the concert, or donate to arts organizations. The concerts ended that year, and by 2013 founder Mark Palms retired from the group to focus on his own music.

Without a festival to generate revenue, Riverfolk has struggled to find its footing. It has been very successful as an umbrella organization for Cultural Arts Strings, a group that brings strings music education to local school children, and for the ever popular summer Gazebo Concert Series. But now this new influx of revenue will breathe new life into the group.

Riverfolk has big plans going forward. Community Arts Strings will be hosting a summer day camp for young aspiring musicians that will run from June 16-27, 2014. Meanwhile, after more than a quarter century of performances, the Summer Gazebo Concerts are gearing up for a new season that will run most Thursdays from June to the end of August from 7:30pm to 9:00pm. And Riverfolk itself hopes to establish a new winter schedule of concerts that will bring music, art and culture into the village.

You can join Riverfolk on Facebook ,as well as Cultural Arts Strings,   to keep up to date.

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by Fritz Swanson

Fritz Swanson has written for The Believer, the Christian Science Monitor, Print Magazine, McSweeney's, Esopus, LSA Magazine, and The Mid-American Review. He serves as a trustee on the Manchester District Library Board. He's the designer and publisher of The Manchester Mirror.

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