HISTORY

Varick states about the history and founding of the institution: “For at least a dozen years before TAUNY’s creation as an organization in 1986, I had been working on folk culture projects in the North Country.  After finishing an MA in American Folk Culture from the Cooperstown Graduate Program in 1976, I returned to the Humanities Department at SUNY Canton to resume teaching English courses. My experience in Cooperstown had been life changing for me. With some of the best teachers in the field and the Farmers’ Museum and Fenimore House Museum as convenient laboratories for us graduate students, everyone’s eyes were opened to new ways of looking at the simpler things of everyday life.

My own ancestors had been some of the pioneering settlers of several  St. Lawrence County towns. I grew up with wonderful stories told at my dad’s general store, simple old songs and dances taught by my mother to young kids in local schools, and quilts and old family recipes from both my grandmothers. My friends were children of farmers and woodsmen and factory workers. As I learned later in life, many of these things we did would be called “folklore,” but everyone I knew took them for granted—that was just how things were done.Locally, I pursued my own interests—folk art, vernacular architecture, oral traditions—and made projects of them when time from teaching allowed.

I worked with several organizations in the region with gallery spaces to produce folk art exhibits, gave talks to service clubs and professional groups, and wrote articles for publication. I became involved in a statewide effort in the early 1980s to create a separate program at the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) to support folk and traditional arts and artists in the state.  When that became a reality in 1985, I was fortunate to be asked to join some colleagues around the state to develop guidelines for the new program.

Once the Folk Arts Program was established and qualified organizations were eligible for public funds to support their work, Robert Baron, the first program director (and still there today) encouraged me to think about creating an organization to serve the North Country. It would not only fill an important cultural niche but would be eligible for grants from foundations and public agencies and charitable giving by supporters of its work. After careful thought and great help from a small group of friends who agreed to become the first board of directors, TAUNY was born.” 

The first Board of Directors included: Dr. Laurie Rush (Clayton, NY) as president, Stanley Ransom (Plattsburgh, NY), Allan Newell (Hammond, NY), Judy Chittenden (Canton, NY), Vaughn Ward (Rexford, NY), and Peter van Lent (Canton, NY). One of the individuals identified in these surveys is Eli F. Tracy (Hermon, NY) a blacksmith and recipient of a North Country Heritage Award (now entitled the North Country Living Traditions Awards) in 2008.

The Evergreen Award was transitioned into the North Country Heritage Awards and finally the name settled on the North Country Living Traditions Awards, a celebration of folk artists and artisans & impactful traditional places in the North Country. There is a permanent exhibit featuring the history of award winners at The TAUNY Center, and after a hiatus due to the COVID pandemic, the program is scheduled to be reactivated in 2025.