BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — Visitors to the newly renovated Garner Park will soon be able to play their favorite tune on permanent musical instruments installed there.

Three outdoor percussion and xylophone style instruments crafted by the company Freenotes Harmony Park will be available for children and adults at the park sometime this spring. The project is an initiative spearheaded by the North Country Children’s Museum and supported by SLC Arts and the village of Potsdam.

The total $12,000 cost of the instruments and installation is being funded through donations. “The VanNess Family Fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation is funding $6,000. And Children's Museum Board Member Jane Lammers & Family is funding the match,” said NCCM director Sharon Vegh Williams.

“I look forward to both members of the local community and visitors from afar enjoying the new music park, in all seasons. I am pleased that my family can be a part of this innovative artistic project,” Lammers said.

The instruments will be accessible for people of all ages and abilities and one of the instruments will be at a lower height for children.

The installation will also be year round.

“One of my favorite segments of videos on the Freenotes Harmony Park website shows a winter garbed visitor using her knitted mitten to brush snow away from the xylophone like surface of the Duet or Piper! This will be us in Garner Park next winter,” Lammers said.

“The Freenotes Harmony Park website features video clips of each instrument; these are enchanting,” Lammers said. “When we first envisioned a Community Music Park at Garner Park, I personally viewed and listened to each and every instrument available from Freenotes Harmony Park. I was truly entranced by their unique and somewhat ethereal sound, and the three selected for Garner Park are varied but complimentary due to the composition of materials and use of a pentatonic scale.”

“When I presented the proposal to the Potsdam Village Board in early fall 2020, I played the video clips for them and they were also entranced and unanimously approved our collaborative proposal, with the Village, NCCM and SLC Arts Council cosponsoring the project,” Lammers said.

The musical installation will be part of the larger rehab effort at the park that was completed last year using state funds and financial support from Clarkson University. Garner Park, named for former village mayor Ruth Garner, is something of an anchor piece in redevelopment of the Raymond Street block, which features not only the park, but the North Country Children’s Museum and now SLC Arts. Future development on block is planned, with some of the work being funded through the village’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative awards.

“The Village deeply appreciates the generosity of the Lammers family and the VanNess Family Fund in adding this new musical element to Garner Park. We look forward to partnering again with the North Country Children’s Museum and the St. Lawrence County Arts Council,” Village Mayor Reinhold J. Tischler.

Installation of the instruments by the village is expected in late April or early May. The three instruments will be located in the center of Garner Park, Lammers said.

SLC Arts is planning a free, community-wide opening performance and event to officially open the park and showcase the instruments.

To view video of other Freenotes installations in action, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RcNLAjK56Y .