Preserving the past, looking to the future

Her answer was short, resolute, and immediate:

“Betsy.’’

That would be Betsy Siggins, one of Club Passim’s founding members back when it was Club 47 and the hotbed of Cambridge’s 1960s folk revival that made stars out of Baez, Tom Rush, and Jim Kweskin. After an extended hiatus that took her to New York and Washington, D.C., Siggins returned to Passim in 1996 and revitalized the club just as it was nearly on the brink of shuttering.

No one, least of all Siggins, could have predicted she would no longer be at Passim’s reins as executive director 13 years later. But in February Passim’s board of directors made budget cuts that left Siggins out of a job. As part of their mutual agreement, Siggins was allowed to take the archives project she had been working on in her role as artistic director.

Now, along with Millie Rahn, Passim’s former archivist who was also laid off, Siggins is preserving some of the region’s past glory with the launch of the New England Folk Music Archives. It’s been a pet project for several years, and Siggins seems energized by the opportunity to dig into the vast volumes of vintage photos, audio recordings, interviews with artists, and sundry memorabilia that chronicle some of Cambridge’s most important cultural years.

“This is what we want to do. Now we’ve got the time to really focus on this. Because it’s music, it keeps branching out to other interests and other kinds of programming we can do,’’ Siggins says. “We have great potential, and I’ve never wanted [this stuff] to just languish in my daughter’s basement.’’

But, of course, the new nonprofit is in dire need of seed money and hopes to get a head start with tonight’s fund-raising gala at the Hard Rock Cafe. The event, which doubles as Siggins’s 70th birthday party, will feature a sneak peek of the archive’s offerings, plus performances by some of the artists Siggins has befriended and championed, including Kweskin, Geoff Muldaur, Jonatha Brooke, Dom Flemons (Carolina Chocolate Drops), and Meg Hutchinson.

Jerry Potts, chair of Passim’s board of directors, admits it was a brutal decision to lose Siggins, who’s become inextricably linked to the club’s history.

“It was a real dark time, and there’s no positive spin on this, other than the venue came out of it,’’ Potts says of Siggins’s departure, which wasn’t widely publicized. “It became a situation of what’s best to move the archives ahead and keep Passim going. We got to the position where it was going to be best to let Betsy do what she’s doing now.’’

Potts says that when Passim took a financial nosedive late last year, the board evaluated its priorities among its four programs - the club, the archives, the School of Music, and the Culture for Kids initiative. The board decided it couldn’t afford to develop, let alone find the space to house, the archives, which hadn’t even debuted to the public yet.

“I knew it would take the longest [to create], and I knew it would take more money than we had to give it, so I kept putting it off,’’ Siggins says.

And Potts points out that Passim didn’t give up easily on the archives. The board considered making Siggins and Rahn consultants but couldn’t promise them much; he says there was also an unsuccessful appeal to musicians for financial support.

Relying on a planning grant from the Grammy Foundation and not much else, the New England Folk Music Archives is off to a rather tentative start. A small staff has been assembled (including director Timothy Mason, an independent contractor who also lost his job at Passim), an advisory board includes bold-face names such as Tom Rush, and a website has been created at www.newenglandfolkmusic.org.

The fledgling nonprofit doesn’t have a physical home yet but hopes to make an announcement about that at tonight’s gala. Instead, Siggins and Rahn are forging ahead with their initial goals. Last month, in collaboration with the Cambridge Historical Society, Rahn led a walking tour with points of interest in Cambridge’s folk history. Soon the archives will plan educational programs in schools about the legacy of American folk music, particularly from New England.

“Once we get a home, one of our first big tasks is to sort through what we’ve got,’’ Rahn says, noting the significant amount of materials that are still in boxes in basements and who knows where else. Eventually, they hope to solicit archival goods from the community.

Kweskin, who performs at tonight’s gala, said he was eager to support Siggins’s latest project because it’s vital to both fans and musicians. “As a musician I would say it’s important because there was so much amazing music and history going on in the ’60s and up until now,’’ he says. “Cambridge’s folk music scene was so vibrant and so full of life. It should be preserved.’’

As with the dissolution of any relationship, there’s always the risk of friends having to choose a side, but Kweskin says he won’t do that. “Every good club struggles financially,’’ Kweskin says of Passim without Siggins. “They just had to cut back on their expenses so that they could continue on. And I will continue to play there. I like the people there.’’

Potts says he’d like for Passim to collaborate with the New England Folk Music Archives, but he acknowledges it might be too soon. “We’re talking about trying to do some joint work later,’’ Potts says. “The board wanted to do something right away, some kind of an appreciation event, and we still want to, but I think Betsy’s feelings are hurt and it’s completely understandable.’’

For her part, Siggins is still reticent but respectful about her departure from Passim.

“I was there for 12 years. I did, I think, as much as I could. I think it’s in another phase, and it was very hard for me,’’ Siggins says. “I lost my home, but I think that the door opened and I see what I can accomplish when I have the focus on one very big topic. It’s very personal for me. I love the idea of having this time and the quality of time to get my act together before I’m 80.’’

James Reed can be reached at jreed@globe.com.