As the Ragtime Archive project transitioned to the authority of the Heritage Foundation, volunteers began going through the multiple boxes of documents from ​the first annual events to sort, conserve, index and properly store the accumulation.    With each new carton opened and each new folder scanned, the same exclamation was to be repeated, “...they passed away, too bad we didn’t do an oral interview to get their memories of the first festivals and of their amazing careers.”
      And then it occurred to all of us involved that there are still quite a few of the original festival  “Legends”  who are still  quite active.  “Why not invite them back for a retrospective and to make a video for the archive?”  And so we are doing just that.   A grant writer extraordinaire went to work and soon we had financial commitments for just such an enterprise. 
      The 2016 festival featured a symposia panel of original festival headliners, living legends of ragtime, reminiscing about their experiences and offering up memories of their long and productive careers.  All are SJIRF Lifetime Achievement Award recipients:  Max Morath, Terry Waldo and Richard Zimmerman were invited back and David Reffkin who hasn’t missed a Sedalia festival ever, will be doing the interviewing. 
     Since 2018, Symposia were recorded and are now available on our YouTube Channel.  Subscribe to the channel for notifications of new posts.
     In addition, the Sedalia Ragtime Archive project was developed to as a way to:

• conserve and catalogue present holdings

• create a research library

• develop permanent and traveling exhibits

• promote ongoing acquisition of significant artifacts

• restore a player piano

• develop a year-round visitor destination dedicated to celebrating Sedalia Ragtime