We’re Crankie: Crankie Festival

Crankies were created in Japan as 11th-century scroll paintings. As this art form spread across the world, its form and name changed many times. In the 1960s, Peter Schumann invented the term “cranky”. This led to the current name of cranky/ crankie.

A crankie is a form of storytelling, using a box with dowel rods to attach and crank (turn) a scroll. A crankie is usually accompanied by music or poetry, with the imagery on the scroll. A scroll can be as long as the artist wants. The box of a crankie can range in size from a matchbox to as large as you can imagine. There are crankie festivals all across the world, and in the US, and we hope to bring the joy of this art form to Bloomington.