Collector Darl Schaaff Exhibits Favorite Life Artifacts in His Own Museum

The living embodiment of gregariousness, Darl Schaaff likes to ask people who enter his private museum, “if you wanted to display what your life collected, what would that look like?” That framed quote greets visitors as they step inside The Darl Center for the Arts near the corner of East 55th Street and Broadway Avenue. Built in 1904-1906, the Classical […]

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Pete Dell: When the Artist Becomes Art Collector

In the early 2000s, Pete Dell began collecting art during weekend excursions to University Circle with his teenage son, Denver. The two would start by catching an unconventional film at Cinematheque at the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA). Then they would visit various art galleries throughout the city. “That’s when I started buying art and gradually started spending more money […]

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Rick and Alita Rogers & the Yinyang of Art Collecting

Richard and Alita Rogers symbolize the Yin and Yang of art collecting. Rick has pursued the art of acquiring fine objects since he was a child, starting with coins and moving into antiques and furniture as a young man. Roughly a decade after marrying Alita in 1982, he had worked hard and long at B. W. Rogers Co.–his family’s industrial […]

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How Joseph and Nancy Keithley Built an Art Collection that Became a Historic Gift to CMA

As a young married couple, Joseph and Nancy Keithley knew they shared a deep appreciation for art. Fittingly, they had met at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 1974, when a mutual friend invited them to a small party the matchmaker hoped would spark a romantic union between two other friends. “After about 45 minutes, the two […]

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CARTA Members Enjoy Fun Collecting Options to Support Cleveland Artists and CIA

The Cleveland Art Association – better known as CARTA – offers members an entirely engaging and enjoyable way to experience and collect Cleveland artists’ works. The process is simple: Each year, members eye the pieces in the continually evolving collection and decide on the ones they would like to inspect further, knowing that they will pull a number and obtain […]

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Joe and Elaine Kisvardi Collect Cleveland School Artists as Friends, Too

Joe Kisvardi’s collection of Cleveland School artworks comes with a distinctive provenance: He and his wife, Elaine, shared as much or more time enjoying their close friendships with the artists as they did admiring their art in galleries. After serving in the US Marines from 1964 to 1968 during the Vietnam War, Kisvardi returned to Cleveland. His family lived in […]

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Bob and Margo Roth: Collecting Ahead of the Curve

On November 17 last year, Margo Roth and her granddaughter, Liza Namy, attended the opening night of Nick Cave: Forothermore at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Open through April 10, 2023, the career-spanning retrospective of Cave’s art honors his “lifelong commitment to creating space for those who feel marginalized by dominant society and culture.” “It was a […]

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Rescued, Restored and Redeemed: Fillous’ Tree of Knowledge to Rise Again in Berea

Discussing the laborious and time-consuming reclamation of artist Robert Fillous’ historic TreeofKnowledgesculpture, Keith Berr holds his thumb and forefinger within a hair’s breadth of each other. “It was this close to being destroyed and lost,” says Berr, award-winning commercial and fine art photographer and owner of Keith Berr Productions in Cleveland, of the majestic, 18-foot-tall cast aluminum relief sculpture designed […]

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Collector Sharon Milligan: Finding Identity and Comfort in Art

  Although she grew up viewing African and African American art in her parents’ and grandparents’ homes, Sharon Milligan, PhD, refined her appreciation for both as a student at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. As one of America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Spelman’s Museum of Fine Art has long been devoted to showcasing the work of African American artists, […]

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Zayac and Simon: Of Contemporary Art Treasures and Artistic Teeth

Marie Simon’s dental office in Avon Lake overflows with art. From a lamp crafted by Dana Depew in the lobby to the collection of Martha Cliffel sculpted dog heads entertaining patients from the hallway walls, every corner, every area is appointed with art. “If there’s space on the wall, there should be art. That’s my theory,” states Simon, who obtained […]

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