RoxArts event will benefit CH-UH students

Harcourt Manor, an Elizabethan Revival style mansion in Ambler Heights, will be the site of the first RoxArts in Tiger Nation: A Creative Arts and Sciences Fund benefit on March 9.

RoxArts is hosting its first event benefiting a new fund promoting the arts and sciences for all 3,350 Cleveland Heights –University Heights elementary and middle school students. The art auction on March 9, at 7 p.m., will be held in Harcourt Manor, a mansion that was a setting in a Captain America movie, and will feature some of Cleveland's finest artists in photography, sculpture, jewelry and print. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres will be catered by fire food and drink.

For nearly four decades, RoxArts has raised money for enhanced arts curriculum at Roxboro Elementary and Middle schools. Last year, the RoxArts board and the Heights Schools Foundation (HSF) partnered to form RoxArts in Tiger Nation: A Creative Arts and Sciences Fund to bring arts enrichment opportunities to K-8 students in all CH-UH schools. This will be the kickoff event for the new fund.

The Tiger Nation Fund supports enrichment opportunities that introduce students to a variety of forms of creative expression. The goal is to build self-confidence and cultural and historical understanding, and improve cognition of core concepts. Projects that directly connect to identified curriculum themes, strands and topics are given highest priority. Much of the programming ties into International Baccalaureate and STEM curricula, including residencies with the Cleveland Museum of Art, Verb Ballets, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Ensemble Theatre, Arts-Inspired Learning, Roots of American Music, and Djabo African Dance Company.

All CH-UH elementary schools will have access to $2,000 in grant funding, while each middle school can have $3,000 per academic year. Grants are awarded through an online application process through HSF. RoxArts also sponsors special events and capital improvements.

"We heard from teachers and families throughout our city school district and felt strongly that there's been a need to expand our offerings to all of the elementary and middle schools. We're now proud to report that RoxArts has funded programming impacting all children throughout the district, beyond Roxboro," said Rosemary Pierce, president of the RoxArts board. "This event fundraiser will help us continue with that mission."

The event site, Harcourt Manor, is the impeccably restored and decorated home of John and Anya Rudd, located in the Ambler Heights Historic District of Cleveland Heights. It is a four-story Elizabethan Revival-style mansion built by Kermode Gill, the builder of Terminal Tower, and designed by renowned architect, Frank Meade.

The nearly one-100-year-old architectural gem has had only two owners. The home has several large-scale public rooms, including a marble-tiled sunroom and a speakeasy bar. The lower level ballroom has walkout access to the rear yard overlooking the ravine and Cedar Hill, and is flanked by two acres of gardens, with perennials dating back to the early 1900s. It's been used as a backdrop for a local greeting card company's holiday photo and was a location for the 2013 film "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." See the Cleveland.com Cool Spaces story at https://www.cleveland.com/expo/life-and-culture/erry-2018/09/56ade1b30d588/cool-spaces-renovated-harcoart.html.

To purchase tickets or to learn more about sponsorship opportunities, visit www.roxarts.org. Ticket prices range from $200 for patrons to $125 for general admission, with a special price of $75 for school staff. Attendees are encouraged to RSVP by Monday, Feb. 25. 

Andrea C. Turner

Andrea C. Turner owns ACT One Communications, a marketing communications consulting firm based in Cleveland Heights. She is a member of the RoxArts benefit committee.

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Volume 12, Issue 2, Posted 10:16 AM, 01.31.2019