Ohio Ace Education Marketplace

Karamu's mission is to produce professional theatre, provide arts education and present community programs for all people while honoring the Black experience. Karamu House provides rigorous, sequential instruction in drama, vocal performance, music, dance, and more, with an emphasis on African American culture. ACE support will provide Greater Cleveland youth access to vibrant, meaningful arts education that promotes the community and provides a vehicle for change. In addition, the program provides numerous benefits for the physical, emotional, mental, and academic well-being of children and youth. The Arts Academy employs professional artists in each arts discipline who are selected for excellence in their art form as well as experience with successful teaching methods. All teaching artists are trained in the Sankofa method; using a student-centered approach to teaching, instructors identify and nurture students' unique talents and cultural strengths as well as supporting a sense of well-being about each individual's cultural place in the world. Karamu House is licensed to do business in the State of Ohio and has been in business for 108 years in service to the community through professional theatre, arts education, and community program offerings. Supporting documentation can be provided upon request. Karamu has provided Out of School Time arts education services for many years, is a contract services provider for Starting Point and a past recipient of the State of Ohio Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Participant demographics consistently show a combined rate for African American, Bi-Racial, and Hispanic students between 90%-95% for arts education programming. Karamu’s Arts Academy embraces a Sankofa approach to arts education programming in dance, drama, and vocal music that is coupled with elements of literary and visual arts. Sankofa is an African-centered pedagogy that uses the arts to help students understand their connection to the past, building their self-awareness and ability to understand their individual significance and potential as well as their relationship to the group and community. As a culturally-relevant pedagogy, Sankofa demonstrates these principles that the Karamu Arts Academy uses as a framework for arts education: • Use of culturally-specific themes, examples, and materials (i.e. Black literature, traditions, and historical figures) • Use of relational reinforcers (i.e. recognition of the student as a whole person) • Active engagement (i.e. promoting student-initiated ideas and interpretations) Karamu’s philosophy is unique in its commitment to exploring history – of organization, community and self (i.e. Karamu House, the Fairfax Neighborhood, and the personal narratives of learners). The goal is to find intersections and points of entry that will allow for true artistic growth and authentic connections, keeping students and families engaged with Karamu House as lifelong learners and patrons who take responsibility for the longevity of this great organization and the Fairfax community. Karamu Arts Academy programming also provides experiences for students with social and emotional learning core competencies. These competencies include developing self-awareness by recognizing one’s emotions and values as well as one’s strengths and potential weaknesses.