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About

The Darl Center

Unique /yu̇-ˈnēk/
Adjective: Being the only one of its kind.

When describing The Darl Center, one word that applies is unique. Imagine spending over 50 years collecting the things you love, you find beautiful, you receive as a gift from the most interesting people in the world.

Now find a location with such imagination, designed to impress, and give it 120 years to find its real purpose. Match that collection of memories, artifacts, love affairs and luck with architecture that inspires and surprises. Put this mixture in the care of a master showman and storyteller and you have The Darl Center.

Discover a life filled with adventure, travel, curiosity, and opportunity, be inspired to create, to collect and to love every day. The Darl Center is a visual feast, the table is set with wonders and a taste for life that few have tried. We always ask our guests the same question. If you wanted to display what your life collected, what would that look like?

Mission

Our mission is to develop relationships with artists and craftspeople, allowing them opportunities, as well as engaging our local community in the understanding and appreciation of the arts.

To that end, The Darl Center for the Arts will create educational opportunities through the experience of art, support artists by providing space to create and showcase their art, and provide event space to support local non-profit organizations.

Vision

The Darl Center for the Arts is a museum dedicated to fostering community through the creation, presentation, and appreciation of art.

The future of The Darl Center will be determined by the artists, the charities and the organizations who create relationships that work in the space. Creation of new art, visual, spoken word, video and photography will all have a seat at the table. Artists or organizations interested in developing workshops, short term classes, lecture series and performance are all welcome to bring their ideas to the Center.

Values

We are working diligently to carefully craft our Values statement. We will post it here as soon as we are satisfied we have the right words to encapsulate the expansive and inclusive values of The Darl Center for the Arts.

Board Members

Meet the people behind The Darl Center for the Arts!

Darl Schaaff

Executive Director

Darl is a artist, producer and entrepreneur. He owned and operated a major event company for 35 years, working with corporations and large charitable causes. He has been on many Boards of Directors. His extensive travels have included human rights work and teaching.

Janie Munson Odgers

President

Darl is a artist, producer and entrepreneur. He owned and operated a major event company for 35 years, working with corporations and large charitable causes. He has been on many Boards of Directors. His extensive travels have included human rights work and teaching.

Molly Maloney

Secretary

Molly worked as a business attorney in Seattle, focusing on the transactional legal needs of small businesses, non-profits, artists, and entrepreneurs. She has served on the Board of Directors of multiple organizations, and is an artist actively engaged in the Waterloo Arts community.

Vivian Melde

Board Member

Vivan is a lifelong theater & dance performer in Anchorage and an international traveler. She spent 20 years as an emergency management planner, project manager, and community engagement professional for an environmental consulting firm. She served as a board member for the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Alaska Forum.

Lori Simplican

Board Member

Lori is a dancer, teacher, and choreographer. Her résumé includes the Dee Hillier Dance Company, Cleveland Contemporary Dance Theater’s youth program, and Cleveland City Dance. She has worked with Cleveland Playhouse, City Ballet of Cleveland, and countless others. Lori teaches dance in Northeast Ohio.

Hassan Siddiki, MD

Board Member

Bio coming soon.

The Darl Center for the Arts is a non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. The Center's EIN is 92-374195.

About Darl

Darl Schaaff

Amidst these remarkable experiences, I cultivated a passion for collecting art and antiques, a journey that continues to enrich my life.

Our host Darl Schaaff grew up in a regular middle-class family, three sisters and a brother. The family did all those things families do. Dad worked, Mom raised the kids and managed the house. The kids were involved in sports, school and life. Darl was studying classical ballet. Nothing about his childhood was typical. Performing from the age of 7, discovering the good and the bad parts of being sexually active during my youth.

After running away at 16, life was then and always has been a series of chance encounters with people who provided inspiration and the remarkable gift of life well lived. After successful careers in Theater production, performing, business, world travel and intense love affairs, the creation of The Darl was the obvious choice, the next great adventure, where all the other things could come together and become the one great story of life.

Darl’s Travelling Highlights

Building History

The Carnegie Library

A brief history of the Cleveland landmark

1904

Designs begin on one of the first Carnegie libraries in Cleveland.

The Broadway Library is one of the few ten-sided buildings in the world. It was designed by architect Charles Morris, who also designed the Cuyahoga County Courthouse. The building sits on a lot north of the intersection of East 55th Street and Broadway Avenue. The lot is narrow because the two streets intersect at a sharp angle. Because of this, the building has an entrance on each of these streets.

1906

Library construction is completed at a cost of $58,000.

Cleveland's growing steel industry drew many immigrants at the turn of the 20th century. The Broadway Avenue district's literacy rate of 98.5% was greater than that of most other Americans. To meet strong community demand, the Broadway Branch Library branch was established. With the assistance of grants from Andrew Carnegie, fifteen branch libraries were built in Cleveland during the period from 1904 to 1920.

1987

The Broadway library closes its doors to the public.

The declining population of the neighborhood and decreased tax base led to the library's closure, and it was sold to the Cleveland Teachers Union as a meeting hall. The building is a contributing structure in the Broadway Avenue Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. During the 1990s, the building housed a restaurant, then the Village Chapel, a small church.

2024

The library finds new life as The Darl Center for the Arts..

The building was renovated in 2023 and continues to undergo changes to meet its plans for the future. These plans inlcude developing an alternative space to explore, create and present original works of art. As well as encouraging and promoting artists, and providing community space to meet and share their experiences.