THE LITTLE RED SCHOOLHOUSE CENTER FOR THE FINE ARTS
The Little Red Schoolhouse was built in 1912 on the site of a one-room school in what was then Middleburg Township. It was used as a school, Berea District 7, until 1923. From June 1923 the building stood empty and very neglected. In the fall of 1935, Berea Fine Art Club acquired the building during a public auction. It was used during WWII as a recreation center for servicemen. The schoolhouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
In 1980, it changed hands again and became home for Berea's Jaycees. In September 1998, The Berea Little Red Schoolhouse Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization comprised of representatives of Berea’s Jaycees, the original Berea Fine Art Club and Berea City government was formed to preserve and restore the building.
In 2006, The Foundation, in partnership with Southwest 7 Arts LLC, developed a plan to revitalize the schoolhouse facility as a fine art center to offer affordable fine art courses to the surrounding communities and generate sustaining income to preserve and restore the aging structure.
PROFESSIONAL FINE ART INSTRUCTION
The Berea Little Red Schoolhouse Foundation has contracted Sw7 Arts to create and implement a community art center at the facility.
Sw7 Arts is an artist-driven organization with a personal investment and determination to create an art center at the schoolhouse to provide an affordable and valuable service to the community at large.
The management and instructional team is formed by three active professional artists with diverse levels of experience in art instruction and for-profit and non-profit business administration.
Associate instructors will be subcontracted by Sw7 Arts based on the artistic quality of their work and their ability to teach. All our instructors undergo a background check.
