HINCKLEY TWP.: Hal Scroggy looks at the walls of the Cliffside Artists Collaborative and Sargent-Laessig Museum of Fine Arts with a sense of satisfaction.
Displayed in the art museum in Medina County are paintings from 32 regional artists, including many watercolor paintings by the 91-year-old Scroggy, who lives in Fairlawn.
“This is my legacy,” said Scroggy, who began drawing while growing up in Akron. He and other artists whose work is on display now teach art at Cliffside.
“It’s kind of nice your work will be around when you’re gone,” he said.
The museum — founded by Sara and Dr. Lawrence Kass, head of the division of hematopathology at MetroHealth and a professor at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine — opened in 2004 in a picturesque setting at 1921 Ridge Road. It is a private nonprofit where local art is on display and classes are offered.
“We have a lot of talent in Northeast Ohio, and people are not recognizing their skills,” Sara Kass said of the reason for starting a museum just for local artists.
Kass said they “want the walls to talk” and tell the story of the artist.
The vision of the facility is “one of an exciting creative environment that fosters learning in the visual arts for both talented area high school students and art teachers seeking state-required re-certification,” Kass said.
A variety of classes is offered at the facility throughout the year to adults and high school students. Financial assistance is offered to ensure no budding artist is turned away.
“We try to acquaint high school art students with various career opportunities in art, and how mastery of fundamental skills can give them an edge in applying to collegiate art programs and looking for a job after graduation,” she said.
The Art Awareness project for students from Medina County and some districts in Cuyahoga and Summit counties is funded by the Ohio Arts Council, Medina Art League, Martha Holden Jennings Foundation and the Hillier Foundation of Wadsworth.
Each year, 1,500 to 2,000 people visit the museum to see the paintings or take classes.
The museum also works with undergraduate students at Kent State University and graduate students at Ashland University and the University of Akron.
In Medina County, Kass said, it works with William “Will” Koran — superintendent of Medina County Schools’ Educational Service Center and chairman of the board of the Cliffside group — to bring in participants from across the county to take enrichment art classes.
Money from foundation grants as well as donations from the Kass family help pay for costs associated with some of the classes, including transportation to Cliffside, Kass said.
Koran said students from Medina County who attend the classes don’t just learn art skills but they also get practical lessons in how to work as an artist and how to build a portfolio.
He said Cliffside’s programming is particularly important now because many districts have cut art programming and field trips.
Koran said he hopes music classes will some day be added at Cliffside.
Kass said the vision for the future at Cliffside is to expand into other areas, including interior decorating, architecture and computer-assisted design.
One of the artists whose work is on display is Don Getz, 77, of Peninsula, who credits Sara and Lawrence Kass for being “the drive behind making the museum an important educational facility.”
“Many of the Cliffside artists are in the same boat as I, not receiving much publicity locally,” said Getz, who ran the Boston Mills Artfest for a quarter century and teaches art classes at Cliffside.
“My work is not to be found in any Akron or Cleveland gallery. I am a local artist to them and only important to a degree.”
But Getz said outside of the region, things are different.
“I can go to almost every state in the union and am recognized for my art.”
Getz, a native of Salem who worked as an artist for Goodyear Aircraft and North American Aviation and as an illustrator and TV commercial producer for Malone Advertising, started watercolor painting in 1959. He teaches a variety of classes at Cliffside.
“There is not a program like what Sara is doing here anywhere else in the country,” he said.
Scroggy, a World War II veteran who worked as a cinematographer for B.F. 
Goodrich Co., said his advice to parents who see artistic talent in their children is to keep art supplies around the children and encourage them.
“Keep them drawing and they’ll tell you when they want to go to watercolors,” he said.
He said hard work on the craft of drawing and painting always pays off.
“I don’t care how good they are, drawing skills can always be honed,” he said.
Kass said if a family has a child with art talent and a teacher recommends the child, the museum will try to work with the student. And she said Cliffside takes donations from people who would like to sponsor a student or a class.
The Kasses are not just involved in visual arts like painting and art classes.
Lawrence Kass has written 4,000 songs, plus the music and lyrics for a musical called Tuning In, to be presented by the University of Akron at E.J. Thomas Hall in the fall of 2013.
The story for the musical was written by both Kass and Ron Newell and will be directed by Emmy Award winner and Tony nominee George Pinney. The musical director of the show will be Terry Labolt.
Along with the art museum, which owns 400 paintings that are on a rotation for display, there is the John Milton Williams Museum of Radio Broadcasting History at Cliffside that includes a collection of microphones and other equipment from commercial radio’s beginnings and other displays.
For about the museum, visit www.cliffsideartists
collaborative.org, email skass@prodigy.net or call 330-225-5364 to schedule a visit.
The museum suggests a donation of $20 to $25 to see the exhibit, Kass said.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or at jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.