<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div id="yiv9201873012"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1441312660203_2590"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1441312660203_2589" style="color:#000;background-color:#fff;font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:16px;"><div id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2496"></div><div class="yiv9201873012" id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2521">CLEVELAND, Ohio – Karamu House, <a rel="nofollow" class="yiv9201873012" id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2523" target="_blank" href="http://www.karamuhouse.org/">home to Karamu Theatre</a> for the past 95 years, has a new resident.</div>
<div class="yiv9201873012" id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2525"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1441312660203_2822"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1441312660203_2823">On Sept. 11, Tony Sias, director of arts education for the Cleveland
Metropolitan School District, is leaving Ohio's second-largest school
district to serve as president and CEO of Karamu House, the storied arts
and cultural institution that has anchored the corner of Quincy Avenue
and East 89<sup class="yiv9201873012" id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2527">th</sup> Street for <a rel="nofollow" class="yiv9201873012" id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2529" target="_blank" href="http://www.cleveland.com/onstage/index.ssf/2015/06/a_look_back_onstage_and_off-_a.html">100 years</a>.</div></div>
<div class="yiv9201873012" id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2519"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1441312660203_2824">Sias also served as artistic director of Cleveland School of the Arts
and has helmed the popular All-City Musical, a co-production with Great
Lakes Theater that annually brings 50 students from 20 schools together
to perform a full-scale production in Playhouse Square, for more than a
decade.</div></div>
<div class="yiv9201873012" id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2532"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1441312660203_2826">He replaces interim executive director Patricia Egan.</div></div>
<div class="yiv9201873012" id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2534"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1441312660203_2827">"We are delighted to have Tony lead Karamu into its [next] 100
years," said Karamu board President David M. Reynolds in a statement
released earlier this week. "He is a top talent in the arts and
education field, and he truly underscores the renaissance Karamu House
is experiencing."</div></div>
<div class="yiv9201873012" id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2536">Sias has had a long, creative relationship with Karamu Theatre,
directing notable plays there including Gail Parrish's award-winning
one-act "Elevator" in 2001, the Ohio premiere of the political satire
"The Trial of One Short-Sighted Black Woman vs. Mammy Louise and
Safreeta Mae" in 2007 and "Eclipse: The War Between Pac and B.I.G." by
Karamu's onetime writer-in-residence Michael Oatman in 2010.</div>
<div class="yiv9201873012" id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2538">He has also trod the boards, appearing in the Karamu production of
"Crumbs From the Table of Joy," by Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright
Lynn Nottage, in 1999.</div>
<div class="yiv9201873012" id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2540">Sias' appointment received a standing ovation from artistic director
Terence Spivey. "Tony is a great force who will definitely support the
theatre, but most importantly, arts education," Spivey told the Plain
Dealer. "[He's a] very strong arts administrator. We can now bring arts
training back to Karamu under a leader who loves young people."</div>
<div class="yiv9201873012" id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2542">In taking the reins of Karamu House, Sias leaves one challenge –
spearheading the arts education for some 50,000 students in an urban
district – for another.</div>
<div class="yiv9201873012" id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2544">It's no secret that funding and leadership struggles have taxed the
historic black community and arts organization – once considered a
national model of excellence – for years.</div>
<div class="yiv9201873012" id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2546" dir="ltr">Leading Karamu "means having an opportunity to rebuild trust with the
community in Cleveland and nationally," the incoming CEO said in the
release. "It means becoming the citadel of African American cultural
arts in this country."</div><div id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2495"> </div><div id="yiv9201873012yui_3_16_0_1_1441312573613_2488" class="yiv9201873012signature"><br></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>