The 40th St Community Arts Collective (COAC) is committed to the proposition that the arts can profoundly change and enrich our community. With 40th Street as our symbolic center, we are a collective of local artists, arts organizations, arts educators, arts venues, arts businesses, and other organizations that recognize that the arts are a necessary part of a creative and healthy neighborhood and economy. We work collaboratively to effect change while maintaining the diversity of our neighborhood.

This organization was formally a group within the Friends of 40th Street until the size and goals grew, at which point it made the most sense to create our own organization. For more information about the Friends of 40th Street, please visit their website at: www.40thst.org

Our goals are:

• To support and promote artists and arts-related activities, arts education, and arts retail, in a West Philadelphia community broadly defined as the Schuylkill River to 52nd St to the west, and the River to Parkside on the north.
• To attract new artists, arts organizations, and audiences to the neighborhood.
• To create and support artistic activities that maintain an inclusive, diverse community.

We accomplish our goals by:

• Collaborative planning
• Joint programming
• Joint fundraising, marketing and audience development
• Joint artistic creation
• Networking in our community and across Philadelphia