40 North | 88 West

Mission: Cultivating creativity in Champaign County

40 North | 88 West embraces the following values which guide our actions, inform our vision, and drive our mission.

We believe:

• the arts are fundamental to the quality of every life.

• the arts must be accessible to all.

• diversity in all its forms is essential to a vibrant creative community.

• the arts must be integral to the education of our children.

• the arts are a vehicle for social change.

• the arts are a catalyst for economic development.

• artists must be recognized, valued, and compensated for their work.

• art is a powerful vehicle for collaboration among individuals, organizations and businesses.

40 North is dedicated to fueling the growth and well-being of Champaign County by nurturing its arts, culture, and entertainment community. It seeks to do so by creating a nexus of energies and is guided in this effort by three principal themes:

• ADVOCATE 40 North will ADVOCATE for the individuals, organizations, and enterprises in Champaign County that constitute its arts, culture, entertainment community by promoting awareness of the extraordinary quality, quantity, and diversity of arts, culture and entertainment activity in the County and by actively lobbying for public- and private-sector support of the arts, culture and entertainment community.

• INFORM 40 North will serve as an extensive repository of INFORMATION about the individuals, organizations, and enterprises in Champaign County that constitute its arts, culture and entertainment community. This information will be made publicly available and distributed through distinctively designed and effectively employed vehicles, including an engaging, powerful, and user-friendly website linked to an extensive arts, culture and entertainment database.

• COLLABORATE 40 North will encourage, support, and enable COLLABORATION not only between members of the arts, culture and entertainment community, but between that community, business, government and the public at large through a sustained process of cross-sector communication, convening, and event planning.