Mission & History

African Drumming Circle

Our mission is to build and cultivate community through shared experiences in the arts.

  • We do that by providing top notch music education and performances; our goal is to help make the arts accessible to everyone.
  • We serve people who invest themselves in the arts as students, performers, artisans, and appreciators.
  • We want to help people find and develop their artistic voices through education and opportunities to experience the arts.
  • We encourage individual excellence in an atmosphere that fosters a team spirit, and hope to help develop awareness, understanding, and acceptance of diverse cultures through the exploration of multicultural music, dance, and visual arts.
  • We enable collaboration between artists in different disciplines to build community and work to remove barriers that keep people away from art.

    Cretaceous Band at the Shipyard

History

  • The Community Center for the Arts (C4A) was established in the fall of 2006. We started with 3 teachers and about 30 students. At that point we gave private lessons and ran the Bow-Dacious String Band.
  • Since then we’ve grown to over 250 students with 20+ teachers who offer a variety of individual and group music opportunities for kids and adults. We currently offer 6-9 ensembles and group classes for kids and adults throughout the year.
  • In 2020, in response to COVID 19, we shut our doors and trained our teachers to teach remotely. We currently continue to give remote lessons on a more limited basis.
  • In 2021 we reopened for in-person instruction.

Bow-Dacious Jam

Non-Profit Status 

  • In the summer of 2009 we were granted tax-exempt status by the IRS.
  • We are registered with the Illinois Attorney General and Secretary of State.

Facilities History

  • When we started in 2006 we rented rooms at an hourly rate from what was then the Historic Lincoln Hotel.
  • While we were looking for a more permanent home we were located in Lincoln Square Village and the Urbana IMC.
  • In May 2012 we moved to our current location at 103 North Race Street in downtown Urbana, Illinois.
  • In spring of 2013 we expanded to add more teaching studios and a larger ensemble room.
  • In fall of 2015 we expanded again.  We now occupy the entire building, including the store front at the intersection of Race and Main.