COCA: Bringing Joy Through the Arts Author: Amanda Blanton
Center Of Creative Arts (COCA), is a non-profit organization that strives to help people experience joy through the arts. Through their many programs, this organization encourages individuality, personal expression, and growth, in new and innovative ways. All are welcome at COCA, as they serve more than 50,000 people of all ages, backgrounds, and artistic skill sets. In the St. Louis region, they are the largest multidisciplinary arts institution. On top of that, they are ranked the fourth largest multidisciplinary community arts center in the entire country. COCA features many opportunities to explore different mediums of art at their facility. These mediums include design, dance, and theater, along with several other creative means of expression, as they help their students become recreational learners. COCA was founded and developed by Richard D. Baron, in 1986, with the purpose to create an arts center based on the community it serves. In order to make that happen, he renovated the vacated B’nai Amoona Synagogue, which was originally designed by internationally recognized architect, Eric Mendelsohn, and made it into what is now known as COCA. At the time the organization was created, it was important to Richard that this building was designed to promote unity among all racial, social, and geographic backgrounds. Since then, COCA has helped an abundance of students. In 2004, due to high demand, COCA was renovated to increase its building size to 11,000 square feet, leading to their accomplishment of having their building on 32 |
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