Come with us back to 1967, the year when Bonnie and Clyde was released, the Arab-Israeli Six-Day war ended, Billy Jean King won Wimbledon and the University City Arts League was the newest institution in West Philadelphia.

Today we celebrate the Arts League's 40th birthday with a look back at its origins.

In the 1960's, artists and art lovers in University City began meeting informally in each other's homes. The neighborhood was not awash in galleries, so this moveable feast of artists organized community exhibitions in the library at 40th and Walnut and hung clothesline shows in Clark Park.

At some point, over good coffee and better conversation, this salon of painters and sculptors decided on a bit more formality - they would now be the University City Arts League and they would have meetings and offices and, maybe even keep minutes. It was 1964.

By 1966, the salon had a patina of organizational trappings - it met in the Spruce Hill Civic Association building on South 45th Street and begun offering 10-week art classes. The late local artist, Mac Fisher, was one of the first teachers hired.

By May, 1967, the Arts League was a non-profit corporation and now wanted its own space. At the same time, artists living in the neighborhood had been talking about the need for a new exhibition space.

With the help of Jim Cox, a physician in the community who had already started something from nothing - the University City Swim Club - the Arts League purchased a four-story building at 4226 Spruce Street that had been used as an apartment house and as a meeting place for the International Order of Odd Fellows.

It was not easy at first, but nothing worthwhile is. There was no room for an office, so a makeshift office was created in the gallery space with tables and chairs. Afraid to charge too much for membership, the fee was set at $5 for a person, $10 for a family. Fisher taught watercolor painting and drawing, Heidi Menkes instructed ballroom dancing and Patricia Birkinbine handled the stained glass workshop.

There never seemed to be enough money and more than once Cox lent funds to the fledgling institution. He was the first president in the new building and Nathaniel East, Jr. was vice president. Nancy Cox, the president's wife, was on that first board of directors as was Phebe Shinn, Frank Betts, Charles Borkon, Ruth Burrison and many more. Nancy Cox would years later come in to be the Arts League's head and remains on the board today.

Since 1967, thousands of classes and hundreds of thousands of men, women and children have painted, played and pliéd at the Arts League. Concerts, performances, literary readings and free lectures have brought harmonica players, architects, folk singers, and artists of every stripe to 4226 Spruce Street.

Cox is not surprised at the success or the longevity of the Arts League. "This is a very vibrant community and a lot of people have worked hard over the years to make it so."

The Arts League has become a community center, an education center, a cultural meeting place. We remember our beginnings, embrace our eclecticism and look eagerly toward the next 40 years.