The Forgotten Coast Cultural Coalition (FCCC) is a 501(c)3 organization which organizes cultural activities, enhancing the vitality of local communities along Florida’s Forgotten Coast from Mexico Beach to Alligator Point.

The FCCC’s primary activity is organizing the Forgotten Coast en Plein Air, America’s Great Paint Out, now in its 19th year. This event allows residents and visitors a rare opportunity to actively engage, as volunteers, art lovers, and collectors, with nationally known plein air artists from around the world. In turn, those artists donate a percentage of each Forgotten Coast en Plein Air painting sale to the FCCC to benefit the arts in Forgotten Coast communities.

Event proceeds early on funded the donation of the Permanent Richard Carrell Plein Air Collection, in honor of our founding member, to Sacred Heart Hospital on the Gulf. Other educational, cultural and health care facilities have subsequently benefited, as well. The FCCC board is committed to using its proceeds to benefit the arts in communities all along the Forgotten Coast.  Our funds go to community youth groups, adult painting organizations, and special programs in medicine, the sciences, and mental health, who use outreach in the arts to engage the residents and visitors to our coastal areas.  This helps in building better communities and connecting those communities in ways that add to the resiliency of the area in hard times - from hurricanes to economic changes.  Forming relationships within and between communities is a large part of our mission, and one that we address with supporting arts all along the coast.

Youth programs, and initiatives addressing volunteerism, have been complemented by rotating art exhibits in public spaces and, importantly, the inception of The Joe Center for the Arts. Additionally, over the last 10 years artist residencies have tackled wide-ranging issues of community concern providing opportunities for dialogue.

By supporting this event you document regional history and culture, highlight the preservation and awareness of Florida’s natural resources, reach out to a broad-based, multi-community, multi-generation audience, build communities by empowering local nonprofit organizations to be partners, and enrich the quality of life along the Forgotten Coast by encouraging cultural and economic development through art.