Our stance on Black Lives Matter

The founder, board of directors, and teaching artists at Compass Arts Creativity Project stand in solidarity with our Black community and those protesting anti-black racism and contesting the police brutality toward Black, Brown, Indigenous, People of Color (BBIPOC). We condemn the injustices, systemic racism, and the structure of white supremacy upon which our economic, political, and judicial systems have been built and which these systems reproduce.

As teaching artists, our work at Compass Arts Creativity Project is to not only develop the skills needed to explore, grow, and create in the visual and performing arts, but to build empathy, respect, and inclusion within our classes and our community. Through the music and theater ensembles, students understand the importance of deeply listening to one another, whether playing instruments in an ensemble, improvising a scene, or making decisions in the collaborative writing process of a play or a song. Through the art classes, students learn that each person has their own perspective in how they see and interpret a piece of existing art or subject matter for their own art, developing respect for different thought processes, understanding, and empathy. Our intention is to continue our vision in becoming anti-racist educators and dismantlers of systemic racism through diversity, inclusion, equity, and implicit bias training. We are committed to listening and honoring the voices of those who have been marginalized, to reflect on our own practices, and also speak out to dismantle white supremacy in our communities.

We feel it important to recognize that at this point in our organization, our families and teachers are predominately white and we ask them to stand with us as a unified front to accept our whiteness and privilege, educate ourselves about systemic racism, listen to Black voices and other voices of color, and work to abolish the systems that continue to separate and oppress. We would love to share some resources for you as both adults and parents to help you on your own journey.

These two Google Docs contain so much information to get you started:

Anti-racism resources

Scaffolded anti-racist resources

Great websites and resources directly related to children:

https://www.theconsciouskid.org/

https://www.embracerace.org/

http://www.childrenscommunityschool.org/social-justice-resources/

Anti-Racism For Kids 101: Starting To Talk About Race

Are your kids too young to talk about race? Nope!

Compass Arts classes, ensembles, events and camps are created for the Beacon and surrounding communities for the purpose of building those communities. Our vision is a big one. As a creativity project, we believe that communities are stronger when problem solving skills are encouraged at every age level and that the best way to build problem solving skills is through creativity. Through creative arts exploration students are given opportunities to think, and to think for themselves--to feel empowered by coming up with a story plot twist or an ending to a play or to discover the joy of being able to improvise over a musical accompaniment. We believe that our best work involves encouraging contribution, whether it is a colorful swipe of a brush, a melody or an idea. The essence of what we hope to do at Compass Arts is this, that those sometimes large and sometimes small contributions allow students to evolve into something the world desperately needs--individuals with vision.

Compass Arts draws from the talents of professionals in a variety of arts fields, Compass Arts continues to grow its offerings, enabling you to find YOUR direction.

As of January 1, 2020 Compass Arts is a nonprofit corporation. Beacon Arts is functioning as fiscal sponsor for Compass Arts while we wait for our 501(c)(3) tax exempt status to be granted. Donations to Compass Arts can be made through Beacon Arts at https://beaconarts.org/donate/.