Compass Arts is always seeking to grow, enhance and diversify our workforce. If you have a vision for contributing to our community, we want to know.
TEACHING ARTISTS
Teaching artist positions at Compass Arts are flexible, and ideal for those who have some auxiliary space in their vocational sphere. The Compass Arts vision is extremely broad so whether you are an artist, a yogi, a farmer, a chef or a leadership trainer, we encourage you to consider how your gift might be packaged and shared as a class, workshop or experience.
ADMINISTRATIVE POSITIONS
Compass Arts is run by a small team of both full and part time administrators where multiple forms of expertise are considered useful. Strategic vision and a willingness to place a high priority on social equity, power sharing, open communication and anti-racist ideals are extremely welcome here.
BOARD MEMBERS
Compass Arts maintains a board of directors in accordance with state and federal requirements for nonprofit organizations. These are volunteer positions that allow for a limited time commitment and plenty of ways to contribute and enhance the ability of Compass Arts to serve our community.
Compass Arts Creativity Project is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 2013, dedicated to building stronger and more equitable communities through the arts. Here are the values that ground our work.
We are big advocates of process-oriented learning. Process is the place where creativity thrives. Allowing room for process enables self-discovery, growth, and connection between students. Sometimes the outcomes are thrilling, but our focus is on the journey.
The arts are vital to our humanity. When other methods fail, the arts are capable of bridging divides, healing inequality gaps, and bringing people together. Creativity enables healing; creates connections between different kinds of people; allows us to know ourselves and share our stories; and teaches us to envision a better future for one another.
In order to build stronger communities, we create opportunities for both individual connection and collaboration with other organizations. We believe in cooperation, not competition. We believe that a healthy community is one that acknowledges and embraces difference. We believe that equality (everyone gets the same thing) is a good goal, but equity (everyone gets what they need) is a better one.
One of the best parts of working at an education nonprofit is that we are always learning. We’re people who love to be challenged with new ideas. We love going down rabbit holes of knowledge and sharing what we’ve learned. We ask a lot of questions! Most of all, we learn from our students. Staying curious means that we don’t have to always know everything – we just have to keep asking questions and listening to the answers.
Relationships are important to us, as is the health and well-being of everyone we work with. Our programs intentionally incorporate elements of restorative justice practices, e.g. shared agreements and community circles. We also use restorative practices for dealing with conflict, and believe in the value of sitting with discomfort in order to have difficult conversations. We want to encourage our students and each other to lean into our growing edges with interest, not shame.
Every one of us lives in a broken system that sustains itself through shame, oppression, and inequality. At Compass, we seek to actively question the stories we’ve been told, and have internalized, about success and power. We strive to create a new paradigm of liberation that allows everyone who comes through our doors to be their authentic selves.
At Compass Arts, we strive to be an example of workplace democracy, inclusion and individual accountability. We value associates who are seeking to dwell at their own “growing edge” – folks who are willing to show up for decolonization, embrace discomfort, and bring a willingness to work positively with conflict. Diversity in our staff is extremely important to us, as is encouraging everyone to be their most authentic selves. If you are wondering about bringing your contributions to Compass Arts we hope you’ll consider that awareness of, experience in, and sensitivity to issues around diversity, equity and inclusion are a big plus for us. They are things that we like to see woven into our offerings in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, and they are things that we are always striving to incorporate into our ever-evolving organizational design.
With regard to arts instruction, we are all about outside-the-box, non-classical pedagogy. If you have a passion for unusual intersections between art and music, music and movement, science and painting, theatre and gaming or gardening and social inquiry (just a few of many examples), you’ll find a lot of support here. We love to encourage improvisation, innovation and inquiry We focus on process and tend to shy away from shiny shiny product-oriented instruction. We love messy results because that is where problem solving skills are born.
Regardless of the type of work you are seeking we hope you’ll feel free to reach out to a member of our team anytime.
If you would like to send us a working proposal/inquiry you can use our Working Associate Inquiry, Proposal and Application Form.