Mission

COMPAS delivers creative experiences that unleash the potential in all of us. Formed in 1974, COMPAS is Minnesota's most widely-used resource for artist residencies and community-building through the arts, engaging approximately 65,000 people in the arts in approximately 100 Minnesota towns each year. COMPAS began as Poets in the Schools in 1968, was incorporated as COMPAS in 1974, merged with United Arts in 1998, Young Audiences of MN in 2009 and VSAMN in 2016. In 2014, COMPAS spun off United Arts to an organization with a workplace giving specialty. With more than 130 diverse teaching artists on its roster, COMPAS reaches people of all ages; rural towns and city neighborhoods; students across the state. It organizes it's participatory creative experiences work into two major programs: Creative Classroom (school, OST and summer programs) and Creative Community (libraries, Parks & Recreation sites, older adult residences, social service agencies, youth programs, hospitals and other places where people experience barriers to experiencing the arts).