Mission and History
Our Vision:
To strengthen people and communities in Minnesota by engaging them in the arts.
Our Mission:
- To enable people to experience and create the arts by connecting communities, cultures and artists.
- To engage communities in providing support to arts activities that work at the grass-roots level.
Values - We believe:
- The arts are essential
- The people we serve are central to us
- Learning is embedded in everything we do
- Community needs guide our work
- Our relationships are mutually beneficial
- The quality of our artists sets us apart
COMPAS is an affiliate of the Young Audiences Arts for Learning national network, and shares in the goal to help make the arts an essential part of young people’s education.
Our history:
The mid-twentieth century was a rich and growing time for cultural organizations in the Twin Cities. In 1949, the Saint Paul Junior League convened a group of civic leaders to explore how various organizations, such as the Saint Paul Civic Opera, Schubert Club and the Science Museum might work together; thus, United Arts was born. Across the river in 1966, the Twin Cities Chapter of Young Audiences, Inc. was formed, sponsored by WAMSO (The Women’s Association of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, now the Minnesota Orchestra), to have small ensembles made up of orchestra members perform in local school assemblies.
In 1968, United Arts began Poets in the Schools, a cutting-edge program that brought teaching artists into schools to teach poetry. Poets in the Schools became COMPAS in 1974 (COMPAS being an acronym for Community Programs in the Arts and Sciences) and was spun off from United Arts to become a model for teaching artist residencies nationwide. In 1977, WAMSO legally separated off Young Audiences of Minnesota into its own nonprofit organization, which, in 1993, incorporated as Young Audiences of the Upper Midwest. Organizations that trace their genesis to COMPAS include Music in the Parks, Springboard for the Arts, History Theater and more.
During a time of a changing arts landscape in Minnesota, COMPAS and United Arts merged back together in 1998, and in 2009, COMPAS and Young Audiences merged, creating Minnesota’s most widely-used resource for arts residencies, workshops, performances and community-building through the arts.
Today, COMPAS brings professional artists into approximately 100 Minnesota communities to engage people in the arts. COMPAS reaches over 540,000 people of all ages each year through its varied programs that stimulate patient recovery in healthcare facilities, provide community members and school children with quality arts experiences, and offer youth meaningful employment through the arts.
