We are thrilled to announce that Frank Sentwali Gardner, who has been a COMPAS Teaching Artist for twenty years, is expanding his role with the organization. Starting August 15th, in addition to his work facilitating workshops and residencies, he will begin serving as the organization’s first Principal Teaching Artist.
Frank will continue to teach residencies across Minnesota, and as part of the staff, he will also work directly with our marketing and development teams, as well as Julie Strand-Blomgren, to promote the value of COMPAS programs. COMPAS has always had teaching artists at the center of its work. By being integrated into staff functions, Frank will enhance conversations, thinking, and decisions with his perspectives and experiences. He will also be part of COMPAS’ 2023 teaching artist recruitment and onboarding process and will mentor and support teaching artists in their work. This position is also designed to expand conversations with educators, including increasing the number of professional development workshops offered by COMPAS. In addition, the COMPAS board of directors looks forward to Frank sharing his passion and impact with COMPAS event attendees in the year ahead.
“COMPAS has always been an artist-informed organization,” explains Dawne Browne White, COMPAS executive director. “Being creative and innovative is part of our DNA, and having Frank on staff will help center teaching artists’ voices in our day-to-day operations in a deeper, real-time manner. Those unique, valuable insights and perspectives will help the organization continue evolving to best meet the needs of those we serve: Minnesotans of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities, and, of course, our incredible roster of professional teaching artists.”
“I am excited to join the COMPAS staff,” Frank shared. “I am hoping to ultimately be a quality resource for artists that have ideas about how COMPAS can better serve from the artist’s perspective, as well as be a creative mind to add to the strength of the overall COMPAS brand.”
You can learn more about Frank’s work as a teaching artist in our teaching artist directory and in this recent blog post: When teachers and teaching artists collaborate, something magical happens in classrooms.
