This is a frightening and destabilizing moment for many Minnesotans.
Recent federal immigration enforcement has raised urgent questions about safety, belonging, and what comes next. Families are living with uncertainty. Communities are carrying fear, grief, and anger. For children and young people especially, this disruption can be overwhelming when the world should feel predictable and safe.
At COMPAS, we are not experiencing this from a distance. For more than 50 years, we have been part of daily life across Minnesota, providing creative experiences in schools and libraries, parks and community centers, healthcare settings, and older adult communities.
We want our communities to know, with absolute certainty, that if you are feeling shaken, angry, or increasingly concerned, you are not alone. We stand with our Teaching Artists, our immigrant neighbors, and everyone living in fear right now. Your safety, dignity, and humanity are not negotiable.
We also remain committed to our mission of making creativity accessible to all Minnesotans, regardless of background, ability, or circumstances.
Why Creativity Matters Now
Throughout history, when communities have faced upheaval, they have turned to shared imagination and creative expression. Art helps people make sense of what feels overwhelming. It reinforces connection and reminds us that we are not alone. Humans have never survived in isolation. Creativity has always helped us recognize ourselves as part of the same story.
More recently, science has confirmed something many artists have long understood: When people experience art together, their heart rates can align. There is such a thing as a universal heartbeat, set in motion through collective creative experience. This is how we return to one another. This is shared humanity at work.
At COMPAS, we see this every day. Our Teaching Artists work alongside educators to help students express what they are carrying. Creative spaces become places where people can pause, reflect, and think together. Art opens pathways for connection. Creativity also helps young people imagine futures for themselves and their communities rooted in dignity, agency, and care.
The fear, grief, and anger many people are living with right now are real and constant. Healing does not mean pretending otherwise, or waiting until everything feels safe or settled. It happens alongside difficulty, as people continue to show up for one another, rebuild trust where it has been strained, and practice new ways of caring for others.
This is not abstract. It is essential and ongoing.
What We Build Next
The future will not arrive on its own. It will take shape through what we choose to protect, whose humanity we recognize, and which stories we carry forward. It will be shaped by how well we honor connection, and by how creativity helps us recognize ourselves as part of the same narrative, bound to one another through a shared heartbeat.
COMPAS remains committed to this work. For more than fifty years, we have walked alongside our communities. We intend to be here with them through this moment and beyond, using creativity to heal and help imagine what comes next
With care,
COMPAS Board and Staff
