Compass Arts Creativity Project Annual Report 2022
Another year is in the books! As we look back on 2022, we are so grateful for the opportunity to serve our community and bring collaboration, creativity, and connection to all with whom we work.
We burst into 2022 full of excitement for our first round of indoor classes in our new space at the Beacon Music Factory. There was a small delay due to the Omicron strain of the Covid, but by the end of January, we were in full swing with all of our regular theater, music, dance, and art programming, as well as our newly launched Dungeons and Dragons and Team Creative Directions programs.
We celebrated a return to indoor rehearsals for Beacon Rising Choir. After nearly two years of outside and online rehearsals, it was wonderful to be singing, albeit masked, inside the Beacon Hebrew Alliance sanctuary where we could hear each other more easily and stay warm.
Over the 2021-22 school year, our Team Creative Directions program created a safe and inclusive space for middle school students to connect and participate in creative projects and other fun, social activities. During the winter months, the student group hosted a movie night, a “Great British Bakeoff” style baking competition with silly prizes, a karaoke night, and various game nights. The crew also embarked on a volunteer project in partnership with local food justice organization, Fareground, which they undertook at the beginning of April.
Under the expertise of Andrew Brehm, a sculptor, woodworker, and manager of the fine arts workshops at Columbia University, middle and high school students were guided through the process of building four tiny food pantries for Fareground to install around the Hudson Valley, providing greater food accessibility for those who need it. Local woodworking company, Rexhill Studio donated and precut scrap plywood for the project, diverting it from the landfill and bringing the cost of materials down significantly. Under Andrew’s careful instruction, and with the help of some volunteer adult supervisors, the students learned about reading plans, carpentry safety, and how to use a jig saw, drill, and nail gun while they collectively built and painted the four tiny pantries. Students in the National Honor Society and Jr. National Honor Society all earned volunteer hours for this project, making it a win-win-win event.
Spring brought with it the excitement of getting back outdoors and into warmer weather. The Compass Arts free Community Activities Table returned to the Beacon Farmers Market and expanded its reach by adding a monthly table at the Newburgh Farmers Market, as well as participating in numerous community events, including the Community Cookout, I Am Beacon’s Back to School Bash, Spirit of Beacon Day, and the Pride Celebration at The Yard. These were all made possible through generous funding from the Genesis Inspiration Foundation.
Spring also brought with it a weekend of student performances and artwork at the first annual Compass Arts Creativity Project Spring Showcase the last weekend in April. The weekend was both a celebration and a cathartic release after more than two years of intensity only a pandemic can provide. The entire weekend at The Yard was full of joy, laughter, connection, and the healing power of music, dance, art, and theater. Families hung out all afternoon, many reconnecting for the first time since lockdown in March of 2020. It was truly a magical weekend and one we look forward to recreating on May 6 and 7, 2023.
We wrapped up spring and the end of the school year with some free community performances, including Beacon Rising Choir as a featured performer at the Foundation for Beacon Schools’ first gala fundraiser. We reached our goal of $5,000 on our first Financial Assistance Fund fundraiser, and increased accessibility measures at the Beacon Music Factory building by having chair lifts installed, made possible through funding from the City of Beacon.
In May, Compass Arts partnered with the Howland Chamber Music Circle to present “Sights and Sounds: An Interactive Musical Experience for All Ages,” a free, family friendly outdoor concert held at Riverfront Park, featuring giant canvases, paint, and brushes for folks to listen to the sounds of New Muse 4tet, and let their ears and hands work together to interpret sound visually!
In June, Compass Arts was the community sponsor for “Say Their Names,” a silent procession and performance by local sculptor Suprina and Poet Gold, featuring the Sounds of Heritage singers. This beautiful and impactful event included a silent procession down Main Street, Beacon, followed by a performance of Poet Gold’s song, “Say Their Names,” with Poet Gold and the Sounds of Heritage in Pohill Park.
For the first time in 3 years, Compass Arts was able to run in-person day camps. It felt so good to get back to this beloved program and bring more creative exploration opportunities to our young students. The amazing Compass Arts teaching artists ran 4 mini-camps for children 4-7 years old and ended the summer with a two-week performing arts camp for children 8-14. In the mini-camps, students explored music, art, dance, nature, and stories each week and in the performing arts camp students devised a moving theatrical experience titled “The Forest of Misfortune.” The summer was abundant with the joyful sounds of excited youth sharing ideas and bringing them to fruition to share with their families.
Compass also brought free Musical Stew classes to the Howland Public Library in August. These music and movement classes geared toward babies, toddlers, and preschoolers and their caregivers, have been a staple of Compass Arts programming and were a hit at the library as well. Many thanks to Stephanie Montesanto, the Head of Youth Services at the library, for making the classes possible!
Fall 2022 launched a new school year for Compass Arts, a new annex space for some of our larger classes, and two new outreach programs that brought valuable arts experiences to some of our youngest and oldest community members.
With an expanding youth theater and adult choral program, Compass needed supplemental space to meet the needs of these growing classes and ensembles. Through a partnership with First Presbyterian Church, Compass was able to access additional space for these programs, allowing them to provide greater opportunities for interested youth and adult singers. The space was also used to host the second annual Halloween Party for middle and high school students, providing a safe space in particular for youth who identify as LGBTQIA+ and their allies as they launched their student-designed “Create More Weirdness” t-shirt fundraiser to fund more free and sliding scale activities for the teen community.
Through generous funding from the Genesis Inspiration Foundation and the Arts Mid Hudson Arts Learning Grant, Compass Arts Creativity Project was able to launch two new pilot programs, serving some of our community’s youngest and oldest members.
Funded by Genesis Inspiration Foundation, Compass Arts piloted a school year-long art and music outreach program with the Astor Services Head Start and Early Head Start program in Beacon, a program that serves around eighty 18-month – 5-year-old children living at or below the poverty line. Each week, art educator Romina Robinson and music and movement educator Gina Samardge brought these vibrantly designed classes to two classrooms of toddlers, a classroom of students with special needs, and the three preschool classrooms at the Beacon facility. The response thus far has been extremely positive and the teachers and director of the Beacon Head Start program are excited to continue the relationship beyond the 2022-23 school year. Many thanks to the Genesis Inspiration Foundation for making this pilot project possible.
At the other end of the age spectrum, Compass Arts dance educator, Chelsea Acree led a six-week dance program for senior citizens at the Forrestal Senior Friendship House, a service run by the Dutchess County Office for the Aging that provides meals and other resources to senior citizens, in particular those with limited incomes who live in the affordable housing units adjacent to the center. This program was funded by an Arts Learning Grant through Arts Mid-Hudson and was extremely successful, seeing between 12 and 20 seniors participating each week. Compass Arts is currently seeking funding to continue this program and potentially expand it to other Senior Friendship Houses in the county.
Throughout the year, the teachers of Compass Arts Creativity Project participated in two separate professional development training series to build capacity for creating truly safe, equitable, and inclusive learning environments for all of the students who participate in our programs. Through funding from a capacity-building grant through Arts Mid-Hudson, local consultant Rae Leiner was brought in to lead three weekend-long Anti-racism retreats with both teaching and administrative staff and board members. Through these retreats, we began the process of recognizing and acknowledging the way racism and privilege show up in our lives, processing and metabolizing these experiences through meditation, breathwork, and other somatic practices. This year-long process was just the beginning of a life-long journey for each of us to more deeply align with our values and the values of the organization. We want to show up for our community and each of our students with an understanding of our positionality as individuals and as an organization and the potential impacts that can have on those with whom we work.
Compass teachers also participated in a year-long training series on Restorative Justice Circle Practice with Dutchess Mediation, a training made possible by Dutchess Mediations’ funding from the Agency Partners Grant of Dutchess County. It is important to us to continue to develop our staff and board to bring the highest quality programming to our community through a lens of empathy, compassion, inclusion, accessibility, and equity and to work to be the change we want to see as educators, artists, and community leaders.
As we wrapped up 2022, we received ongoing support from the many wonderful community members who value all of the opportunities and resources we bring to the community. We are so grateful for the support and as we look to 2023, we do so with excitement and hope for the continued expansion of our services and capacity to reach the most vulnerable members of our community. Everyone deserves access to the arts.
2022 FINANCIALS
| STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Income | ||
| Grants, Foundations & Sposorships | $109,525 | $24,900 |
| Individual and In-Kind Contributions | $33,211 | $24,513 |
| Program Registrations | $160,389 | $95,273 |
| Other Income | $1,094 | $475 |
| Total Income | $304,219 | $145,161 |
| Expenses | ||
| Overhead | $31,427 | $20,703 |
| Administrative/Fundraising | $79,684 | $51,198 |
| Program Expenses | $120,623 | $62,930 |
| Total Expenses | $231,734 | $134,831 |
| STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Assets | ||
| Cash | $107,760 | $35,932 |
| Other Assets | $11,884 | $3,014 |
| Total Assets | $119,644 | $38,946 |
| Liabilities | ||
| Liabilities | $15,381 | $6,443 |
| Net | ||
| Net Assets, Unrestricted | $14,362 | $31,533 |
| Net Assets, Temporarily Restricted | $89,901 | $970 |
| Total Net Assets | $104,263 | $32,503 |