Compass Arts Creativity Project Annual Report 2024
PUBLIC SCHOOL PROGRAMS
This year, Compass Arts began partnering with the Beacon City School District on after-school programs to expand the district’s arts offerings, led by Compass teaching artists. These programs are largely funded through BOCES Coser grants and are free for all participants. We began in April with a ten-week program at South Avenue Elementary School. In this session of the South Avenue Drama Club, 24 students in grades 3-5 rehearsed and performed the short musical “Leap Day” for both their families and their peers at school.
Also in the spring, we worked with Beacon High School to offer the evening drama workshop “Say It Othello.” Conceived and taught by teaching artist Hampton Fluker, these seven classes explored the idea of otherness through Shakespeare scenes and monologues, with a group of 10 teenage students who identified as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and/or neurodivergent.
In October, Compass resumed our Drama Club at South Avenue, this time expanding it into a full-year program. In spring 2025, the students will be performing the musical “Space Pirates!”, co-written by teaching artist Gwynne Watkins. Also in the fall, we piloted after-school clubs at two other BCSD elementary schools: a “Skits and Songs” club at JVF Forrestal, and a Photography Club at South Avenue Elementary School. Thank you to Superintendent Matt Landhal and BCSD principles Kelly Amendola, Catherine Biordi and Crystal Sessoms-Wiggins for helping us make these programs a reality!
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Since 2022, Compass Arts has been bringing free art and music classes to Astor Head Start, a federally funded program that offers early childhood education, health, nutrition and social services to children from low-income families and children with disabilities. At the beginning of 2024, we had not secured grant funding to continue this program. Thankfully, a donor stepped in and funded classes from January through June. In November, we learned that we had received a Community Foundations grant, which will allow us to resume this important program for the remainder of the 2025 school year. Our Head Start classes serve a total of around 65 children between the ages of 2 and 5, including two self-contained classrooms of preschoolers with disabilities.
Our Community Activities Table, which offers free creative activities for families at local events, was out and about in 2024! Among the locations visited were the Beacon Farmers Market, Beacon Family Pride, Spirit of Beacon Day, and the Taproots Festival.
The Compass Arts Hang, a sliding-scale program for middle and high school kids, resumed in 2024 with two events sponsored by a grant from Stewarts. Each “hang” includes pizza, a creative activity, and low-pressure socializing. This year’s themes included a Game Night in July and a DIY Spa Night in October.
Also in 2024, Compass Arts joined Beacon Festival of Light in welcoming the Lunar New Year, organizing a volunteer bucket drum brigade for the parade.
ON-SITE CLASSES & WORKSHOPS
Our spaces at Beacon Music Factory and First Presbyterian Church were filled with music, laughter and art this year. In the winter, our returning classes included Musical Stew, Imagination Playhouse, Beacon Youth Theatre Ensemble, Drawing & Cartooning 1&2, Theatre Explorers, Smush Smash Pound Roll Sculpt, D&D: Adventure 101, Toddler & Preschool Creative Dance, Rompatom Music Ensemble, Tactile Explorers, Return to Theatre, and Beacon Rising Choir. We hosted an indoor campfire sing along in February, with proceeds going to fund Head Start classes.
In the spring, we added a new class, Printing and Bookbinding with Chiara Di Lello. We also launched a new program for adults: Tabletop Tuesdays, a biweekly game night hosted by Kevin Bertholf, which has been growing in popularity throughout the year. In April, Compass Arts hosted a Saturday singing workshop, Vocal Tapestry with the incredible guest artist Onome.
In June, the middle and high school students in our Beacon Youth Theatre Ensemble capped off a year of challenging work with a performance at Prophecy Hall in Beacon. These thirteen young actors performed a double bill of long-form improv and the short comedy “Check Please.”
Summer camps returned in July with a new “mini-camp” format. Every week of the summer, we offered a morning outdoor camp for ages 4-7 and an afternoon art camp for ages 8-14 at our Beacon Music Factory location. Our weekly themes for the morning included Nature, Rainbows, Forest Fairies, Camping, Ocean, Space, Music, and STEAM. In the afternoon, students made art projects with the themes of Sculpt, Nature Art, World Travelers, Summer Snaps! Teen Photography, Get Your Game On, Unique Upcycled Creations, and Artist Spotlight.
Classes resumed in the fall, with two new adult acting classes (Adult Theatre Studio and Adult Theatre Foundations), a printmaking class (Make Your Mark! Printmaking for Kids), and an expanded D&D program (Dungeons and Dragons: Adventurers Guild) joining the returning classes Musical Stew, Tactile Explorers, Tabletop Tuesdays, Drawing & Cartooning I & II, and Beacon Youth Theatre Ensemble.
Also in the fall, we brought back a program that had been dormant since the pandemic: “Arts Holidays,” opportunities for kids to do creative activities on days off from school. We offered three sold-out sessions in October and November.
BEACON RISING
This year, the Beacon Rising choir grew to 70 members! We’ve come a long way from 2017, when 13 members formed Beacon Rising as one of many resistance choirs that grew out of the Women’s March. Due to the growing demand for spots, the choir held auditions for the first time this year and had a waitlist for spring 2025.
Open to adult female-identifying and non-binary treble singers, the choir performs a variety of styles and genres with an eye toward interesting, powerful, and artistic literature. The repertoire is predominantly contemporary and comes primarily from female, LGBTQIA+, and BIPOC composers and arrangers who speak to the choirs’ social and environmental justice, compassionate community, and radical self-love and healing ethos.
Beacon Rising packed the First Presbyterian Church sanctuary in Beacon for two concerts this year, in May and December. On November 14, the choir made its New York City debut as part of singer-songwriter Be Steadwell’s concert at Symphony Space in Manhattan. Beacon Rising was invited by Be to perform four songs from their repertoire, including Be’s garden-inspired love song “Greens” (arranged for BRC by choir member Emily Pullen); “Crowded Table” by the Highwomen; “Jam” by Tracy Wong; and “I Release” by Beautiful Chorus.
FUNDRAISING & EVENTS
It’s no secret that the Compass Arts team’s favorite kind of fundraiser is a dance party. The Beacon community turned out in a big way for the two fundraising events we hosted this year. In April, we threw our first Compass Arts Prom. This event at The Yard featured a dance floor and cocktail lounge decorated with an “Under the Stars” theme by artist Shannon Herman, whose hand-painted scenery included an enormous crescent moon for photo opps. Over 100 attended, raising around $3000 for our organization. Our second annual Night of the Living Dead Dance Party took place on the weekend before Halloween. This was an even bigger success than last year, thanks to a small army of volunteers, some very generous sponsors and donors (see the list below!), our incredible DJS, and the hundreds of folks who showed up in costume to dance the night away at the University Settlement Camp. This event raised around $7000 for Compass Arts!
Every year, Compass Arts organizes two fundraising campaigns: one to replenish our Sliding Scale Fund in the spring, and a year-end Annual Appeal to finance our operating expenses. In 2024, the community donated an incredible $7,000 towards our sliding scale fund, which allows any family experiencing financial hardship to name their own price for any class. Our Annual Appeal raised an additional $30,000 for our organization. We are so grateful for the outpouring of financial support we received in 2024, much of it from small donors.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
As Compass Arts continues to evolve as a nonprofit, our team is dedicated to learning, growing, and striving to better meet the needs of the people we serve.
In the interest of better communicating our mission, we debuted a new and improved website this year, designed by Andy Reinhardt and Gwynne Watkins with the help of a grant from Arts Mid-Hudson. We also collaborated with members of North Road Communications, a student-run, pro bono marketing firm at Marist College, on a video about our Head Start program.
In October, we held a workshop for our staff and teaching artists with disability justice educator Beth Poague, who gave us advice on creating welcoming spaces for neurodivergent students.
In November, we received funding to undergo capacity-building work with Faith Clarke. Clarke is an organizational health and inclusion teams specialist whose expertise lies in building restorative, anti-racist, efficient, and high-performing work cultures. She will be working with our director and staff into the new year, and helping us make Compass Arts a place where employees can thrive and grow.
OUR 2024 STAFF MEMBERS & TEACHING ARTISTS
Lisa Andretta * Elizabeth Audley * Zach Baxter * Kevin Bertholf * Heather Davies * Chiara Di Lello * Lauren Donnelly * Hampton Fluker * Andrew Gyomai * Sara Kobilka * Flynn Larsen * Eve Morgenstern * Gabriel Pages * Andy Reinhardt * Laura Volpacchio Simon * Amanda Spinella * Juliet Strong * Emily Sylvester * Caty Therese * Sasha Van’t Hul * Katy Wallace * Gwynne Watkins * Lee Williams * Regina Williams
OUR 2024 BOARD MEMBERS
Verlaine Brunot * Krista Cone * Sarah Maida * Ray Simons * Vicki Vergolina
OUR 2024 EVENT SPONSORS & DONORS
The City of Beacon Recreation Department * Daria Gail Speech * Daydream Collective * DJs Vick the Bruiser, Meatball Jack, and Sugar Bunz * Shannon Herman * Dirty Work Vintage* FulBeing Collective * Hudson Valley Brewery * Laura Simon Photography * Viscount * The Yard
2024 FINANCIALS
| STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Income | ||
| Grants, Foundations & Sposorships | $37,063 | $39,104 |
| Individual and In-Kind Contributions | $34,425 | $28,295 |
| Events (fundraisers and programs) | $25,009 | $20,413 |
| Program Registrations | $149,926 | $147,708 |
| Other Income | $2,029 | $447 |
| Total Income | $248,452 | $235,967 |
| Expenses | ||
| Overhead | $40,184 | $38,927 |
| Administrative/Fundraising | $107,949 | $90,387 |
| Program Expenses | $102,260 | $120,913 |
| Total Expenses | $250,394 | $250,227 |
| STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Assets | ||
| Cash | $86,460 | $81,694 |
| Other Assets | $13,805 | $9,465 |
| Total Assets | $100,265 | $91,159 |
| Liabilities | ||
| Liabilities | $13,559 | $1,155 |
| Net | ||
| Net Assets, Unrestricted | $78,706 | $71,316 |
| Net Assets, Temporarily Restricted | $8,000 | $18,688 |
| Total Net Assets | $86,707 | $90,004 |