It is with heavy heart that we share the news that COMPAS founder, Molly Taylor, has passed away. Molly’s impact on the Twin Cities arts community spanned over half a century, and she played a major role in making Minnesota the rich artistic center that it is today.

In 1968, with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Molly began a pilot program called Poets in the Schools. From the beginning, the artist roster at Poets in Schools included names of poets like Patricia Hempl, Michael Dennis Brown, David Mura, Robert and Carol Bly, all who have become nationally and internationally respected writers. These poets trained the next generation of writers continuing the rich literary tradition here in Minnesota.

Over the years she grew the organization both in program reach and in diversity of artistic disciplines, and in 1974 she renamed the organization COMPAS (Community Programs in the Arts).

From its inception, COMPAS focused on providing accessible creative experiences to every Minnesotan. In an interview in 2019 with Peg Guilfolye, Molly discussed the optimism and turmoil of the late 1960 and early 70’s and how COMPAS engaged artists and audiences throughout St. Paul and the region.

“At that time, as now, Saint Paul had wonderful arts organizations. But there was a fever in the air, and a strong feeling that funds being raised weren’t serving the ordinary people and the neighborhoods of the city, but serving people who got dressed up and came to events. We needed a whole new agency, and they hired me to run it. What we had was an idea, and a charge, and this tremendous energy, to take arts programs out into the city and connect people directly with artists.”

Molly’s legacy continues to this day at COMPAS. Our communities have been fractured by a global pandemic, economic uncertainty, and ongoing racial injustice, echoing the same fever she described, and we believe her vision is more important than ever. Our mission reflects Molly’s core beliefs to “deliver creative experiences that unleash the potential within us all.”

Dawne Brown White, COMPAS Executive Director, stated that “Molly deeply believed in creating a thriving arts ecosystem by paying all artists – especially those artists that were young and emerging – for their work. She also created opportunities for them to learn about their community and then ‘roam free’ to co-create within neighborhoods.” This creative license has lived on in classrooms, children’s hospitals, libraries, senior citizen residences and in jails and shelters with great results including the 40th Anthology of Writing published by COMPAS in 2019.

“One of the best things was being able to help those young artists who’ve gone on to do such great things, individually and together” Molly said. “Artists went to where the people were, and we could see the power of the arts right there.”

Molly Taylor will be greatly missed. Her legacy and passion for the arts, artists and creating meaningful experiences continues at COMPAS in her memory. We have received many inquiries about making a gift to COMPAS in memory of Molly Taylor. In response, we have set up The Molly Taylor Legacy Fund, which you can donate to here.

Special thanks to Peg Guilfoyle for her interview with Molly originally published in September 2019. https://saintpaulalmanac.org/2019/09/11/arts-roots-in-saint-paul-the-seventies-by-peg-guilfoyle-and-molly-laberge-taylor/