Artists in Action - Your COMPAS News Round-Up

Teaching Artist Shakun Maheshwari at Avivo ArtWorks

The sun’s out in Minnesota and so is the creativity! Drumming in Kittson with Mike Arturi, juggling workshops with Benjamin Domask and Sand Painting at Avivo with Shakun Maheshwari. That’s only the tip of the creative iceberg! Take a look at what we’ve been up to in this month’s COMPAS News Round-Up. No SPF required.

Temporary Art, Permanent Memories

Teaching Artist Benjamin Domask at MN Children’s Museum

Teaching Artist Shakun Maheshwari visited Avivo Minneapolis for a lesson in Sand Painting and Rangoli! Rangoli designs are a temporary floor art that people create and redo on a daily basis in India in order to bring good luck and happiness to the home. This is just one of the many workshops COMPAS is providing for 3 Avivo locations. Avivo serves nearly 15,000 individuals each year, helping them achieve recovery, employment, and economic advancement. We are incredibly proud to be partnering with them!

Juggling with Benjamin Domask

Teaching Artist Benjamin Domask is known for many things: inducing laughter, impeccable miming skills, and of course, juggling! He visited The Minnesota Children’s Museum this month for a juggling workshop and finished up a week at Langford Recreation Center with his Circus Arts Camp.

New Faces, Same Creativity

This summer, COMPAS is bringing a new team member onto the creative crew! Meet Melissa Moua — an outdoors enthusiast with a passion for photography and journalism. She will be working through the summer to photograph and film workshops and programs as well as assist our Teaching Artists during our summer camps (luckily for you there are still a few spots open — check them out!). Get to know a little more about her in this installment of Inside the COMPAS Studio!

Creative Kittson Camp!

Teaching Artist Mike Arturi with Kittson Elementary students

This month, we caught up with Teaching Artist Mike Arturi and chatted about his time at Kittson Central Elementary back in June. He was accompanied by Teaching Artists MN Joe Tran and Aimee Bryant and together they filled the week with workshops including breakdancing, theater and drumming!

Here’s a quote from Shannon Christenson, an educator from Kittson Central Elementary who saw the magic happen firsthand!

“Mike worked with not only the kids that were in Camp Art but also volunteered to work with the school's drummers. The band director was excited and the student drummers loved it! Aimee has such great energy and creativity! I loved watching her riff off of what the kids suggested during their time with her. Joe is amazingly talented as a dancer, a great teacher and encouraged the students. It was so much fun watching the kids watch him and then try the moves he so patiently taught them. The moves they could do by even the second day of class were incredible!”

The Magic of T. Mychael Rambo

"In many ways, Rambo’s life resembles a big, sprawling production like Showboat — tender, sometimes melancholy and always filled with beautiful music.” - Julie Kendrick, Good Age Minnesota

T. Mychael Rambo photo by Tracy Walsh of Good Age Minnesota

From his first appearance on a Twin Cities stage in 1989, to his role today in the Ordway's production of 42nd Street, Teaching Artist T. Mychael Rambo has always been an exuberant spirit that lights up any room. Take a glimpse into his life-story in this piece from Good Age Minnesota!