Compass Arts Creativity Project

Big news: The Cardboard Dreams Exhibit is coming to ! Our middle school campers spent a week thinking about how cities work, what they love about Beacon, and what they would change if they could. Now you can see parts of their re-envisioned Main Street, on Main Street. The exhibit will be up this fall, so stay tuned for updates!

Photo by for

Check out the amazing gallery of photos at , taken by ! We're so excited to bring this camp back next summer. Link in bio or visit https://highlandscurrent.org/2026/07/24/cardboard-dreams/

Our next community Singing Circle brings us back to the beginning, with a singalong of the Highwomen’s modern classic “Crowded Table.” Sing it for us for the first time, or work on getting it down for our sing-through in December! (We’ll also learn a new warmup song at each event, so even if you already know “Crowded Table,” there will be something new for you.) In the spirit of community-building, we’ll take a moment to pause in the middle of our rehearsal and get to know each other better.

All female and nonbinary treble singers welcome, regardless of experience. We’re expecting a smaller-than-usual crowd because of summer vacations, so now would be a great time to give it a try. Link in bio or visit compassarts.org to join us!

Adult game night, 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month! Join us this week for gaming shenanigans and good company.

Highlights from Compass Arts Summer Camp, week 1! Art, music, play, water... camp has all the good stuff.

This weekend, check out our model of the reimagined Main Street. The exhibit will be open Saturday from 12-2pm. We can't wait to share our middle school campers' vision with you!



Cardboard Dreams is sponsored by The Karuna Walking Fund, Hudson Todd LLC, , , and . Thank you for your support!

Come visit your favorite Beacon locations (like ) in miniature at our exhibit! Plus, see how our middle school campers envision the future of Main Street. Come to the exhibit opening on Saturday from 12-2pm, upstairs at , 50 Liberty St, .

Cardboard Dreams, Days Three & Four: Our building crew is up and running! On Wednesday, we started constructing some of our favorite Beacon locations out of cardboard, and continued to brainstorm things we’d love to see in our city. (Our middle schoolers think the old Rite Aid should become a community center! Anyone want to start a petition?)

On Thursday, the students met with City Council representative and lifelong Beaconite Lastar Gorton. She talked with the campers about how Main Street has changed over the years and what she’d like to see in the future, and answered questions about how new projects are approved. Plus, she encouraged young people to get their voices heard at City Council meetings! In the afternoon, we began to lay down our map in paint and sandpaper, and continued to build and paint our cardboard city. Come see the completed model on Saturday afternoon from 12-2pm, upstairs at 50 Liberty St!

Cardboard Dreams is sponsored by The Karuna Walking Fund, Hudson Todd LLC, , , and . We are so grateful for their support.

Cardboard Dreams, Day Two: We spent this morning at the office of on Main Street, learning about how architects design buildings and spaces. We got to look at concept sketches and 3D models, and even got to touch some building material grown from mushrooms! Then we went back to our classroom to think about specific spaces in Beacon, and imagined how we would build even better versions of them. At the end of the day, we started building the map and the cardboard models that will comprise our miniature version of Beacon!



Cardboard Dreams is sponsored by The Karuna Walking Fund, Hudson Todd LLC, , , and David Burke Architects. Thank you for your support!