Year 23: Creation is Life

Visible Music College believes in original music. We work with standards and repertoire and the greats every day but we get very excited when someone presents a new thought or idea for a song and records it and puts it out for people to hear. The creation is the part that we relish daily at the college as we see new music come every year and every genre. We love it so much we created a space just for this and called it the Wilson Center for Creative Leadership. A space dedicated in 2023 to original work of students and doubling as a student center for conversation, practice, ideation, and sharing of special moments of creation. We finally fully engaged with our entire building at 200 Madison Avenue, Downtown Memphis.

This is The Visible Way - creative life as education.

With a panoramic view of Downtown Memphis, a few blocks from Beale Street (home of the blues) and with the smell of Memphis sweet barbecue in the air, the fifth floor of our campus educational building is the place for creative leadership. Visible students do lead from here, too. They lead worship in quiet hours of the day. They host songwriter rounds and special guests. They strum along in the early morning and grow their piano skills every day (I can hear it from my office). A couple of students make the whisper rooms their new domicile, setting up guitar pedals and paper notebooks full of creativity and original work. This year, we even have instrument repair projects and podcast practicing going soon in these creative rooms.

This is how we welcome people to Visible Music College - we sing a song for them and create new work.

The Wilson family is known for having originated Holiday Inn in Memphis. They started a record label in the 60’s. They’ve built beautiful spaces and served God faithfully too and we are blessed to have had a starter fund from them to complete the 5th floor creative space. Senior concerts have flourished here with the big video wall telling more of the story. Video, still photos, press vents, fundraisers, VIP receptions, all night prayer vigils, and hot dog nights watching the Memphis Redbirds baseball across the street have kept us busy. People rent out the space because it draws the creativity out of you. It is available and inspiring and Visible students use that inspiration daily in some fashion. We even hosted Phil Wickham for a day of writing while ehe was on tour this year.

So, crank up the original songs and try something new and creative at the Wilson Center for Creative Leadership in Memphis.