A Creative Invitation
By Jazzy Miller Wilson | MEMPHIS FLYER
Memphis,
I have witnessed art in many places (as you have). I have seen it in classrooms, street corners, and in caves as it echoed stories from its centuries-past creators.
I have witnessed its power as a medium to do many things. I have seen it communicate ideas and opinions, calm children receiving cancer treatment, expressed in prisons through collaborative theatre, and used as therapy in orphanages and disaster relief camps around the world.
I have used it to teach children mathematics and reading, both in the Maasai Mara and Memphis. I have seen it capture the hearts of incarcerated children, struck by the power of what they can do with a paintbrush and the encouragement of a string quartet. It has been my therapy, my pen, the staff in my hand. It has been so for many others too.
As an artist, a former executive director of an arts organization, and director of theatre, the most powerful, yet humble thing I have seen art become is an invitation. This is something that children understand as they imitate life through play, as they daydream of stories, and display them on your newly painted walls. They understand- before knowing what an invitation is- that they are welcome to follow their creative impulses. Art can be an invitation to learn, think, smile, and inspire. I think that as we become older, perhaps we disconnect from its calling in our respective lives... until we are yet again invited.
As an artist, former executive director, and director of theatre, the gift of $100 million to the arts in our city means over 100 million sightings of art. It means over 100 million expressions, heart captures, powerful moments, laughs and teardrops, therapy sessions, teaching opportunities... It means well over 100 million invitations.
For 18 years of my life, ARTSmemphis has extended many of these invitations to me in my career. If you are not an artist by trade nor an executive director facing the present-day challenges, then maybe you cannot imagine the obstacles that may exist anywhere from purchasing materials in the final stretches of your masterpiece to walking on the frontlines of warfare alongside those who cannot escape it. However, when you find the invitation, support, and friend in ARTSmemphis, you can focus much effort in your stated mission that inherently brings creative opportunities to every neighborhood, corner, and far reach of our city, lifting it beyond where it would be.
I could not be happier to receive the invitation of Board membership to such an incredible organization. I could not be more excited to play a role in extending invitations alongside the ARTSmemphis team as an artist, Memphian, and lover of this city.
Memphis- You are invited. We extend an invitation to you to create, to celebrate, to ARTrageous. I do hope to see you there.
Jazzy Miller Wilson is a new board member of ARTSmemphis, the Midsouth’s primary arts funder. Wilson is an informed theatre artist, lecturer, and emerging filmmaker who currently resides in Memphis. Her most forthcoming documentary film, Jonesland, is about land ownership, survival, and black ecological legacy in St. James, Louisiana, and is featured on two episodes of Monument Lab’s podcast Plot of Land. Her research (through film, artifacts, oral history, and data) is currently on display at Whitney Plantation in Louisiana. Jazzy has given lectures at museums and universities regarding her family's history. Jazzy has also conducted extensive biographical research on Sojourner Truth, devised, and wrote a one-woman play on her life (Journey of Truth) which has been performed across the United States, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Jazzy previously served as the director of the Crosstown Theater, as well as the executive director of Carpenter Art Garden. She enjoys spending time serving on boards, running, swimming, volunteering, and traveling.