In Atlanta, the Creative Academy under changemaker Andre DeRamus teaches teenagers creative skills such as music production and photography. By offering underprivileged children opportunities and transforming their lives through inspiration, the academy is a pioneer in youth development.
By Katharina Moser
Against the soft Atlanta sky in the pink dusk of early summer, the brick walls of the compound on the Upper West Side rise up from the ground solemnly. Even to the unknowing passerby, they appear in a constant pose of reverence, in demand of respect. Walking up two stories in suite M202 on the left side, however, we enter a space that is brimming with creativity, with opportunity and the sweet taste of a future being molded right here and now. West Marietta Street is home to the Creative Academy in Atlanta, where one man has single-handedly set out to change and inspire the lives of disadvantaged Georgia youth.
Andre DeRamus founded the Creative Academy in Atlanta in 2021 with one goal: to teach, engage, and prepare economically disadvantaged high school students in the creative arts industries, including music production, photography, and video production.
“The mission behind the Creative Academy is to make sure that we’re providing access and resources to those students that don’t necessarily have it. Not every school has fancy cameras or music equipment. When budget cuts happen, it always starts with the arts”, DeRamus says. “That was one of the reasons why I started it. I’ve been successful, I’ve been blessed to be successful. Now it is just right to train and help kids to explore their dreams musically and creatively, whatever path they take. Our job is to make sure that we provide resources and access to those students who don’t have it.”
DeRamus has a long history of working with youth, navigating both the music industry and local and regional school systems with success. Before establishing the institution, he taught music production at schools. While building his empire as an artist manager and consultant, the especially dire situation of arts education during the Covid pandemic inspired him to build what has now become one of the leading youth programs for music and entertainment industry education in Atlanta. Built on DeRamus’s 16 years of educational background, at the Creative Academy, kids are taught skills such as music production, beatmaking, music theory or photography. “Most importantly, it’s to provide a safe space for kids. If you look at the violence that’s going on around here, the majority of the people getting in trouble in the streets are the kids, it’s the teenagers”, says DeRamus. “So if I can grab them for three or four hours on a Saturday, where they’re not outside fighting or shooting or doing something crazy, that that’s worth it to me.” For DeRamus and his team of five, it is not only about providing access to resources, technology or skills, but also inspiration and perspective – that a life of art and success is within reach. The Creative Academy, it becomes clear between the cool brick walls of the modern creative space on Marietta Street, is as much about creativity as it is about allowing for the capacity among the kids to dream, and work for that dream.
Focusing on teenagers between 13 and 19 years of age, the academy has reached over 1,500 kids over the past five years, and is growing constantly. After participating in a program, the kids have learned to operate a camera, to start a music session, create a production, and produce and finish a song of two and a half minutes with verse and chorus. But that’s not all. “When we engage the kids, we make sure that we really talk to them and look them in the eyes. It’s about building character”, says DeRamus. “A lot of these students may eventually not have the opportunity to go into the careers of music, film, photography, gaming, or streaming. But we teach them the little things that are the foundation of being successful in life. Greet everybody when you walk in, shake everybody’s hand, put your phone away.”
The Creative Academy also offers dining etiquette classes and teaches skills such as creating your resume or a Linkedin profile, filling out a job application or filing your taxes. The future, after all, is so much more than a sense for art, and surviving in the shark pool of society with all its demands and rules is another thing the Creative Academy has set out to teach. Next to lessons in computer literacy and financial literacy, the academy provides food and drinks during their events or sponsors school lunches when setting out into the local schools. “I remember that as a teenager, I once went to a dining etiquette class just to get free food. But it did pay off!” Kids have to eat, after all, and DeRamus likes to provide participating youth with as much as he can of what they might be lacking at home.
As a non-profit organization, every program at the Creative Academy is free of charge, and open to any teenager that is interested. “For the first three years, I funded it out of my own pocket, which was probably about 40 to 50k a year. I donated it to the organization because I believed in it. I knew I could make a difference, and I knew I could crank it up. Now I feel great. I don’t have the biggest building in the world, but I have kids texting me and calling me all the time.” While DeRamus invested his own capital to kickstart the academy, it is now running on the generous sponsorships of large companies, which have come to recognize the institution as a key factor in shaping young Atlanta lives with an interest in music and entertainment. Among the academy’s sponsors is Sony, which gifted 50,000$ worth of equipment, and Georgia’s major gas company Gas South, which provided a 100,000$ grant in 2024.
Given the deteriorating quality of public education in the United States, The Creative Academy also wants to take a stance in preventing that kids simply fall through the cracks of the system. “There should be a lot of changes in our education system. We got an educational system that just passes people on. It’s so easy to just drop out”, DeRamus criticizes. “Education needs to reflect reality. I know school ain’t for everybody, but everybody needs to at least have some level of education. It’s about basic skills that you need to make it in the world at this point.” That’s one thing the Creative Academy wants to contribute to – fostering an environment of learning and growth.
With that in mind, the Creative Academy offers workshops twice a month as well as an event every second Saturday. Four times a year, special events are offered. In December, there is a big end-of-the-year celebration, followed by a graduation celebration in May for those who are graduating high school. And August, it is time for the fundraisers, where DeRamus likes to take the kids to a dinner or a concert.
After five years, the programs of the Creative Academy are paying off in myriad ways. “When some of my students actually became successful, a light bulb went off in my head, like, wow, this works”, DeRamus says. “I now have about 15 kids who are in the industry as professionals and are actually making some waves. Well, they’re not kids anymore”, he smiles. Among these success stories is the musical force The Paradox, which went viral on social media just a couple of months ago. The Paradox is a highly popular American pop-punk band from Atlanta, formed in June 2024. They made history as the first all-Black band to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart and are celebrated for revitalizing the pop-punk genre – and one of their members once was a student at the Creative Academy.
With his own lasting success in the music industry and countless connections to the elite of artists and industry executives in his back, DeRamus certainly is one of the changemakers of Atlanta. In that sense, the Creative Academy for the kids is about the inspiration, about being allowed a perspective of what else is out there in the world and what else one is possibly capable of. And these small moments of inspiration and opportunity can change how one looks on one’s own life, that is something DeRamus has experienced himself, over and over again. “I’m out here learning from these kids. I see them do things I’ve never seen before. These students have their own language, their own technological skillset, their own creative force.” And DeRamus would like to see that grow beyond Atlanta. “We already have partner institutions everywhere. But one day I see the Creative Academy having locations in many American cities, inspiring kids everywhere.”
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