The Beginning of a Vision
Raise Productions officially began serving the Columbus community in 1986 when Founder and President Dr. Raymond Wise shared his vision of establishing a gospel music production company and educational facility with longtime friends Frank Lane and Shuryl Sutherland-Thompson, who served as Vice President and Assistant Vice President respectively. Together, they combined administrative, musical, artistic, and creative gifts that helped shape Raise Productions into a thriving ministry and arts institution.
Although Dr. Wise had previously produced events under the Raise Productions name in other parts of the country, Columbus became the permanent home and headquarters for the organization’s expanding vision.
Past Raise Facilities
Over the past 22 years, Raise Productions has been housed at various locations. Raise initially offered its services in 1985 from a small house located at 110 N. 22nd St., in Columbus, Ohio (Picture of original Raise buildings 110 22nd St.).
Due to a need for additional space, Raise moved its programming to the King Complex for the Cultural and Performing Arts in 1989, where it was able to expand its programming and classes (Picture of King Complex for the Performing Arts).
Raise housed its programming at the King Complex until 1992, when Raise moved its programming to 2572 Cleveland Ave. where they established the “Raise Center for the Gospel Arts” (Pictures of 2574 Cleveland Ave.).
Approximately one year later, Raise acquired the annex to that building and began offering additional classes there. The annex was located at 1755 Linden Place and served as the location where Raise offered 20-40 classes each week for about eight years (Pictures of 1755 Linden Place).