Imagine House: Innovative production house gives students real-world experience

Tucked inside Lipscomb University’s George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts (CEA), something groundbreaking is happening. Students are gaining real-world experience that goes far beyond the classroom.

Kim Chaudoin  |  06/03/2025

Four years ago, the CEA launched an innovative educational initiative that is reshaping what it means to prepare students for careers in entertainment, storytelling and the arts. The result — Imagine House, an immersive professional content production house where students apprentice under nationally acclaimed faculty to create original, market-ready projects — everything from animated series and feature films to albums and concerts with more on the horizon. And, a portion of revenue earned through Imagine House projects and initiatives come back to the college for investment in its programs and future projects. It's a concept that is unique in higher education.

A unique learning concept

Imagine House launched in 2021 as a partnership with Bart Millard, lead singer of Grammy-nominated band MercyMe. Named after Millard’s chart-topping hit “I Can Only Imagine,” the initiative was envisioned as a place where storytelling, collaboration and faith converge.

Mike Fernandez, founding dean of the CEA, remembers the conversations that led to the creation of this initiative.

“We asked ourselves, ‘Could this be a way we reimagine education, especially for students in entertainment, who want to get out there faster?,” he recalled. “That’s how the idea of Imagine House started. We dreamed up a space where students could be mentored by a network of industry professionals. Over the last four years, we’ve learned a lot about what’s possible.”

Imagine House builds on the foundation of CEA Studios, launched in 2019 to house student-faculty production teams in animation, music, film and design. Imagine House unites those disciplines under one vision, offering interdisciplinary collaboration that mirrors the inner-workings of the entertainment industry.

“Imagine House intentionally brings filmmakers, musicians, designers and animators into creative collaborations that sharpen their storytelling and deepen their connection to their faith,” said Steve Taylor, executive director of Imagine House.

As Imagine House has grown and developed quickly since its inception, capacity and scale have created limitations. But Fernandez said what has emerged is “something powerful.”

“On many levels, Imagine House has gone further than we ever imagined,” he said. “It has become our professional production playground — a space where faculty-led projects are making it to the marketplace, students are gaining real-world experience, earning professional credits such as IMDb and even getting paid for their work.”

“We’re not just training artists — we’re helping them build portfolios and enter the industry ready to contribute while earning their degrees,” continued Fernandez, who joined the Lipscomb faculty in 2008 and has served as dean for the last decade. “This is what 21st-century Christian arts training looks like. It’s a place where student talent meets real-world opportunity — and where faith-infused creativity finds a public stage.”

Brown Bannister, GRAMMY®-winning producer and director emeritus of Lipscomb’s School of Music, leads Imagine House’s music-focused division. He explained it this way:

“The CEA is the academic training ground and Imagine House is the hub for content creation for the marketplace,” shared Bannister. “It is a place where faculty, professionals and students lock arms to create, produce and network with industry professionals to get things done and to release work into the marketplace. It's just a fantastic concept to actually have students be doing the thing they're studying to do.”

Real-world experience in film and animation

Today, Imagine House has grown into a pipeline of high-level content creation, producing work picked up by national partners like Amazon’s Wonder Project, Fox Sports and Angel Studios.

“Imagine House allows us to tinker, test and learn what works in real time,” said Fernandez. “The professional production model is thriving — and it's lifting up our college and students in extraordinary ways.”

One of Imagine House’s first major film collaborations was Sun Moon, a faith-based movie directed and co-written by Lipscomb alumna Sydney Tooley (MFA ’20), that premiered at Nashville’s Belcourt Theater in May 2023 and debuted on Pure Flix, immediately becoming the No. 1 movie streaming on the platform. Taylor served as producer of the film. It employed over 40 current and former Lipscomb film students, some who traveled to film on location in Taiwan and to work alongside the film’s Taiwanese cast and crew.

Another significant success story is SKETCH, a live-action feature produced in partnership with The Wonder Project. It tells the story of a recently widowed father who navigates new territory when his daughter’s scribbled drawings come to life. Starring Emmy Award-winning actor Tony Hale (Veep, Arrested Development) and D’Arcy Carden (The Good Place, Barry), the film is written and directed by Seth Worley, who has also served as an adjunct professor in Lipscomb’s Cinematic Arts program. Students served in a range of roles including production office operations, on-set production and assistant directing, location scouting, behind-the-scenes documentation, and post-production visual effects.

“What’s exciting is that these aren’t just assignments—they’re high-stakes, national-profile projects that help elevate the students and the university,” said Taylor, who served as the lead producer on the project.

At the film’s debut at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival, SKETCH played to sold out audiences and critical acclaim. The film is currently sitting strong at 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, including reviews from The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. Backed by Angel Studios (creators of The Chosen), SKETCH is set for a national theatrical release in over 2,000 theaters on Aug. 6 

This spring Avery Kroll, who graduated from Lipscomb in May with a Master of Fine Arts, released, The Piano, a 2D/CG animated short, after four years of work assisted by a team of professional animators and Lipscomb animation students and funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign. The Piano has been nominated for Best Animated Short at the prestigious Tribeca Festival in New York City in June.

Kroll credits Lipscomb’s MFA program with preparing her for success in the competitive animation industry and in her career.

“I am so glad I chose Lipscomb. The level of one-on-one collaboration and dedication from the faculty has made me a better creative filmmaker,” she said. “The program is so encouraging and uses its resources to connect students with job opportunities and bring in professional artists for lectures and mentorship on projects. Each student can pursue the direction they feel most passionate about and are set up for success.”

Another major Imagine House collaboration is an animated series called The Dead Sea Squirrels, created by VeggieTales co-creator and Lipscomb faculty member Mike Nawrocki. The series was picked up by The Wonder Project and now streams on Minno, where it is currently the platform’s most-watched children’s show. Students assisted with various aspects of the production including animating the flashback sequences in multiple episodes and providing voice talent for several key roles in addition to other work. The project is generating significant revenue, a portion of which comes back to the college to help it fulfill its mission and continue to train the next generation of artists.

“That's the potential of Imagine House. But that's just one piece of it,” explained Fernandez. “The other piece is we've got faculty who are working on real time projects. So when we talk about those in prospective student meetings, it has a positive impact on our enrollment because that's what students want. They want to come to a place where their faculty are still active in the industry and where they will have an opportunity to get incredible experiences because of that.”

Record Label Practicum immerses students in music industry

Before they’ve even graduated, students are managing artist relations, building marketing campaigns, planning live music events and launching full-scale record releases. It’s all part of CEA’s innovative approach to preparing students for careers in the music industry as they turn classroom lessons into real-world industry experience. Students have immersive opportunities through several practicum courses designed to focus on various aspects of the music industry such as record label, live music and A&R semester-long practicum courses. To gain as much practical experience as possible, students often take more than one practicum. These opportunities are offered through Imagine House, Lipscomb’s professional production house, and the School of Music’s Music Industry Studies program. 

Imagine House offers the Record Label Practicum, which is the brainchild of Bannister along with John J. Thompson, director of Lipscomb’s Music Industry Studies program who has over 30 years of experience working in the music industry, including with labels, publishers, festivals, and in production and artist development; and Rusty Harmon, adjunct music professor, president of Vere Music and former manager of Hootie & the Blowfish. Together, they bring decades of industry knowledge and a passion for mentoring the next generation. They joined forces to create a space where students don’t just study the music industry — they live it.  

Thompson oversees practicum courses offered through Imagine House as well as those offered through Lipscomb’s Music Industry Studies program, such as Red Dog Productions, the one-of-a-kind live music practicum experience where students don't just learn about the live music industry but are actually working in it. He said the involvement of music industry veterans is an important feature of Lipscomb’s program. 

“This is real-world experience most students wouldn’t get until years into their careers,” he said. “We have been blessed by the investment of adjunct faculty who are actively working in the industry, such as Rusty who is a well respected and connected label services agent and distributor.”

For Bannister, training up the next generation of music industry professionals through opportunities such as the Record Label Practicum is a calling.

“For decades, I’ve worked with developing artists to take them to the next level,” said Bannister. “This is the most meaningful project I’ve been part of in education, because it gives me the chance to take that experience and share it with 25 artists at once. It’s a chance to scale what I’ve done my whole career—and to do it with a purpose.”

Students in the Record Label Practicum class this past year formed A&R teams, conducted artist evaluations, launched a marketing campaign, crafted press kits, managed social media strategy and publicity, and collaborated on the release logistics all while guided by professionals like Harmon, whose firm is partnering on distribution.

“This has been a dream of mine for over 30 years,” Harmon said. “I’ve tried to get something like this started at other universities, but it takes a rare combination of student talent, institutional support and industry infrastructure to make it real. Lipscomb has all of that and the students are incredible.”

One evening a week during the semester, the Record Label Practicum met in the Contemporary Music House (known affectionately as the COHO) or the CEA Dean’s Suite, and gave students the opportunity to be on the front lines of every facet of a real record release. Nashville Americana duo River and Rail served as Imagine House’s first record label client. Leading up to the group’s single release in April, students were involved in everything from A&R scouting and strategic marketing to developing social media content and writing press releases. It’s an experience that mirrors the inner workings of a professional label.

“We’re not just teaching students how to produce or perform music,” says Bannister. “We’re teaching them how to turn that passion into a sustainable career.”

The Record Label Practicum was divided into functional teams — publicity, content creation and social media — each with real deliverables. Students created media kits, conducted artist audits, wrote press materials, scheduled pre-release campaigns and coordinated a full content calendar. The release strategy aligns with professional industry practices, including playlist pitching to ADA/Warner Music and coordinating with distributors for digital rollout.

Freshman music industry major Elissa Perkins said the class helped her not only grow professionally, but also personally. “I wasn’t expecting to connect with the artist on such a deep level,” she said. “It added a whole new dimension to the music.”

Creative innovation with a purpose

Imagine House has provided a place where students and faculty alike can try new things and be free to create.

“That’s part of the innovation process—and that’s what makes Imagine House so exciting. It gives us a platform, a place where we can say, ‘This is where we’re going to try new things.’ The challenge in higher ed is that everyone wants innovation, but there’s often little tolerance for failure,” said Fernandez. “Imagine House gives us that space. It’s where we can say, ‘It’s okay to fail here.’ Not catastrophic failure, but the kind that comes from testing small ideas. And when something doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean we stop—it means we take notes, learn from it, and wait for the next right time to try again.”

At its heart, Imagine House is about more than content — it's about calling. The program’s Christ-centered foundation is central to its vision, even as projects engage mainstream audiences.

“We believe art should be excellent, meaningful and transformative,” said Fernandez. “This is the lab where we’re helping students live that out in the real world.”

“Our students are learning how to navigate complex creative environments with integrity,” added Taylor. “We’re giving them the tools to tell stories of faith in ways that the marketplace welcomes and that reflect who they are as believers.”

What’s next for Imagine House?

“What sets us apart is the number of students we’re able to involve in these productions and the fact that they’re not only getting paid and earning valuable credit, but also building impressive resumes,” said Taylor. “What’s really exciting is when these projects gain national attention. That visibility benefits the program, the university and most importantly, it elevates the students. They begin to see that what they’re working on isn’t just a class assignment … it’s something that could be seen by millions. The stakes are high, and that’s what makes it real.”

Even with these accomplishments over the last four years, Imagine House is just getting started. Plans are underway to launch Imagine House Animation, led by Tony Bancroft, former Disney animator and who has been director of Lipscomb’s animation program since fall 2022; Imagine House Records, under Bannister; and Imagine House Design, a for-hire graphic design firm; and a fashion label, continuing the interdisciplinary vision of Imagine House.

A pitch competition for student-led projects, now in its second year, is also expanding Imagine House’s entrepreneurial scope. Recent pitch competitions have surfaced promising new student projects, including video game concepts and web series pilots.

“We’re always thinking about how to integrate more disciplines under the CEA umbrella … graphic design, fashion, theater, you name it,” Taylor said. “Imagine House is a launchpad for student ideas.”

Learn more about Imagine House and the George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts at www.lipscomb.edu/cea.