About Us

Creative Mindz Inc. advances the intellectual, social and artistic development of the underserved community through workshops, summer camps and arts-integrated events by providing community resource workers, professionals and  rising star performers the opportunity to collaborate on programs that help to close the achievement gap. Creative Mindz  has served several of the local city and  county  organizations throughout Alabama, reaching greater than 15,000 diverse residents of all different ages, genders and races each year.

Creative Mindz, Inc.'s founder and CEO Muriel Tarver, opened a dance studio in Birmingham, Alabama called Creative Mindz for her 11 year old son, Tyland in 2010. She wanted to create a "safe place" where Tyland and his friends could do what they loved the most... dance like no one was watching.  The Studio evolved into an after-school program,  a summer camp, a community event center and much more in a community where there had never been a facility where even children from inner city projects could learn tap, ballet, yoga or get an opportunity to audition to be hired to perform around the world. 

In 2013, Tarver undertook the project of shifting Creative Mindz into a nonprofit organization.  She wanted to create opportunities for children to grow as citizens, as their skills grew in dance. This kind of thinking earned Tarver the title, “Mama” by many of the dancers,  Though she doesn’t teach them how to dance, she has supported  the youth in the community by creating opportunities that were not  otherwise available to inner city kids, sending over 30 young citizens on their first trip out of the country. She represented  aspiring artists securing three-to-six month professional dance contracts in China. 

A long way from dance, Creative Mindz, Inc. has since evolved into an organization providing enrichment programs,  workshops, foreign language courses, pet education and/or entertainment for organizations such as Rev Birmingham, Epic Elementary School, Woodlawn Street Market, Tarrant Board of Education, Live Nation (Oak Mountain Amphitheatre),  The Magic City Surge Men's Semi-Professional Basketball Team, Southern Makers Creatives Market, Avondale Elementary School, Regions Bank Advertising and much, much more. 

Tarver, a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Jefferson State Veterinary Technology Program and  the first African American to sit on the executive board of the Alabama Veterinary Technician's Association is currently enrolled in the Baccularette Program at  St. Petersburg College of Veterinary Technology (St. Petersburg, FL) and begin pursuing a secondary focus in 2017 in Veterinary Ultrasound through Sound Academy of .Veterinary Imaging (Arlington, Tx).  So between career and projects, she doesn’t have much free time, Tarver said managing Creative Mindz, Inc. doesn’t feel like work at all.... It's just an extension of who she is.

“It keeps me alive,” she said. “I’m doing what I was born to do — nuture. It began as a project for my son, and now it’s the makeup of who I am. We are continually developing creative ways to uplift the community. Birmingham has grown so much in the last 10 years. It is amazing to be able to say... we are part of the magic that has helped to transform the city.”

In 2020, admist a pandemic like no phenomenon seen during our lifetime, Muriel Tarver relocated to Arkansas to work in reaseach and in the process, decided to start an Arkansas Chapter of Creative Mindz. True to her roots, believing that charity starts at home, she settled in the Pettaway Community close to the downtown area, and decided to pick up her work in her own back yard. The end of one journey, makes way for the beginning of another... from the Magic City to the Rock City... we are well on our way!