Parade Artistic Director, Robin VanLear
Robin VanLear is Artistic Director of Community Arts at the Cleveland Museum of Art.~ In this capacity she created and directs
Parade the Circle, the museums annual community outreach extravaganza.~
Parade the Circle Celebration received the 2002 Governors Award for community outreach from the Ohio Arts Council.~ In the last six years Parade has twice been named Northern Ohios event of the year.
Since 1995
Robin has received two individual Ohio Arts Council fellowships plus 3 International Artist Exchange fellowships and 2 technical assistance fellowships for
Parade the Circle Celebration.~ In 2001 she received the Robert P. Bergman Award from the Cleveland Arts Prize committee and in 2002 she was awarded the first Joseph Piggott memorial award from University Circle Incorporated
Robin's other projects for the museum are the creation and direction of its two other major annual Community Arts events: the fall
Chalk Festival and the December
Winter Lights Lantern Festival.For the last 25 years
Robin has worked as a performance artist with her own company, Art Acts.~ In 1995 Art Acts created the opening parade for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Art Acts has been commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra to create visuals for the concert presentations of
Peter and the Wolf and
Pictures at an Exhibition. They have designed and created the costumes and sets for the premier of a new opera for Cleveland Opera on Tour.~ In 2001 2002 they were commissioned to create a series of site specific performances for Lake View Cemeterys yearlong outdoor sculpture exhibition,
Celebration of the Spirit.Since 1995
Robin has been traveling to Trinidad and Tobago where she has collaborated with Peter Minshall, Michael Guy-James, and Brian McFarland to create carnival costumes.~ She was the Artistic Director of Minshalls performance section for his trilogy in 95,96 and 97, which received three successive
band of the year honors. In 2004 and 2005 she created community interactive carnival bands in Tobago.~ They took second and first place respectively. The 2005 band also took top honors for its
king and
queen of the band giant puppets.~ In 2004 and 2005, she created carnival bands for Buccoo Government Primary School. .~ The 2005 band called Buccoo.com won medium band of the year award; the king and queen of the band also won.~
Robin specializes in site specific and community interactive performance art. New projects for 2006 include a collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra on their production of Falstaff, the opera.
In September, 2005, Robin created~
Traffic~Jam,~the opening of Ingenuity, Cleveland's first festival of art and technology..~ For Ingenuity 2006 she will be a consultant and create her my own performance.