As a teaching artist Robin has created programs for children ages 7-17 in Woodworking, Set Design, Props Design, Fiber Arts, and Mural Painting. Her favorite program to date is a hybrid performance and visual arts workshop in Puppetry and Masks she created for the Oklahoma Children’s Theatre in 2025.
Scene Painting was taught as a three-week immersive in-person Fall 2020. I adjusted assignments and methods to keep students socially distant. They created wings to learn about color mixing and symmetry, Woodgrain, Granite, Marble, and Trompe L’oeil. For the final I took a drapery elevation and split it into quadrants. They worked in groups putting their flats together to compare notes on cohesion, but still being able to paint apart from one another. Of my 12 students, I had one theatre major and one art major. Everyone else was learning something brand new.
Intro Projects shown: Cornell boxes based on poems (ee cummings, Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes shown), and “Apartment 208” projects by Intro to Design students. Most students in Intro are performance track or non-majors. “Apartment 208” developed by Fred Kinney at Cal State Fullerton
More Advanced Scenic Design Projects:
Two realized designs by student Sora Mullis ‘20: Lobby Hero and Hamlet (cancelled due to Covid 19)
John, realized design by Cassidy Snow ‘20
Sweat and A Midsummer Nights Dream Projects from Set Design course at Guilford College, 2013-2021
Robin is certified in Design Thinking from IDEOU. She leads thoughtful and fun seminars to all ages in Design Thinking, in particular to teach people in positions of power how to make systems design decisions with the people they impact at the center.
In 2019 She lead the Guilford College faculty in a 2-day Design Thinking workshop to kick off the re-design of the Guilford Curriculum
Also while at Guilford Robin taught several courses to students with Design Thinking at the center. Pictured is a First Year Seminar that combined learning hand sewing skills with Design Thinking. The students partnered with the Dining Hall Staff to design aprons that centered them each individually in terms of needs and style. The students followed the steps of Design thinking from Brainstorm to prototype.
In 2018 Robin and her colleague Beth Ritson took 20 Undergraduate students from Guilford College to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for 10 days through the International College Theatre Festival. They produced a show, Standing on Ceremony, the Gay Marriage Plays. Robin especially enjoyed taking the students to the museums in Edinburgh for a day of drawing from observation. The trip was the largest summer Study Abroad Guilford College has sponsored to date.
