Robin Toulouse

I graduated from Herron School of Art and Design with a BFA in Fine Arts in January, 1980. I immediately began working as Assistant Registrar at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis where I accessioned new cultural, historical and natural objects into the museum’s collection, helped install and de-install exhibits, performed condition reports on objects loaned to the museum.

In 1987, The Children’s Museum promoted me to Collections Services Manager. I supervised the registration, conservation and museum library staff, selected and implemented two collections management databases, drafted the museum’s collections polices and procedures and instituted a peer review audit of our policies and practices that gained national recognition.

In the early 19902, I was introduced to a book of historical photographs, Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in America. I reacted so strongly to the imagery that I was compelled to combine objects with altered and manipulated vintage photographs, creating assembled vignettes, composed in found boxes. I exhibited some of these pieces at the Herron School of Art and Design Alumni show, at Crown Hill Cemetery and at The Children’s Museum.

My art making went “underground” for several years until 2014, when a friend saw my assemblages and urged me to begin showing them. Her suggestion prodded me to begin creating again, and I have been working steadily since 2014.

I have shown my work at the 5547 Project in Coal Yard Coffee, at Oasis Creative Space, Art Bank, Full Circle 9 Gallery, Do 317 Gallery and Lounge and the Tiny Show at The Arts Council of Indianapolis. I am a founding member of Full Circle Nine Gallery, a cooperative where all the member-artists work to keep the gallery open First Fridays and weekends.