b. 1971, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Alison Heimstead is a designer and director of spectacle-based theater and performance for the stage. Her fifteen years of professional work has included artistic direction for indoor and outdoor performance pieces ranging from building dedications to her original visually based puppetry work. Alison’s work in large scale theatrical spectacle and puppetry has manifested in collaborations with Janie Geiser, Paul Zaloom, Nana Projects, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, and Music Center of Los Angeles as well as independent film-makers, stilt-walkers, and innovative theater artists throughout the country.

Heimstead’s project for the Art Parade, Greening Over the Overpass, was conceived as part of her free public workshop on Saturday, April 5. Working in the style of outsider artists and parade makers, participants made individual and collaborative parade pieces around a central theme of greenery and recycling. Heimstead inspired, instructed and guided participants in the creation of both communal and individual projects that centered around the theme of lush green vegetation growing and intertwining – from water lilies to dragonflies, from gold finches to beetles!

Image Credit:
Greening the Overpass, 2008