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About Us
IMPART: 216 BREATHING CREATIVITY INTO COMMUNITY IS A CITY OF CLEVELAND TRANSFORMATIVE ART FUND PROJECT LED BY ROBIN ROBINSON, IN COLLABORATION WITH 12 MURALISTS, 4 YOUTH FELLOWS & YOU!
Project Overview
Impart216 is a Mt. Pleasant public-art initiative, supported by Cleveland's Transformative Art Fund, that celebrates community voice, cultural expression, and hands-on neighborhood engagement.
At its heart, Impart216 is primarily a clustered mural placemaking project,
with strong threads of education and community engagement.
Through connected themes reflecting the idea of a community ecosystem, we see pollination and migration serving as metaphors for revitalization, history, and stewardship.
Core Values: Inclusion, Visibility, Storytelling
Anchored in the values of inclusion, visibility, and collaboration, the project brings together 12 local artists (6 teams of 2), residents, and community stakeholders to activate shared spaces with beauty, purpose, and joy. We aim to nurture local empowerment and plant seeds of a continued creative spark. At its core, Impart216 is about the layered act of imparting: the passing of knowledge, story, skill, and wisdom across generations,
disciplines, and experiences.
As a placemaking initiative, Impart216 treats public art as infrastructure for belonging, raising visibility, inviting care and inspiration. Each mural is intended to be both landmark and invitation, planting pride, building momentum, and leaving
tangible assets: cared-for walls, brighter blocks, new relationships. Together, they reimagine Mt. Pleasant as not only a place with history, but as an evolving canvas of creativity
and collective power.
Why Mt Pleasant? Why Now?
Mt Pleasant is a community that has remained a site of deep cultural memory, civic participation, and generational strength, despite systemic disinvestment. Known as a vibrant corridor of Black ownership and neighborhood pride, Mt. Pleasant today remains a symbol and seedbed of possibility—a place where creativity, resilience, and history converge.
Public Art as Civic Infrastructure
Our Impart216 cohort took on varying ways of community research, activation, and engagement. Mt. Pleasant neighbors and stakeholders helped shape themes and symbols, artists embedding local histories and hopes into the work. We worked with some community pillars (including Cleveland Public Library, NuPoint CDC, and Hood Honey) to hold interactive and celebratory events with “make-your-own-art” and educational elements. These were also opportunities where we received feedback in real time. Some artists had locals come by and try their hand at painting. Local youth interns also helped us in various parts of our process as a student fellowship. The result is a mural suite that serves as both a mirror and a megaphone, authored with the community.