Mike Robinson

Mike studied at Cardiff’s renowned Howard Gardens Art College, specialising in Sculpture BA (Hons) under the guidance of Turner Prize Artist Mona Hatoum. Since then, he has maintained a creative approach to his work and values exploration as a starting point to problem solving.

Upon leaving college he set up a business, Space Cat Creations who were presented with a Silver Medal by HRH Prince Charles at a Princes Youth Business Trust Trade show and subsequently their work was sold through Liberty’s London.

Mike spent several years designing and constructing kitchens etc. using re-claimed materials and was Exhibition Technician for St David’s Hall.

Since then, Mike has accumulated over 25 years’ experience working on opera and theatrical sets most notably for WNO, LAMDA and RWCMD.

In his early days as Production Carpenter at Welsh National Opera Mike particularly enjoyed the challenge of refurbishing and repairing opera sets, originally built in the 70’s, as it required a thorough understanding of traditional carpentry techniques. Mike believes the nature and role of craftsmanship is as important as it ever was, in the way that it puts emphasis on honing processes to continually improve skills as a part of a lifetime of learning.

As a WNO Production Carpenter, Mike was involved in the constructing of, RWCMD alumni designer, Max Jones’ Cosi Fan Tute which involved working with a structural engineer to build a two-storey house on wheels. Mike's enjoyment of the production process, the complexity of project management and degree of collaboration required, led to him becoming a production manager.

Whilst Production Manager for WNOs Youth and Community Department he trained as a coach and mentor, making the move towards working in Higher Education, first as Senior Construction Tutor at LAMDA before starting at RWCMD.

Mike is an active member in RWCMD’s Restorative Practice programme.

Mike represented Wales in Snow Sculpting in America.

He was the Production Manager for two WNYO productions - the award-winning Paul Bunyan on the Donald Gordon Stage of the Wales Millennium Centre and the ground-breaking Kommilitonen! at MEMO Arts Centre in Barry.

Mike was the Production Manager for the first fully staged version of Gair ar Gnawd –filmed by S4C at the Ffwrnes in Llanelli.