Jeanne Fleming
[citation needed] Fleming took responsibility for continuing the Village Halloween Parade in 1985 after its founding artistic director, Ralph Lee, decided to no longer run the event.
In 2001, New York City government and police allowed Fleming to produce the second large-scale event in NYC to take place after the September 11 attacks (the first was the Columbus Day Parade on October 8).
Having graduated with a BA from Bard College in Medieval Studies, most of Fleming's original event designs involve themes requiring historical and literary research.
As designed, the Walking On Air event was regional in focus and consisted of a year of educational and creative visual arts programs with 50 communities on both sides of the Hudson River in Dutchess and Ulster Counties, NY.
Between 1996-99 she directed the 650th Anniversary of the town of Nowy Targ, Poland, a month-long program involving American and Balinese craftsmen in puppet construction culminating in a procession for the World Bamboo Festival in Bali, an Iroko Tree Ceremony with the Mothers-of-Saint from Bahia, Brazil, and "The Making, Baking and Breaking of Bread," a community project that involved the construction of a working replica of a Medieval community bread oven, "Presente de Yemanjá," a tribute to the Hudson River on the historic Rokeby Estate in Barrytown, NY and based on African/Brazilian traditions, "Ogun," a tribute to the forests of the Hudson Valley, and "Ibeiji––A Celebration of Twins."
In addition to the events above, she has designed and produced Independence Day 1984 and 1985 for New York City, New York’s Village Halloween Parade (1982-to present), the 42nd St. River to River Festival, A Special Night on 53rd Street, and major events for small towns including the 300th Anniversary of the Town of Rhinebeck, N.Y. which involved six months of special programs, culminating in an old time country fair.
Fleming has given the keynote address at the Henson International Puppetry Festival, the national conference of the Association of College, and the University and Community Arts Administrators (ACUCAA).
She also taught in the Gifted Students Program at the Rhinebeck High School and worked with local teenagers on the design, fund-raising, and realization of a much needed teen center.
When not producing events, Fleming writes and directs her own large-scale outdoor theater pieces, is a storyteller, and has shown her original fashion designs at All American Craft Enterprises exhibitions, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian Institution.
