Robin Wallis Atkinson

Robin Wallis Atkinson is the founder and CEO of INTERFORM (formerly known as NWA Fashion Week and Arkansas Arts & Fashion Forum). Atkinson’s professional career as a curator and arts organizer got its start in Northwest Arkansas in the early 2000s. One of the founding members of Art Amiss Inc., she has been an active participant in the Northwest Arkansas arts community for more than a decade. She holds a BA in Art History from the University of Arkansas and a Masters of Curatorial Studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College in New York. Since the reboot of NWA Fashion Week in 2016, Atkinson has provided opportunities for creatives of all backgrounds and continues to be a leader in equity and inclusivity. In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic Atkinson launched a mask making campaign for the public and the staff of INTERFORM. By the end of 2021 INTERFORM had produced more than 25,000 face masks for the local community. In 2021, she became a member of the NWA Business Journal’s 40 under 40 Club and in 2022, she was instrumental in authoring INTERFORM’s largest-ever grant in the amount of $2.2 million by the Walton Family Foundation. Atkinson’s creativity, commitment to equity, and resilient leadership have grown INTERFORM from a small budget of less than $70,000 in its first year to an organization that grosses more than $1.2 million annually. This growth trajectory is expected to climb as INTERFORM expands into sewn trades production, education, and larger arts and community programs.

Robin was in the inaugural 2010 ICI Intensive in New York.