Joyce Grear served as artist in residence (1980-1987) for the City of Wilmington Parks and Recreation Department. Under her guidance, the special populations department grew to include a wide range of community-based programs and projects. She founded and co-founded: The Wilmington's Children's Theatre, The Senior Players, Art Camp, and The Annual Youth Storytelling Festival; Grear has also toured Pender and Brunswick counties as a Living History Character and storyteller.

Since 1987, Grear has toured primarily throughout the Southeast, New England, and to South Korea and Japan for the Department of Defense Dependent Schools. She has appeared as a featured teller in many storytelling festivals, to include the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesbourgh, Tennessee and the National Black Storytelling Festival in Oakland, California.

Presently, Joyce is once again serving as artist in residence, for The Family and Neighborhood Institute of North Carolina, Inc (FNI). FNI is a non-profit organization in Wilmington, NC, with emphasis on academics and character building programs for at-risk youth. The mission of FNI: to build stronger families and wholesome neighborhoods by implementing programs and service initiatives that maximize individual potential and overall community. It is this mission that brings Joyce Grear full circle.

In addition to her own performances, Grear teaches drama, writes plays, and directs the children of FNI. She uses stories as a teaching tool. Joyce is the "griot" of Wilmington. She is a storyteller of her village, for she knows that storytelling is the oldest form of the village school.

Having graduated from Williston Senior High School in 1966, Joyce was voted "Best Actress" her senior year. Forty years later, creativity, children and community are still the balance of this artist in residence...Joyce Grear, the storyteller.