I’m Erica McCalman (she/her), a creative director, strategist, facilitator and speaker based in Melbourne. I work with organisations, artists and individuals doing ambitious, values-driven work.

I am Ballardong Noongar woman with Irish Convict, Cornish and Scottish heritage, and I am neurodivergent. I move through the world as someone who has always lived at several intersections at once, in the liminal spaces between cultures, ways of knowing and ways of being. It is where my sharpest thinking comes from, shaping what I notice, what I question, and what opportunities are found just outside of view. It’s where my insight into who gets to be in the room, whose knowledge is valued, and what a genuinely hopeful future might look like comes from.

I’m drawn to complexity, to the edges where different disciplines and lived experiences meet, and the kinds of conversations and events that shift something.

With a background spanning major arts festivals, advocacy, climate initiatives and systems change, I bring both the creative thinking and the practical know-how to connect people and ideas.

Hi, I’m Erica.

Latest News.

  • GUTS Dance // Central Australia - Desert Hothouse

    After six years in development three performance works choreographed by Katrina Olsen, Frankie Snowden and Madeline Krenek will premiere alongside an experiential program designed by Erica McCalman in Mparntwe/Alice Springs. More than a performance season—it’s a communal moment to process the present and imagine a more empowered, interconnected future.

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  • Live Now - StageLync Podcast Appearance

    I speak with Anna Robb about experimental art, sustaining a career through volatility and the role of the arts in fostering genuine belonging and community connection.

    Listen/Watch

  • Assembly for B Lab Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand

    What happens when Erica teams up with B Lab Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand to inject business for purpose with arts and cultural expertise? Carmen Hawker (CARMEN GET IT!) reflects on three days on Darkinjung country cracking echo chambers, shifting systems and communing under the stars.

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  • PAC Australia - APAX Speech shared over 2000 times globally

    In August 2025 I delivered a keynote provocation at the Australian Performing Arts Exchange in Darwin. Only Castles Burning (Don't Let It Bring You Down) drew on two decades inside the sector to map where we are in the grand cycle — and what that asks of us now. It found its way to arts workers and leaders well beyond the room.

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Work With Me.

  • I bring ideas to life. My practice spans the full arc of a creative project: from the first conversation over a coffee to the moment an audience walks in - and I’m as comfortable at intimate scale as when I’m collaborating on something ambitious and complex. Twenty years across production, producing, curation and creative direction have given me a particular understanding of what it takes to make something real, and who needs to brought on the journey to ensure authenticity and impact.

  • I hold rooms with warmth, rigour and humour. I am engaged to help groups connect across different lived experiences and unearth common ground to build on. Whether you are looking for an MC who makes each person in the room feel like they belong, a panel moderator who can spark conversation or a facilitator who can bring out the best in a group, I create transformative spaces for collaboration.

  • Some of my most important work is invisible from the outside. For more than two decades I have been a trusted presence in the Australian arts sector and the adjacent ecosystems working on climate, culture, and systems change. Advising, assessing, mentoring, and thinking alongside the organisations and individuals doing the work that matters. This is not consulting in the transactional sense. It is the kind of sustained, careful engagement that only becomes possible when trust has been built over a long time and held with integrity.

  • I speak, write, and illuminate ideas which have been left unspoken or ignored. I'm sought out when an organisation needs someone who can apply a new lens to a moment, a movement or a culture with honesty, care, and enough precision to empower audiences through clarity and insight. My speeches, provocations and writing have travelled well beyond the spaces they first appeared, and work in service of stoking curiosity, understanding and courage. 

Whether you have a clear brief or just the beginning of an idea, I’m always up for a conversation. Reach out for a chat over a coffee or online to start something special.

Let's Chat.