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 — helping them think more clearly, act more boldly and communicate what they’re actually trying to do.

I am Ballardong Noongar 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 — and that position, in the liminal spaces between cultures, ways of knowing and ways of being, is where my sharpest thinking comes from. It shapes what I notice, what I question, and what others sometimes miss entirely. It’s where my insight into who gets to be in the room, whose knowledge is valued, and what a genuinely regenerative future might look like comes from.

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

Hi, I’m Erica.

My Work

My practice spans creative direction, strategy and experience design, facilitation and mentoring, speaking, and writing. The common thread is helping people and organisations find clarity and confidence in the work that matters most to them.

I came up through the arts — more than a decade producing and presenting work across Australia and internationally gave me a deep grounding in what it takes to bring ambitious ideas to life. That foundation gave me something not everyone has: the ability to take an idea from first conversation to lived reality. My practice has grown and changed, but that capacity — to make things real — remains at the heart of how I work.

Today I work across the arts, climate, and systems change — sectors full of people trying to do genuinely difficult, genuinely important things, and who deserve a collaborator who takes that seriously.

Ways of Working

A few things that shape how I work:

I believe good process is as important as good outcomes. How we get somewhere matters — to the people involved, to the quality of the result, and to what’s possible next.

I bring warmth and good humour to everything, including the hard stuff. Rigour and levity aren’t opposites.

I’m interested in the work that sits at intersections — between art and advocacy, between strategy and story, between what is and what could be.

I work best with people who are genuinely open to thinking differently, even when it’s uncomfortable.

More

If something here resonates and you’d like to explore working together, I’d love to hear from you.

Get in touch

  • I have served on the boards of Theatre Network Australia, ILBIJERRI and La Mama Theatre Company, and on the advisory group for the Arts Wellbeing Collective. I have also been a longstanding advocate for the arts through my association with Theatre Network Australia and grassroots sector-led initiatives.

  • Bachelor of Fine Art (Production), University of Melbourne / Victorian College of the Arts.

    Graduate, Small Giants Academy Mastery of Business and Empathy program.

    Graduate, Small Giants Academy Climate Leadership Accelerator program.

  • I have mentored and facilitated for organisations including A Climate for Art (ACFA), Vitalstatistix, Hyphenated Projects, Creative Australia, Performing Lines, Darwin Fringe and Artback NT.