Unique Approaches to Creative Education
Are you an emerging artist or creative?
Have you been looking for ways to advance your work, but you find yourself stymied at every step?
At the end of the day, do you find yourself wondering if you’re following a path for your creative work that is, deep down, someone else’s vision rather than your own? You’re ready to take your work to new heights — advanced techniques, well-researched concepts, a wider public presence — but you have no idea where to begin.
Maybe you’ve already tried traditional creative programs, but they’ve left you lacking key skills to continue a sustainable practice on your own.
You’re more than capable of finding and following your unique creative path. Perhaps you need a different route to get there.
Welcome.
My name is Erin Schalk, and I founded Bridging Art to fill in the gaps of creative education.
My mission is to assist emerging artists and creatives with gaining the tools they need to reinvigorate and advance their practices in the ways that feel most authentic and intuitive to each individual.
Bridging Art centers on a creative atmosphere that is supportive, empowering, and collaborative. As creative people, we often find ourselves in a pressure cooker of competition and exclusion that hinders our artistic growth. My philosophy is art and creative practice are spacious banquet tables: there’s a seat for everyone.
I grew up in the rural Midwest. At the time, this seemed like a most unlikely situation for an aspiring artist and writer to be planted. Lacking access to art programs, museums, and fellow like-minded artists, my first steps as an emerging artist involved a long, trial-and-error process of self-education.
You may find yourself in a similar situation, looking to move forward on your creative journey but lacking a map and compass. Yet, at the end of the day, you still feel this quiet gnawing at your heart and mind that there is creative work you are called to do in this world that you haven’t yet accomplished.
The truth?
In my experience, the only effective way to satisfy the drumbeats of these internal marching orders is to begin taking the steps toward the unique voice and creative practice you’ve been called to develop during this brief time on earth.
Let’s not lose another moment.
Artist, educator, and creative mentor Erin Schalk is the real deal: an acclaimed contemporary artist, poet and author with an impressive exhibition and publication record; a working mother and military spouse who, like you, knows what it's like to finish a full day's work, get food on the table, and then burn the proverbial midnight oil (or 4am lamplight, as the case may be!) to maintain a regular creative practice and reclaim one's spiritual vitality as an artist.
When Erin says she delivers a customized program for each creative client, no matter their background, embodied experience, or life circumstances, know that she is not exaggerating: whether drawing from her years of experience in Japanese translation and international education, her innovation in developing arts curricula for the blind, or her expertise as a spiritual practitioner and coach, not to mention her own daily art practice, Erin's matrix of skills and attentive listening ear are incomparable.
Erin not only excels in but revels in meeting each person at this exact moment on their divine creative mission and helping us break through the seemingly impenetrable creative or logistical block. I marvel at the generosity with which Erin extends her caring focused attention: you can feel that it's the same attention she gives to her own art work, and it's an invaluable and highly personal gift. Couple that with a relentless pursuit of creative excellence and a contagious JOY that she has worked hard to cultivate and maintain through the ebbs and flows of life's challenges, and you, as I have, will come away not only with creative arts skills and a sense of having realized decades-long dreams, but you will find that you have built skills for more complete seeing, more wholehearted living. I am blessed to have been supported and coached by Erin to realize both my visual art and creative writing projects, and I recommend her with flying colors to anyone who is finally ready to bring forth the creative spark that is finally ready to take form in the world.
— Arielle T., Professional Visual Artist & Teaching Artist, arielletonkin.com
I am a professional arts educator of over ten years. I’m also the creator of over sixty unique creative courses, and I’ve rarely taught in traditional classrooms or with prescribed lesson plans.
My work has taken me to amazingly unconventional settings and situations. I’ve taught while living overseas, worked with all ages from preschoolers through nonagenarians (90-somethings!), and even developed accessibility-driven arts programming for students with visual impairments.
In this journey, I’ve discovered that these ‘atypical’ teaching experiences have been laden with invaluable hidden gifts. Rather than relying on broad brush, one-size-fits-most styles of teaching, I’ve learned to be highly sensitive and adapt to my students’ unique needs.
Together, let’s find the right creative path that meshes with (rather than pushes against) your unique life situation, while harnessing your innate strengths in the process.
Erin has been incredibly patient teaching me that I too can write! Erin's kind feedback helps guide me in the right directions, highlighting my abilities in the things that I already did well in my drafts. This makes the transition to writing much more manageable and exciting, as it takes something that I am able to do easily to something I can learn to do well with time and practice. In addition, she provides many resources that I can refer to for guidance, breaking down the information to focus on a few tasks that get me closer towards completion. I really enjoy working with Erin, as she brings a can-do attitude and positive energy that leave me feeling inspired.
— Kat P., Accountability Coach, fitfiercecoaching.com