Thursday March 27th I gave a Keynote speech to the Nebraska Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators Conference (NEASFAA) called Play is Powerful. The speech includes an exploration of my work as an educator and artist through the lens of play, its effect on the students I have worked with, and the psychosocial benefits of play in learning and overall well being. I also explore the ways that play creates a foundation for positive failure, a fail forward approach. Play is for all ages, and the audience had the opportunity to try a playful activity from their seating area. Thank you NEASFAA!

I had the pleasure of acting as Director of the Circus Sanctuary Winter Intensive program 2025. I worked with the talented Na-il Emmert, Director of Ground to push skills in acrobatics, skill building, writing, and choreography. After 3 months the students performed in two stunning shows around the concept of Equinox. The Spring Equinox was Thursday March 20th, 2025, a time around the world recognized as the change from winter to spring. Culturally, the spring equinox is a time of planting seeds, birth and new growth. There are festivals and various traditions to mark this moment of new life around the world. The Hindo celebrate with the festival Holi (festival of colors), Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims share special foods, prayer and well wishes with a tradition called Navroz, Christians honor Easter, a time for reflection on salvation and eternal life, while some Pagan traditions see it as a time to celebrate the earth doing what it does best, to grow with abandon.

In this student show, we honored the growth and emergence of the intensive artists who spent their winter months immersed in a growth mindset of skill building and artistic risk taking. The show featured 7 solo acts and 2 group acts with written pieces by each of the students, Na-il, and myself.

This January through March I am overjoyed to be the Director of the Winter Intensive program at Circus Sanctuary in Tucson, AZ. This program is 3 months of skill building, creativity, and community. Working with Na-il Emmert, director of ground choreography, I will be helping folks in the program to build solo and group acts culminating in a final show at the end of March. I was privileged to direct many shows at Bird's Eye View Circus which were thematic and often narrative. I have also worked as an art instructor in 3 universities and always bring in a sculptural sensibility to any show i am involved in. Looking forward to a very active winter in the sun!

My art practice was featured this year for Feed Your Soul a massive arts fundraising event for Feeding America Wisconsin. This year the event was help at the St. Kate Hotel in downtown Milwaukee.

Scrapyard Solutions (my partner Erik), and Metal Witch Studio (my metal art project) teamed up for a craft fair at The Magnet Factory in south Milwaukee this December. The former Magnet Factory is now a community space and was filled with wonderful makers and shoppers on the southside. Thanks for having us MF.

Thanks to many community and national partners such as Dead Man's Carnival, Feed Your Soul, and The World Oddities Expo, I have continued performing solo or with my partner Erik. Please follow these organizations for great old-time cabaret shows (Dead Man's), fighting hunger through a massive art event (Feed Your Soul), and a traveling curiosities emporium (WOE).

Above is a picture of a holiday parade where I am wearing a stilt-walking Christmas tree costume of my own design, along with a new young friend and Miss America pageant in Milwaukee.

This fall I started my graduate studies to become a Professional Counselor and Expressive Arts Therapist at Adler Graduate School. This is an online program that is CACREP accredited and will run year-round in the quarterly system until I finish. It has been a huge undertaking to manage work, art, and school, but I am overjoyed to be joining a fundamentally forward-thinking profession with wellness advocacy as the core principle. Neo-Adlerians work to continue the application and core principles of social justice, community, and encouragement of their clients, but also as an approach to life and community citizenship, principles important to me. As an artist and educator, I am also excited to expand my skill set and learn to apply my practice to healing. Expressive Arts is a type of art therapy that uses a multimodal approach. Visual arts, movement, theater, music, role play, etc are applied to healing with a focus on somatic embodiment. This decision came after several years of psychology classes, thought work, and deep spell rituals to truly envision where my skill set is and where I want to grow as a person. To those of you who have already supported me in this endeavor with friendship, meals, and long walks, thank you!

The metal and plant sculpture I have been making are part of a group exhibition of other like minded artists working with nature themes at Woodwalk Gallery, in an exhibit called Grounded.

Opening Reception Friday April 21st 6-9pm, 2023
(Gallery Night)
The Avenue: 275 W Wisconsin Ave, Milwaukee
Free and Open to the Public

I worked with students from Michael Carriere's history class at the Milwaukee School of Engineering on an experimental living sculpture, combining fabricated and CNC cut steel with living plants. Our project, Recipro[city] celebrates the culture of urban sustainability in Milwaukee and the ways that humans are making room for nature to thrive in an urban setting.

About the exhibit:
Dear Nature includes sculptures created by MIAD, MSOE, UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts, and UW-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning. The show "explores multiple dimensions of human intersection with nature, while celebrating the disparate elements of Earth, Self, and Natural Form.

Sculpture Milwaukee's "newest initiative reflects the implementation of its mission beyond its signature exhibition of monumental public sculpture along Wisconsin avenue by impacting how the community engages with the broader built environment, both today and in the future."

My work is featured in the December 18th issue of Art Dose Magazine. Artdose Magazine covers visual art content from Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin as well as featuring artists from across the globe.

"Upcoming art e-newsletter will feature sculptures by Erin Garber-Pearson, Exhibitions: Between Seeing & Knowing: Anne Boothe and Nancy Cohen at Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass (Neenah) and Within Villages of Stone: Andy Newman at Lily Pad | West Gallery (Milwaukee), Artist Call: Wisconsin Visual Artists: Perspectives 2023, Artdose Magazine Vol 33 Spotlight: Guardian Fine Art Services, Pre-order: Artdose Magazine 10th Year Anniversary Artist Directory

To join in the action all you have to do is subscribe by clicking the link

Thank you Art Dose!

Starting in January 2023, my work will be featured and sold year round at Woodwalk Gallery in Door County, Wisconsin. A great destination for vacations on Lake Michigan (and art!) in and amongst groves of cedar trees.

Open House Art Exhibition and Holiday Sale
20 Ton Studios, Milwaukee, WI
Small art for sale, music, studio tours, coal cookies and some rad people hanging out. If you are in the area, come say hi, we will have the heat on!

This summer I had the opportunity to assist Andrew Hayes at Penland School of Craft for his metal fabrication class called "Truth in Fabrication." 2 weeks of working in a beautiful shop with some absolutely brilliant people. While there I started a series of sensory objects which hold herbs, more to come!

For the past 9+ years I have spent building and growing Birds Eye View Circus - 20+ classes a week, and anywhere from 8-15 instructors at a time all paid in the top 95% of wages in our industry.

Together we have learned a myriad of circus skills, put on at least 2 dozen student shows, full theater productions, and performed all over the Toledo community with the occasional trip to Milwaukee, Delaware, West Virginia, Detroit etc.

For some time, my life has been moving in another direction. My partner and I want to be closer to our families and Toledo no longer fits into this plan.

I am beyond thrilled to announce that instructors Chloe, Renee, Morgan, and Matt have collectively purchased Bird's Eye View Circus! Given their individual skill sets I could not be more sure of a bright future for BEVC.

Being a creative business owner has been such a huge part of my life and I’m excited to see what comes next. In the meantime Ill be slowing down and reveling in having less on my plate, for however long that lasts.

MUCH LOVE to all the self employed hustlers, studio owners and people supporting small businesses and creative endeavors- we couldn’t do it without you.
-Erin

This Spring I returned to teaching Art, this time at Cochise Community College in Sierra Vista, AZ. I taught 2D Design and 3D Design/Beginning Sculpture, check my Teaching Portfolio to see some of the projects I did with the wonderful students there.

In February of 2020 I joined the 20 Ton Studios, first as an Artist- In-Residence, and then as a collective member. The studio houses 7 artists working in various mediums from painting to sculpture, and of course the various social practice work of your truly.

Circus International Film Festival
March- April 2021

Aber was accepted into the Circus International Film Festival. Screenings will run from March 14th to April 14th, winners being announced April 17. The festival is free, and emails are sent out each day with the links to that day’s video screenings.
You can subscribe to receive the emails on the website, and of course vote for your favorite films.

Aber
Premiers November 14th with INSERIES, The Logan Operahouse Without Walls.

A project very dear to my heart I started last February with soprano Carli Miller to interweave classical music, vocal performance and the aerial arts. We wanted to tell a story about loss, grief, and the redemptive power of love. Aber combines "Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit" from Ein deutches Requiem bbt Brahms, newly arranged for soprano and guitar by Nathan Siler with aerial silks and film. In the process of creating Aber, Caroline lost her grandmother. This piece and this partnership were there to catch her. I am so grateful for this, her, and the amazing team we worked with, Matthew James Miller, Mary Cloud, and Elizabeth van Os.

MINDSCAPES DRIVE IN CIRCUS SHOW
Saturday October 24th
Two shows: 7:30pm and 9:30pm

I am producing a Drive-In show for the Bird's Eye View Circus School

Circus acts, music, and shadow puppetry will be performed by youth and adult students from the Birds Eye circus school, as well as local, national, and international guest artists and performers. All acts are based on themes of fantasy, isolation, mental health, imagination, intuition, enhanced creativity, connection with other people and the absurd new normal we live in. The audience will watch from their cars, tuning in on the radio just like a real drive in circus.

Mindscapes is a socially-distant event, and we encourage you to participate from the safety of your own car or from home.

Tickets for the IN PERSON EVENT here
Tickets for VIRTUAL ZOOM SHOW here

Saturday May 16th 8:30pm Chicago/9:30pm EST
Squishing a circus show into people's living rooms and garages isn't easy, but we make it happen! May 16, join us for the next edition of Sanctuary in Place, live from all the performers houses! I'll be getting all dressed up and fancy-with-no-pants-on and we will have a big Zoom-enabled circus show, just like old times!

Donate here for your show link! It's a $0.00 ticket but you add your donation after that.
https://www.artful.ly/store/events/20409

And would you believe it's almost as fun and awesome as the real thing? People get to do weird things they could never do on a regular stage while creating live circus films for you to watch. It's so fun and DOPE.

Saturday, October 26th, 2019

Directing and Choreography for Bird's Eye View Circus Show Echoes They Left Behind
This show will explore stories of ghost encounters, paranormal experiences, campfire tales, creepy pasta, real life tales of terror, ghost sightings and more. A series of group and solo acts that use a unique blend of physical storytelling with aerial acrobatics, tightwire,and live theater.
Toledo City Paper Article Here

June 17th, 2019

Accelerator Grant Award from the Toledo Arts Commission for the purchase of a Gimbal, a self stabilizing mechanism specifically made for live action shots, reducing camera shake so the footage looks professional, regardless of being handheld. As an interdisciplinary artist working mainly in performance, this is an invaluable tool for developing further work, Thank you for the support TAC!

August 10- Sept 13th, 2019
Peoria, IL

My work will be included in the 2019 Annual Alumni Invitational Show at Prairie Center of the Arts, where I was an Artist In Residence in 2011
Learn More

October 29th, 2018

Women Cinemakers is an online publication based in Berlin, dedicated to highlighting established and emerging female-identified artists working in film. My video, City Steps, was selected for their special biennial issue featuring independent filmmakers and performance artists.

The resulting interview was a 22 page interview exploring the emotional resonance between sound, movement and architecture in City Steps.

Read the full issue here

April 26th-28th, 2019
Annex Gallery, Detroit, MI

My collaborative project Transmission, with artist Lis Chere Thomas was shown at the All Together Now music and arts festival in Detroit, Michigan. The festival included a gallery exhibition, live performance, film blocks, and live music.

Learn More

April 25th, 2019

An interview I did with Hayley Taylor for her WGTE Program, The Rough Draft Diaries about the studio I founded and am currently artistic director of, Birds Eye View Circus

Listen to full 6 minute Interview

January 11th, 2019

Inclusion in Chicago's Women Made Gallery 2nd Midwest Open Exhibition Jan 11th- Feb 2nd

Juried by Amy Galpin, Chief Curator of the Frost Art Museum in Miami, Florida, this multidisciplinary exhibition was a selection of 35 artists from 8 Midwestern States.

Saturday April 27th, 2019
Sanger Library, Toledo, OH

Part of a Feminist education series of events at Sanger library, this panel discussion included Women artists and activists in the Toledo area who have found sustainable ways to generate income through their creative occupations. We discussed best business practices, tools available in the library as well as online, and general outreach needed to sustain a project both entrepreneurial and community minded.

Event Info

November 21st, 2018


Artist interview with Jason Webber of the Toledo City Paper Read Interview Here