Erwin Erkfitz Email & Phone Number

Greater Grand Rapids, Michigan Area

As an arts educator I have been mentor, teacher, tour guide, lecturer and artist. Over the past 10 years I have dedicated myself to assist in the building of creative culture in communities. From working alongside teen groups to guiding older generations through creative parts of their communities, I have shed light on the great impact arts and creativity can have on our society. Much of my work with teens has revolved around community revitalization initiatives and projects in a public space. I work along with and mentor teens to plan and execute these projects. Assisting the students as they work with neighbors and business owners within a community to generate a design concept and installation to be enjoyed by the individuals living and working in the area.As a guest lecturer and tour guide I have worked with many West Michigan arts organizations to create an inclusive environment to discover and explore the creative corners of West Michigan. These experiences have been many and have included my involvement in panel discussions, neighborhood association partnerships, community outreach, non-profit organization partnerships, and the creation of creative tours of Grand Rapids, MI during arts events such as Art Downtown and Artprize.Partnerships Include:Grand Rapids Art Museum, Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Calvin College, Lowell Arts!, Downtown Grand Rapids, Inc., Avenue for the Arts, Dwelling Place of Grand Rapids, Well House of Grand Rapids, and many more.

Erwin Erkfitz Company aka eeco, llc is a graphic arts production studio operated by Erwin Erkfitz. Erwin is a studio artist, muralist, screen printer and graphic designer. eeco has a focus on large scale mural installation as well as commercial apparel and flat-stock screen printing services. His illustrative mural artwork is often colorful with ties to traditional street art graffiti techniques and application. Self described as hyper-doodles Erkfitz’s work ranges from stylistic figures in psychedelic landscapes to hard lined organic vine type structures that twist through architectural elements. With a background in graphic design and screen printing, eeco also offers a variety of services that include; commercial apparel imprinting, flat-stock poster printing, graphic design, branding, and design consulting.Business Partnerships and Clients Include:Grand Valley State University Art Collection, Barfly Ventures, HopCat Louisville, KC, Hopcat Ann Arbor, MI, KPMG of Grand Rapids, MI, Forcade Associates, Grand Rapids Symphony, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum MSU, Michigan Audubon Society, SiTE:LAB, Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts, Stella's Lounge, Pyramid Scheme, Gilmore Group, and many more.

Part-Time, Seasonal, Freelance or Consulting in Fine Art Preparations. Experience with: Art packing and crating, hanging methods and mounts, display design and fabrication, shipping and transportation logistics, art handling and installation, scheduling and project management, collections management, and exhibition design.Clients Include:Denver Art Museum, Art Management and Packing Associates, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Clifford Stills Museum, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum MSU, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art (UICA), Exit Space Project, Kendall College of Art and Design, Downtown Grand Rapids, Inc, SiTE:LAB, Artprize, Grand Rapids Symphony, Kathryn Chaplow LLC, Avenue for the Arts, and many more.

Denver, Colorado

East Lansing, Michigan

Grand Rapids, Michigan

For nearly 10 years I was involved with Preparations and Registration within the Curatorial Department of the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Direct duties revolved around the handling and proper care of the permanent collection and traveling exhibition works. In addition, I was involved with; cross departmental projects for special exhibitions and programs, facilities and security communications, exhibition projecting, budgeting, and accounting.Responsibilities included:Art-Handling, Installation, Exhibition Design, Installation Management, Transportation Logistics, Lighting Coordination, Gallery Display Design and Carpentry, Collections Management, Scheduling, Budgeting, Maintenance of Policies and ProceduresAccomplishments:Created and trained a West Michigan network of 10+ On-Call Preparator's that has allowed GRAM to facilitate the installation of over 20 world class exhibitions.Received accolades from organizing institution leadership from Whitney Museum of American Art, Smithsonian International Traveling Exhibitions, Walker Art Center and many more.Successfully implemented collaborative strategies for cross departmental planning of exhibition programming and interpretive exhibition elements.Influential in the development of an exhibition planning document and system for museum wide development.

Greater Grand Rapids, Michigan Area

A multi-disciplinary artist collective consisting of fine arts, illustrators, graphic designers, fashion designers and musicians. From assisting corporate freelance clients to creating arts & music events, Ideal Collective was instrumental in the creative development of Grand Rapids, MI in the early 2000's. Ideal Collective was a founding group of the arts event Destination:1111 that was held on the 1111 Godfrey warehouse campus late September 2005-2010.