Erika Baker

My passion for creating and transforming objects has been with me since childhood. As a kid, I would get in trouble because my parents would find me cutting up clothes or random objects that I owned so that I could take them apart and then turn them into new things, reattaching them to toys or furniture. I was always experimenting and playing, not very interested in television but interested in making things, changing things, and telling stories. What seemed weird to my non-artist parents turned out to be natural for me, and as I got older, I realized there were quite a few other people out there like me. Over the past 16 years, I've worked across several different nonprofit sectors, including extensive work with the autism community and as a science educator at a science museum, where I regularly did big demonstrations and stage shows to present different topics, incorporating my performance background. Throughout my career, I've remained right in or around art, theater, and puppetry. Today, my main focus is props fabrication for the opera, leading teen groups where I teach Shakespeare, and directing a teen press corps that trains teenagers in arts journalism. I also freelance as a builder, fabricator, and writer, and put significant energy into advocacy work. I recently launched KC Creatives for Change, an arts for advocacy group focused on producing live arts events that benefit local mutual aid workers and organizations. I'm proud of consistently bringing ideas into reality, even when it's scary and intimidating - whether it's big ideas for fundraisers or writing a play, I stubbornly keep making them exist.