I’m Jocelyn Malik, Owner of Footbridge Canvas & Consulting, and as long as I can remember, creativity and artistic purpose has been a central part of my life.  Anchoring my journey are a small stream in rural Maryland, a picturesque cove on the coast of Maine, and the vibrant Cultural District in downtown Pittsburgh.  

We all have close-to-the-heart, core places that have helped to form who we are and what matters to us.  When I think back to my childhood, what stands out is a little brook that ran through our property in Elkton, Maryland. I would spend hours playing on the rocks and in the water, and the treasures I collected would become my own little art projects and creative explorations.  As I got older, I was fortunate enough to spend holidays and summer visiting my Dad in Ogunquit, Maine.  The rock-bordered cove we’d set up our beach chairs on helped cultivate my curiosity and love for nature, and later in life, when I focused earnestly on cultivating my oil painting practice, it was a series of paintings of the rocky coast of Maine that were my inspiration. 

Several years after graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a BA in Great Books Literature and Italian, I received my master’s degree in Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon University.  I was impressed with the vibrant cultural scene in Pittsburgh. I put down roots and spent my career applying the relationship-building and analytical skills I’d learned in graduate school toward strategic fundraising for organizations including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, the August Wilson African American Cultural Center and the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.  Throughout my over 20 year career, I cultivated expertise in institutional, individual and major gifts fundraising, and am deeply committed to supporting the non-profit organizations that help make Pittsburgh the place I am proud to call home.