thirdspacearts

Melissa is an artist, educator, and art therapist living and working in the Chicago area.  She is an Associate Professor, Adj. at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) where she has been teaching for 20+ years.  She is the founding director of Evanston ASPA, a nonprofit organization that provides resources and support for the local Asian, South Asian, Pacific Islander American community, and increase the visibility and representation of the Asian American diaspora in civic, cultural and community spaces through the arts. Melissa provides professional development and consulting services to schools, businesses, and organizations interested in using the arts to build community and to explore creative approaches to conversations around diversity and equity with young people and families.  She also provides professional development for educators to support TEAACH curriculum and activities.  She offers clinical supervision for post-graduate art therapists and counselors pursuing their art therapy registration (ATR) and/or clinical license (LPC, LCPC), and coordinates peer supervision for mental health professionals. She is currently serving on the Evanston Arts Council and the Evanston Public Library DEIB Advisory Board.

 

Education & Training

Melissa holds a BA in Psychology and a BFA from the University of Michigan, and an MA in Art Therapy from SAIC.  She is a registered, board-certified art therapist and licensed clinical professional counselor. Melissa completed SEED training in 2021 and was part of the Evanston Community Foundation's Leadership Evanston XXXI cohort.

 

Professional Experience

Melissa has extensive experience in nonprofit arts development, program design and implementation, community organizing, and arts engagement.  From 2000-2007 she served as the founding Director of Connection Arts Chicago, a nonprofit organization providing free therapeutic art programs for children and families who identify as recent immigrants and refugees, and from 2007-2018 she was a founding owner of the therapeutic practice Art & Soul, where she served as Director of School and Community Programs to develop social-emotional arts programming for youth.  Through this work, she has honed her skills in non-profit arts management, grant writing, fundraising, community partnerships, and coalition building.  Over the course of 20 years she has developed and implemented K-12 art & SEL programs designed for in school and after school engagement, designed and orchestrated multigenerational and multicultural community-based arts programs, planned and managed annual fundraising benefits and large-scale events, curated a number of youth, adult, and intergenerational exhibitions, and created and conducted workshops that utilize the arts to engage discourse around equity and antiracism.  Melissa's experience includes working with young people and those who care for and and work with them to engage in actives that center dialogue around race and equity.  She participates in ongoing professional development and experiential learning opportunities to continue this work.  

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Art Practice

Melissa's art practice involves ritual and sensory memory to explore intercultural and intergenerational themes, creating meaning in both personal and collective identity through assemblage and mixed media narratives.  Although she actively exhibits her work and continues her curatorial work, she is largely focused on socially-engaged art and creative community collaboration.  Melissa is a former founding board member, and current member, of Evanston Made, and was awarded a curatorial fellowship at the Evanston Art Center in 2022.  View a portfolio of her art work and curatorial work here.