Biography  

Melanie Schambach (born 1981, Colombia) 

Melanie Schambach is a Colombian social artist based in London, Ontario. Melanie holds a diploma in introduction to art therapy (2015) from SASANA Technical School in Bogota, Colombia, a bachelor of fine arts with a visual arts major (2006) from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia, and a diploma in visual arts (2004) from the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia. She has continued expanding her research interests by completing several certificates including online creative facilitation (2020) by Partners for Youth Empowering, voice intensive (2019) by Canada’s National Voice Intensive in Toronto, and the art of facilitation (2017) by Partners for Youth Empowering in Kingston, Ontario. Her career has been centred on community engagement by working as a facilitator in different initiatives such as the Partner for Youth Empowering Global (2012–2022) and the Cross-Cultural Learner Centre in London, Ontario (2016–2017).  

Melanie Schambach’s studio work is mural painting. She engages with the community through participatory painting, including them in the design and painting process to reflect and represent the community. She has showcased in the projects We Still Have Hope (2020) at Innovation Works in London, Ontario, Totem Pole Journey (2019) at the Seattle Art Museum in Seattle, Washington, and Totem Pole Journey (2019) at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, California. Her work has been part of collective exhibitions including River Heartbeat: Collaborative Art Installation (2018) at the Carfrae Park, London, Ontario, Protecting the Land (2018) at the University of British Columbia Social Justice Centre in Vancouver, and Anthropocene: Natural History Museums in the Age of Humanity (2017) at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.