Melanie Schambach is a Latinx social artist, visual facilitator, and arts-based engagement specialist whose work centers collective imagination and community connection. For more than twenty years, she has designed participatory art processes that invite people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities to contribute their stories, insights, and hopes. Her work supports communities, teams, and organizations in making meaning together. In her work, she explores concepts of identity, humanism, and transformational futures.

Melanie blends formal training with the depth of lived experience. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design (2006) and has additional education in trauma-informed practice, art therapy principles, strength-based coaching, embodied movement, and conflict transformation. This interdisciplinary foundation allows her to create inclusive, culturally responsive, and psychologically safe spaces where participants can reflect, collaborate, and build creative confidence.

Raised in the fog forests of Dapa, Colombia, and shaped by later life in Guatemala and Canada, Melanie’s worldview is informed by lived encounters with liminality and difference, held together by a principled commitment to social and relational accountability. These experiences strengthened her belief that artistic expression is not limited to professionalism but a vital part of human resilience and collective well-being. In 2024, she relocated to Denver, USA, where she continues to collaborate with local and international partners.

Her participatory artworks and research-based projects have been featured at the Seattle Art Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and Harbour Centre in Vancouver. She has partnered with universities, grassroots organizations, Indigenous leaders, museums, youth programs, and cross-sector coalitions throughout America/América and Europe. A TEDx speaker, Melanie shares her approach through talks, training, and community-based initiatives that highlight how art can cultivate deeper mutual understanding, strengthen relational ecosystems, and open imaginative pathways toward more integrated and interconnected ways of being.