SHORT BIO

Melanie Yugo is a visual artist, educator, multidisciplinary programmer and policy researcher working at the intersection of culture, community engagement, and institutional change. She combines artistic, public policy, educational, entrepreneurial and care practices to address pressing social and cultural issues in Canada.

Melanie co-founded and directs the community-driven art, music and publishing platform Possible Worlds, and co-founded the participatory art and music collective Spins & Needles. She has presented her printed art work and programming across Canada and abroad, including at the National Gallery of Canada , Ottawa Art Gallery and the Philippines Embassy to Canada, and her work has been featured in Canadian Art, National Post, CBC and Radio-Canada.

In parallel, Melanie has designed a twenty-year career in social and cultural public policy. She has led national and international policy, research and partnership initiatives at Canadian Heritage, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Global Affairs Canada, and the Canadian Institute for Health Information. More recently, she led the completion of federal government reviews aiming to remove barriers for equity-deserving communities to Canadian citizenship, as well as arts, culture, heritage and sport programs.

Melanie holds degrees from McGill University and the London School of Economics, and completed summer studies at the School of Visual Arts.

LONG BIO

Melanie Yugo is a Filipina-Canadian policy researcher, educator and artist. She explores the areas of cultural expression and identity, diasporic storytelling, community engagement and care, public engagement models in arts and culture, and institutional transformation through a decolonized lens.

Melanie is Director and Co-Founder of Possible Worlds, a community-driven, curatorial platform and multidisciplinary space specializing in art, music and publishing. She is also Senior Policy Analyst at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, where she is co-leading the Department’s review of citizenship through an Anti-Racism lens.

A socially-engaged artist, Melanie has presented her work and developed educational programming across Canada and internationally. She is the recipient of multiple provincial and municipal arts grants for projects related to alternative arts engagement models, her Filipino heritage, printmaking and publishing. The National Gallery of Canada launched a new public program based on work pioneered by Spins & Needles, the art and music collective she co-founded and led with her partner Jason Pelletier. Federal museums, community health centres, technology corporations, festivals, academic institutions and not-for-profit organizations are among their past collaborators.

Melanie brings a range of experience in social and cultural policy, leading projects in equity, diversity and inclusion, cultural diplomacy, stakeholder and partnership management, and policy research. She has worked at federal institutions and the not-for-profit sectors, including Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Canadian Heritage, Global Affairs Canada, with Canada's public arts funders, and the Canadian Institute for Health Information. With 15 years in the federal arts and culture sector, Melanie was instrumental in the launch and renewal of key national research, program reviews, partnerships, networks, convenings and youth leadership initiatives, including acting as the central resource point for arts funders across Canada for close to a decade. Her focus was on amplifying the stories and worldviews of underrepresented groups, to help reshape programs and policies across the country and abroad.

She holds an M.Sc. in Social and Cultural Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), B.Sc. in Psychology from McGill University (Montreal), in addition to completing summer studies at the School of Visual Arts (New York City).

Melanie was born in Toronto and is currently based between Toronto and Ottawa.