Melissa Raman Molitor
Melissa Raman Molitor, ATR-BC, LCPC
Melissa is an artist, educator and art therapist living and working in the Chicago-Evanston area. She is an associate professor, adj. at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in the Graduate Art Therapy Department, and the founder of Kids Create Change, a social practice that employs collective art making, participatory art, public exhibition, and community engagement to promote social-emotional development, sociocultural awareness, and collective social action. Melissa’s work centers on encouraging young people to explore identity, engage with their community, and address personal challenges and social issues through art and narrative.
Melissa is a founding board member of EvanstonMade where she works to increase support and opportunities for young artists in Evanston to exhibit and sell their work, and engage young people and families in the arts through the creation of programs and events. She also works as a consultant to schools and organizations interested in the myriad ways in which art can connect people and build community, and to non-profit arts organizations providing start-up, grants and fundraising, organizational management, and program development support.
From 2000-2007 Melissa 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 the co-founding owner of the therapeutic practice Art & Soul, where she served as Director of School and Community Programs developing social emotional arts programming for youth.
Melissa is a mixed media artist who uses ritual and sensory memory to explore intercultural and intergenerational themes, creating meaning in both personal and collective identity through assemblage and mixed media narratives. She holds a BA degree in Psychology and a BFA with a concentration in design and ceramics 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.
www.melissaramanmolitor.com
www.kidscreatechange.com
www.kindnessinactionevanston.
@kidscreatechange
@kindnessinactionevanston
Daily Northwestern: Healing through art
Roundtable: Studio 3