Melissa Proietti recently completed her studies at McGill University in the Department of Integrated Studies. Her research documents the development of the visual urban arts and a gallery space within the context of a wider shift in a school's transformation towards becoming an urban arts concentration school. Through her research, she identifies the curatorial process as a useful tool in engaging learners and highlights this process as a form of YPAR, called YPAC (youth participatory action curation), which is one of the subjects she is currently teaching at two different universities in the USA.
Melissa has been working in formal and informal educational contexts for nearly 20 years with diverse learners of all ages. Melissa has worked with the Under Pressure International Graffiti Festival for 13 years (of its 25 year existence) and took over as the head of the festival in 2013. These years of work have given her an important and unique perspective on everything related to graffiti and street art in Montreal and abroad. Having worked with artists from all over the world, Melissa has helped to produce conferences, panels, large scale murals, and works closely with city officials, often being invited to sit on consultation committees pertaining to these types of art. Melissa also began producing an event called Queens Creation in 2013 that celebrates women in hip hop, graffiti and street art.