Melissa Peña

Visual Art – Miami

Born in Maracaibo, Venezuela in 1977, Melissa initiated her art education at a local school “Escuela de Arte Julio Arraga”. In 1990 she moved to Miami where she later received a full scholarship to New World School of the Arts in Downtown Miami. She graduated with honors and earned a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts with a major in painting. After some years of working as an assistant in the interior design field, Melissa started organizing after school art programs around small private schools in Miami Beach, eventually being offered a job at a prominent Montessori school as a teacher assistant, art teacher and after school art program director. Working with children proved to be more invigorating than presumed, so Melissa decided to earn her certification as a Montessori teacher in Early Childhood, and later a Master of Science Degree in Montessori Elementary Education from Barry University. Melissa has been teaching in the Montessori method of learning since 2007, and has been a resident artist at The Fountainhead Studios in Miami since 2012 where she has her painting studio and hosts open studio nights along with other resident artists.