Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts recently named Melissa Bob as interim executive director for the organization. She began full-time on June 6, 2011.

Melissa is a Lummi Nation citizen from Bellingham, Wash. In her most recent position she worked within the Lummi tribal government, managing a $6.4 million grant project that integrated Lummi cultural arts practices into the Lummi children’s mental health system. In 2008 Melissa received her master of public administration in tribal governance degree from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., where she also received her B.A. in indigenous art history and printmaking. As a graduate student she worked as program assistant at the college’s Longhouse Education and Cultural Center.

In 2005 and 2007, Melissa interned in Washington, D.C., at the National Museum of the American Indian and at the office of Sen. Maria Cantwell, respectively. As part of her extensive arts background Melissa completed a studio internship at Sidereal Press, where she helped print a portfolio of etchings by Seattle artists. She also worked as studio assistant for Northwest artist Joe Feddersen (Colville Confederated Tribes), from whom she studied printmaking at Evergreen.

Melissa’s own artwork has been exhibited in the United States, Mexico and New Zealand, as well as in Europe and the Middle East. Her prints are included in the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian; Missoula Art Museum; Spencer Art Museum at the University of Kansas; the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery; and at St. Lawrence University and Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates.