Melissa San Miguel Quintana is a Latina visual artist born and raised in the Mission district of San Francisco to Peruvian immigrants. As a painter and draughtswoman, Melissa explores issues of identity and place and through color, line and texture. She enjoys developing the creativity and voice of the next generation of artists. Melissa has served as a Teaching Artist at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, working to unleash the creativity of our city’s youth with culturally competent and socially conscious curriculum. Melissa believes in the power of engaging and organizing the public through art.  She has led free, pro-immigrant community art workshops as a way to connect everyday people with art and build solidarity around supporting immigrant families.

In a previous career, Melissa served as a legislative advocate for children in foster care and low-income youth. Melissa graduated from UC Berkeley magna cum laude, and in 2018, was selected by the New York Foundation for the Arts as a Mentee for their Immigrant Artist program. She is currently the Exhibits Assistant for the Rosenberg Library at City College of San Francisco and a Teaching Assistant for Painting Professor Claire Brees.