Melissa Jay Craig is a sculptor, book and installation artist whose primary medium is handmade paper. She lives and works in Chicago, where she is represented by ZIA Gallery. Her work s included in museum, rare book, print and artists’ book collections throughout the U.S. Melissa has been awarded numerous residencies and fellowships, including the National Endowment for the Arts Studio Residency at Women’s Studio Workshop. She is a Distinguished Resident at the Ragdale Foundation, where she was also a Prairie Fellow.
Melissa holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was a full Merit Scholarship recipient and a graduating Fellowship awardee. She taught at schools and venues including SAIC, Artists’ Book Works, Loyola University and the Newberry Library before becoming part of the newly created Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts in 1994. For 15 years, she fulfilled varying roles there, including managing its exhibitions and events as well as developing curriculum for and creating and teaching classes in the Interdisciplinary Arts Department’s MFA in Book and Paper Arts, becoming its full-time teaching Artist in Residence. She received Columbia College’s full-time faculty Excellence In Teaching award in 2002. Melissa has also taught at independent schools and centers such as Penland, Women’s Studio Workshop, the Morgan Conservatory, Paper and Book Intensive, Arrowmont, Seastone Papers, and others. Melissa is also an occasional independent curator.
Currently, she is retired from teaching.