Melody Bilbo

Melody Bilbo is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist working across multiple platforms with a mission to facilitate community through collaboration. She brings concept driven work to life through research and creative experiment, working in a vast array of media including photography, moving image, graphic design, painting, and sculpture. Outside of making, her experience includes curation, production and creative direction.

Her studio is located in Chicago’s West Side. Melody is a proud queer woman and feminist who upholds the power of community as one of her greatest values. She is eager to use her platform and skillset to promote social justice and help facilitate cultural equity.

Education

Her education started at Parkland college where she was awarded the Blaire Kling Award from Giertz Gallery. Melody received her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2017 where she was recipient of the Creative Honors Scholarship.

Work

Prior to going back to school, Melody worked for several years in the human services field with families and individuals who have developmental disabilities—managing a group home for adults and later working one-on-one with a caseload of families focused on providing supports in times of transition.

While in school, she changed paths working full-time as an in-house Creative Director at a commercial therapeutic start-up, where she created and managed material marketing development. Upon graduating from school, she continued creative direction in commercial marketing in launching her own studio, MELLADRAMATIC LLC.

Community

In 2019, Melody co-founded She Makes Chicago with fashion designer Kylee Alexander—an organization with the mission to help womxn makers and entrepreneurs connect, develop, and cultivate community. The platform functions digitally as a resource through their blog and podcast.

In 2020 she launched Queerly Book Club with her friend Mack Ostermier. The book club focuses on queer literature and has a mission to cultivate community through reading, understanding, and affirmation. The book club meets monthly with an open dialogue in response to the readings, hosts a quarterly film viewing, and members collaborate annually on a community advocacy project.