Melanie Dawn Smith

Melanie Dawn Smith (born 1980) is a Canadian creative entrepreneur, working and living in Denmark.

She is the CEO & founder of Art Escape Studios & Cafe, The AES Arts Collective, co-founder of the Warrior Women Network, and an oil painter and art educator.

She is an advisory board member at IMMART (Immigrant & Migrant Art Networking organization) and works on community development within the arts international community in Copenhagen. Her primary focus is building opportunities for women artists through mentoring, networking, an the Art Escape platform.

In addition, Melanie is an oil painter working primarily with high contrast portraits painted from photograph but can also experiment with acrylics and alternative painting medium.

In 2017, she created Art Escape Studios by launching her first international art retreat: Art Escape- A Danish Destination. This marked the beginning of the company AES is today.

In 2019, she founded the all female arts collective known as the AES Collective- representing 11 female artists working in various disciplines.

All the artists have equal opportunity to teach, work and participate in the various programs she has created, which encourage independent artistic employment & professional development.

In 2020, Melanie expanded Art Escape Studios to include a fully packed art school with classes in drawing, watercolour, oil painting, acrylic , coffee painting and a variety of workshops and events. In addition, there is also a gallery, an art supply shop and now in January 2021, the combined entities opened together, forming Art Escape Cafe.

The concept: A community focused arts space, offering creative support and escape to any person interested in exploring their artistic identity.

Melanie continues to develop programs aimed at stimulating creative development for the artists within the Collective and community.