MONTREAL.- The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts welcomed Mélanie Deveault back to its team, this time as Director of Education and Wellness. Succeeding Thomas Bastien, she will oversee the development of the Museum's cultural, educational community and art therapy programs aimed at fostering wellness, inclusion and togetherness through art.

As Educational Projects Developer at the MMFA from 2014 to 2018, she piloted the digital platform EducArt, in collaboration with teachers from Quebec's 17 administrative regions. The innovative learning tool enables students throughout the province to delve deeper into a wide variety of academic subjects and social issues taught in class by means of 350 artworks from the Museum's collection. EducArt notably won the 2018 Prize for Excellence, Category 2, presented by the Société des musées du Québec.

Mélanie Deveault holds a Master of Art History from Université de Montréal and a Master of Museology from Université du Québec à Montréal. Previously, she has taught art history at Collège Lionel-Groulx, Cégep de Saint-Laurent, Cégep Marie-Victorin and Collège André-Grasset, and until most recently she was Head, Education, Community Engagement and Cultural Programs at the McCord Stewart Museum.

Nathalie Bondil, Director General and Chief Curator of the MMFA, noted: "I am thrilled to have on board again Mélanie Deveault, whom I had the great fortune of recruiting in 2014 to invent EducArt, an educational platform that has met with resounding success among teachers. You know how central education, wellness and togetherness are to our actions. Jointly, we will continue to blaze new trails for innovation to extend museums' civic and humanist mission even further."

"It's a privilege to be reunited with the expert and benevolent MMFA team and have the opportunity to continue the conversation with the institution's many communities as, together, we seek out new avenues of art-based engagement, wellness and collaboration. In its richness, the Museum's collection gives rise to multiple points of view and is a fantastic tool for fostering dialogue and peace in our society," said Mélanie Deveault, Director of Education and Wellness, MMFA.

The MMFA team wishes to underscore the work accomplished by Thomas Bastien since he joined the Museum in 2012 and his appointment as head of its Education and Wellness Division in 2016. His vision and outstanding development skills saw the MMFA expand its collaborations in the university, health, digital and education fields. Thomas Bastien will be taking the helm of the Association pour la santé publique du Québec (ASPQ). The Museum looks forward to working with Bastien in his new capacity and wishes him every success in this role.