In 1927 Grace Melvin was hired by her brother-in-law and fellow Scot, Charles H. Scott, to come from Glasgow to teach design and craft courses at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts. Under the instruction of Robert Anning Bell, Frederick Cayley Robinson and Maurice Greiffenhagen, Melvin graduated with honours from the Glasgow School of Art in 1918, and from 1919 to 1927 she taught there as the head of the lettering and illumination section of the design department.

Her sensibilities and training in Art Nouveau and the Scottish Arts and Crafts movement lent her a practical design perspective with respect to approaching art making for industry and application. The onset of the Great Depression in 1929 stimulated further appetite at the school for practical design courses. A retrospective of her work was held at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1972.

The Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts (VSDAA) opened on October 1, 1925, marking the beginning of formalized art education in the city. Founded through the efforts of the British Columbia Society of Fine Arts, the school was a response to Vancouver’s rapid growth and the need for cultural institutions. Under its first director, Charles H. Scott, and with prominent faculty including Jock Macdonald and Fred Varley, the VSDAA quickly became a centre of artistic activity. A vibrant social and intellectual community grew around the school, supported by figures such as John Vanderpant and Harold Mortimer Lamb. In 1933 the school was renamed the Vancouver School of Art, and over the decades it continued to expand, eventually becoming Emily Carr University of Art + Design. In 2025 the institution celebrates its centenary, a testament to its enduring role in shaping the cultural landscape of Vancouver and beyond.