Zhenya Gershman, MFA, is an art historian, artist and museum educator. As a co-Founder of Project Awe she has dedicated her scholarly and charitable work to examine the influence of Esotericism on the Arts. Gershman seeks to provide new dimensions to understanding and experiencing the cultural icons of Western European heritage.

Gershman’s specific area of study and expertise is in the life and work of Rembrandt and Dürer. In her pioneering article Rembrandt: Turn of the Key, published by Arion and featured by Huffington Post, Gershman was able to reveal the evidence for Rembrandt’s involvement with the early pre-Grand Lodge Freemason fraternity, bringing new light to understanding of this great master. She has worked for over a decade in the internationally acclaimed J. Paul Getty Museum, and has contributed to such exhibitions as Rembrandt's Late Religious Portraits and Rembrandt: Telling the Difference. Gershman’s groundbreaking discovery regarding the presence of a hidden Rembrandt self portrait was published by Arion, Boston University and was brought to European audiences by Le Monde. Her essay Dürer’s Enigma: A Kabbalistic Revelation in Melencolia §I showing the link between Dürer and Kabbalah was published by Brill Journal Aries in 2018. Gershman was selected as 2020 Royal Talens North America Ambassador. She is currently working on co-authoring a book “Secret Gesture of the Heart” and paints and teaches in her art studio in Los Angeles.

Dr. Andreas Önnerfors  is an Associate Professor and Reader in intellectual history at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Additionally, Dr. Önnerfors is a Research Associate at the Centre for Fascist, Anti-fascist and Post-fascist Studies at the Teesside University, UK. On behalf of the German state government and a Nordic inter-governmental research organization Dr. Önnerfors carried out surveys on PhD education. Lund university library employed Andreas Önnerfors for a project of provenance in their rare book collections. He is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in Salzburg, Austria. Dr. Önnerfors research interests focus mainly on expressions of early modern fraternalism, in particular initiatory societies, the intellectual history of the enlightenment between public and secret spaces and of trans-national cultural encounters. 

Photo credit:  Elin Widfeldt

Alexander Maykapar is a renowned Russian harpsichordist, organist and pianist, grandson of the famous composer and pianist Samuel Maykapar, who combines a dense concert schedule with extensive writing, translation and teaching work. Having graduated from the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music as a pianist and from the Moscow Conservatory as an organist, he has been performing since 1970, with an emphasis on early music. In his concerts, research, teaching and editing activities, J.S. Bach stands out as one of the central figures; he has performed Bach’s complete harpsichord music (15 concerts), as well as that of François Couperin (8 concerts), and all keyboard works by Joseph Haydn. The English record label Olympia published five CDs by Maykapar in The Origins of Russian Piano Music series. Alexander is the author of over two hundred works on music history, the art of performance, painting, and musical iconography, in which he reveals the deeper hidden meanings of famous masterpieces. His translations into Russian include such important works as Wanda Landowska’s book On Music (1991, 2nd ed. 2005), Bach’s Ornaments by Walter Emery (1996), and the Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art by James Hall (1996), followed by Alexander’s own work in the field of symbology and iconography – a popular compendium New Testament in Art (1997). Alexander currently lectures at music schools and colleges, and performs in concert cycles under the umbrella name The Anthology of Harpsichord Music: the year 2014 was dedicated to Couperin, and in the 2015-16 season, Alexander is going to play 200 sonatas by Scarlatti. His most recent published work is the two-volume essay collection The Facets of Classical Music (2013-14) in which he explores a vast range of subjects and periods, from the musical culture of Ancient Egypt through Renaissance and Baroque periods and up to Thomas Mann’s novel Doctor Faustus, offering an unusual comparative approach and illuminating the reader with unexpected revelations along the way.

Jean-Michel Mathonière was initially trained as a designer in building and civil engineering. His early passion for cathedral builder’s traditions resulted today in him being recognized as a specialist in the history of craft guilds and journeymen stonemasons in France. Jean-Michel has published numerous articles and books on these subjects, including the prehistory of Freemasonry, stonecutter’s marks, and printer’s emblems of the 15th and 17th centuries. Jean-Michel is a founder of the Study Center in Avignon, France.  He has organized various exhibitions on stereotomy and journeymen stonecutters and on other various related topics to the themes of compagnonnage and architecture. In 2017, Jean-Michel was awarded Ordre des Palmes académiques (Order of Academic Palms) a national order of France for distinguished academics and figures in the world of culture and education.

Mauricio Oviedo is an art historian whose work has been oriented to the function of images in cultural transformations throughout history. He received his masters in Religious Studies, with a specialization in Western Esotericism from the University of Amsterdam. He earned a BA in Art History, from the University of Costa Rica. Currently he is a PhD candidate in the Department of Christianity and the History of Ideas of the University of Groningen. Oviedo has done research in Theory of Art; 15th and 16th century European Art (Italian, Dutch and German art); astrological images, and 19th century cultural markets in Central America. His current research is focused on Colonial Art, Dutch and German emblem books’ production, and German visual culture connected to mysticism, from the 17th and 18th century.

Sasha Chaitow, PhD, is a British-Greek independent scholar, cultural historian, and artist. Her doctoral research (University of Essex) comprises a full scale review of the life and work of visionary author and occultist Joséphin Péladan. Her interest in the interdisciplinarity and the intersection between esotericism and culture led to an MA in English Literature (University of Indianapolis, 2004) and a second MA in Western Esotericism (EXESESO, Exeter, 2008). Sasha was assistant visiting professor in Religious Studies and History at the University of Indianapolis Athens 2008-2012, and founding director of Phoenix Rising Academy, an independent educational enterprise dedicated to introducing the academic study of Western Esotericism to a general audience. She has directed and lectured at international conferences and colloquia in the UK, Greece, and the US. Sasha has contributed articles and chapters to books on Freemasonry, Initiation, Synaesthesia, Methodology in the Study of Esotericism, Art and Esotericism, and Esotericism and Politics, and has published a monograph on Péladan (Daidaleos Books, Salonica, 2013).

Dario Mellado is an artist, filmmaker, and producer. Mellado’s work includes a twenty-year ongoing study of “America’s Decaying Suburban Experience”. He focuses on the post second world war suburban explosion and it’s environmental, social, and spiritual implications. Mellado’s background in social activism including work coordinating the Independent Living Program in the San Fernando Valley (a vocational and counseling program for “at risk youth” and foster children) and time spent as a Vocational Counselor and Advocate for teens with Autism and Asperger’s solidified Mellado’s idea and use of an art’s function as an influential “tool for social change”. His recent documentary “Nuclear Cowboys” addresses environmental concerns and raises awareness of local health crises.

Lindsay LaChapelle Mellado is a talented Filmmaker and a Producer.  She is working on a TV pilot for Project AWE series.

Yanina Gotsulsky is a writer and translator, whose work has appeared in national and international publications.  Yanina has a degree in Russian Literature from York University in Toronto.