Founder and Chairman of the Art Renewal Center®, Ross is the leading authority on William Bouguereau and co-author of the published Catalogue Raisonné William Bouguereau: His Life and Works. Ross received his MA in art education from Columbia University. His speeches and essays are read by over 300,000 art professionals, educators, students and fans each year; and have become required reading in countless classrooms. He has given lectures and speeches at prominent venues including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sotheby’s NY, The Dahesh Museum, NY, the Berkshire Museum, MA, The Wadsworth Athenaeum, CT, the MEAM Museum, Barcelona, as well as university campuses among other venues. Ross is also a well-known collector of 19th Century European painting and of Contemporary Realism, being published in numerous magazine and newspaper articles including Forbes Magazine and Fine Art Connoisseur among others. Ross has also been a frequent Juror in numerous competitions and is an ARC Salon and ARC Scholarship judge.

Kara Lysandra Ross is the Co-Chair and Chief Operating Officer for the world-renowned Art Renewal Center® (ARC). She holds a BA in Art History from Drew University. As an art educator she has been a contributing writer for Collections Magazine, and Fine Art Connoisseur, and has been published frequently in other magazines and newspapers. She was the co-editor of the William Bouguereau Catalogue Raisonné and author of chapter 28 in the published second edition. In her role at the ARC she spearheaded the introduction of the live exhibition associated to the ARC Salon Competition which has traveled to prestigious venues such as Sotheby’s NY, Sotheby’s LA, The European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM) and the Salmagundi Club, serving as chief organizer and curator. She is an ARC Salon Juror, and has served as juror in other competitions for organizations such as the 2nd Velázquez Painting & Sculpture competition, China, the South African Portrait Society, International Guild of Realism, IX Arts, and the Ani Academy. She is also an expert on 19th century Academic French and English painting, co-authoring William Bouguereau: The Essential Works and is currently researching and writing the catalogue raisonné on Edmund Blair Leighton, for which she is accepted as the world authority, authenticating works by this artist for Sotheby's, Christie's, and Bonham's among others.

Swanson has his PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, England and was the Director of the Springville Museum of Art, Utah, where he has served for over 30 years. He is a lecturer/scholar/writer and expert on 19^th Century European Art and Russian Art through the 20^th Century. Swanson is the leading authority on Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and John William Godward and author of the Catalogue Raisonnés for both artists. In total, the number of books Swanson has published is well into the teens.

Michael John Angel is an ARC Living Master™ and regarded as one of the foremost figurative painters alive today; with his paintings hanging in both public and private collections on both sides of the Atlantic. From 1982 to 1988 he was the Director of the National Portrait Academy in Toronto, Canada, and from 1992-1995 the Assistant Director of the Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. In 1997, his school, the Angel Academy was founded with the assistance of Lynne Barton. Angel Academy is now one of the most successful Atelier Schools in the world, requiring of its students the highest standards of traditional techniques.

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Juliette Aristides is an ARC Living Master™ and founding member of the Water Street Atelier with Jacob Collins, Aristides is a recipient of the Elisabeth Greenshields Grant; and founded the Classical Atelier at Gage Academy of Fine Art in Seattle, Washington. She has authored three books, Classical Drawing Atelier, Classical Painting Atelier, and Lessons in Classical Drawing, which includes an instructional DVD and quickly became a best seller. Her books have become well received guidelines for drawing and painting.

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Daniel Graves is an ARC Living Master™. He was a student of Richard Serrin at the Villa Schifanoia Graduate School of Fine Art, and studied under Nerina Simi, daughter of the Florentine painter, Filadelfo Simi, a student of Gérôme. Daniel Graves went on to found The Florence Academy of Art in 1991, where he still serves as the Academic Director. In April 2008 Daniel Graves and The Florence Academy of Art received the Excellence in Art Education Award from the Portrait Society of America. The academy’s programs in Florence, Sweden and the U.S. are accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design.

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B. Eric Rhoads is the Founder and Chairman of Streamline Publishing, Inc., publisher of Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine, which provides art collectors and enthusiasts with in-depth editorial coverage of historical and contemporary representational art authored by well-known experts. Rhoads also publishes PleinAir, a magazine focused on representational landscape painting with in-depth coverage of historical and contemporary artworks painted en' plein air and in studio and the Plein Air Convention. The company also produces artist videos with many masters including ARC Living Master™ Max Ginsburg. Rhoads, an entrepreneur, founded the company in 1986 and produces other magazines and conferences. He is a well known author and blogger on art marketing, has released a DVD series for artists on art marketing, and is also a landscape and figurative painter.

Patrick Wilshire is the Director of the Association of Fantastic Art, dedicated to the promotion, recognition and elevation of the art of imaginative realism. This genre includes works that were heavily influenced by the storytelling paintings of the 19^th century; artists such as Burne-Jones and John William Waterhouse. It is the organization behind the groundbreaking IlluXCon symposium started in 2008, and the Illustration Exchange, the online nexus for collectors of original paintings, drawings and sculpture from this style of realist art. In addition he is the author of Visions of Never: The Collection of Fantastic Art, (2009), The Art of the Dragon: The Definitive Collection of Contemporary Dragon Paintings (2012), and the History of Imaginative Realism. He was also honored to be the guest curator of AT THE EDGE: Art of the Fantastic, mounted at the Allentown Art Museum, PA, in June of 2012.