David Gersten is an internationally recognized artist, architect, writer and educator based in New York City. He is the Director of Interdisciplinary Learning at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, where he has been a Professor, since 1991. At The Cooper Union, he has served as the Associate Dean of the School of Architecture, under Founding Dean John Hejduk, as well as, Acting Dean of the school. Gersten is the founding Director and President of: Arts Letters & Numbers, a non-profit arts and education organization dedicated to expanding the experiences understood as education through creating new structures and spaces for creative exchange across a wide range of disciplines including: Architecture, Visual Arts, Theater Arts, Film, Music, the Humanities, the Sciences and Social Sciences. Arts, Letters & Numbers conducts workshops in educational and cultural institutions worldwide, while operating an ongoing series of programs: workshops, sessions, residencies, thesis programs, lectures, theater performances, exhibitions, events, music performances and films productions at its campus located in Averill Park, NY.

Gersten regularly collaborates with and advises international organizations, educational and cultural institutions, as well as, education policy groups on a wide range of subjects, including: art / science / humanities collaborations and the future of education. He recently presented a keynote address entitled ‘Unlocking the Creativity of Youth’ at the UNICEF – EXPO, as well as, at the Chancellors Summit held at CAFA in Beijing.

Gersten’s works include: buildings, drawings, stories, essays, films, performances and constructions. His works have appeared in numerous international exhibitions and performance spaces and are held in the collection of the Canadian Center for Architecture, the New York City Public Library’s print collection and many private collections. He has published extensively in national and international publications on diverse areas of research including: The spaces and structures of education, emergent disciplinary geographies, spatial literacy, ethics and technology, market functionality and collective judgment, global resource distribution and the poetic / material / spatial imagination, the city and its transformations, and the linkages between: embodied experience, embodied cognition, memory, perception, language, space and education.

He has exhibited, lectured and served as a visiting professor at numerous universities throughout the world. In addition to serving as President / Director of Arts Letters & Numbers, he is currently: the Director of Interdisciplinary learning and professor at the Cooper Union, a visiting professor at Rhode Island School of Design, an International Visiting Professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, in Beijing, China, a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts in the UK and a member of the Board of Directors of Big Picture Learning.

Gersten is a graduate of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union. He has also pursued studies in phenomenology at the New School for Social Research as well as Islamic Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Steve Lawrence is a builder—of spaces, programs, and pathways for creative and professional growth. With a background spanning craftsmanship, education, and psychology, Steve has spent his career integrating hands-on learning with intellectual and artistic exploration.

 A native of upstate New York, Steve began his professional journey in the trades, running his own plumbing and heating business before transitioning into international education. He spent over a decade teaching in International Baccalaureate programs in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and China, where he developed curricular and extracurricular initiatives aimed at fostering integrative, whole-person learning. His deep commitment to experiential education and workforce development brought him back to the U.S., where he now leads operations and program development at Arts Letters & Numbers (ALN).

 As Director of Operations, Steve oversees facility development, program management, and integrative education initiatives that bridge the gap between creative practice and skilled trades. His work at ALN is dedicated to expanding opportunities for local youth, developing internships, apprenticeships, and immersive learning experiences that merge craft, artistry, and professional skill-building. He is particularly focused on fostering multi-disciplinary collaborations that support both emerging and established creatives.

Steve is also a doctoral candidate in transpersonal psychology at Saybrook University, where he explores the intersections of mind, creativity, and human development. His One-Pointed Mind workshops, presented in eight countries, reflect his passion for meditative philosophy and cognitive focus in education.

At ALN, Steve is committed to expanding infrastructure, strengthening community partnerships, and creating transformative learning environments. His leadership is grounded in the belief that art, craft, and education are not separate disciplines but interconnected forces that shape how we build, create, and understand the world.

Adrianos Efthymiadis is a 25 year-old artist and researcher from Athens, Greece. He attended The Cooper Union’s Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture in New York from the year 2015 to 2017, when he decided to discontinue his studies and move back to Greece where, for the next three years, he concentrated on the study of philosophy (phenomenology) and theology under philosopher Stephanos Rosanis. He considers himself a highly un-trained clown of many disciplines, a jack of no trade, a jester of an ever-dying circus of the street.

In the past years, Adrianos has been working primarily as an artist, having participated in both solo and group shows (i.e. 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, 2021 Art Athina Virtua etc.) as well as a research assistant and guest lecturer in venues/institutions (such as İstanbul’s Bilgi Üniversitesi, Politecnico di Torino, the Latvian (Riga) Academy of Music’s conference on Artistic Research and others).

Over the past year Adrianos also acted as Associate Curator and Project Manager at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale’s CITYX Venice Italian Virtual Pavilion for Arts Letters & Numbers’ exhibition titled “SunShip: The Arc That Makes The Flood Possible.”

Swedish born artist and architect Frida Foberg earned her MA in Architecture from Aarhus School of Architecture in 2013. In 2014 she became a Fellow of Arts Letters & Numbers. Through her work experience from Fantastic Norway, Vamos Architects and Acconci Studio, she had grown an interest in the interaction of people, spaces and stories which she brought with her when taking on the role as associate director at Arts Letters & Numbers in 2017. A position she held until she left Arts Letters & Numbers in 2020.

During her time at Arts Letters & Numbers she worked closely with the regional, as well as, international communities, established a residency program, developed educational programs with regional schools, collaborated in workshops with UNICEF, CAFA, Cooper Union, Education Reimagined, Iowa State University, National Coalition Building Institute, and she continues to develop and strengthen the core mission of the organization.

While developing educational programs, it became evident that food and ways of eating held a significant role in Frida’s artistic practice. Her interest in social awareness lead to research and explorations around the question: Why are We Eating Together. A question that has been explored through workshops, exhibitions, performances, writings and drawings. Not only has her work been crucial to the many programs of Arts Letters & Numbers, her work has been brought to Berlin – Germany, Toronto – Canada, Hillier – Canada, Denver – CO, New York – NY, Albany – NY, Averill Park – NY and West Stockbridge – MA.

Born in Iran and based in Singapore, with backgrounds in painting, architecture, and installation, Space is Homa’s primary area interest: the space held within things, the space around things, and the space materialized in or on things.

Her persisting questions at this moment are: What is home? What is an image of an image? What is not a painting?

She studied architecture at The Cooper Union and fine arts at LaSalle College of the Arts, has taught at Pratt Institute, Illinois Institute of Technology, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and LaSalle College of The Arts in Singapore. She has exhibited in Chicago, New York, Izmir, Kashan, and Singapore.

Visiting artist at Arts Letters & Numbers Summer Workshop 2012 - 2013, 2017 - 2018, SunShip: Thesis at Arts Letters & Numbers 2021 - 2022.

Jimmy Lim is a sound artist, composer, and educator, whose work engages deeply with the intersection of sounds and culture, spanning across diverse mediums, weaving together elements of sound design, experimental music, and visual storytelling.

At the heart of Jimmy's work lies a commitment to creating space for cross-disciplinary collaboration, drawing on his experiences in both education and art. Whether through his sound design work, his role as an educator, or his artistic projects, he aims to facilitate connections that transcend conventional boundaries. 

Currently an Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music, he continues to explore the role of sound in cultural memory and intergenerational storytelling. His approach emphasizes the power of sound to not only shape experiences but to unearth and preserve untold stories.

Ashraf Kamal graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University with a Bachelor of Commerce in Business Management, majoring in Marketing Management.

Originally from Lahore, Pakistan—a city renowned as the cultural hub of the subcontinent and a center for artistic development for centuries—he spent his early years in Karachi, Pakistan’s financial capital, where he completed his primary and secondary education. In 2007, he moved to Toronto, Canada, to pursue his university studies.

After graduating, he worked as a sales representative in Toronto for a couple of years before returning to Lahore in December 2014 to explore opportunities back home. Over the years, he gained experience working at multiple companies as a marketing and sales professional. In 2017, at the age of 29, he co-founded his own Marketing and Design consultancy, Blends.

Growing up, Ashraf was deeply immersed in art, design, and literature. He wrote short stories, led his school’s debate team, and eventually decided to compile his previous works—layered with a new story—into a novel. This led to the completion of his first book, The Periphery of Mind by Ashraf Kamal, a psychological fiction novel, which he is currently working to get published.

In December 2024, Ashraf joined Arts, Letters and Numbers in Averill Park, NY, drawn by its dynamic environment for networking and collaboration with writers, artists, and creatives across various disciplines. While working on his second novel—focused on the psychological impact of war and adversity on human intelligence and societal development—he has also been actively involved in outreach and promotion for the Winter/Spring Residency at Arts, Letters and Numbers.

Lu Gao (China) is an artist working with photographic installation based in New York. She focuses on reclaiming a contemplative way of life in a contemporary society where attention is constantly dissipated. Utilizing photography, architecture, and meditation to deconstruct and reshape perceptions of the relationship between human existence and the environment. Gao graduated with Honors in Architecture from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 2020. Following her studies, she spent two years at a Forest Zen monastery in Hunan, China, where she delved into Eastern philosophy alongside her studio practice. She earned her MFA in Photography with departmental honors from Parsons School of Design in August 2024.

Gao's work has been exhibited at the FIAP World Photographer Conference (Lishui), CAFA Art Museum (Beijing), Alliance Française de Pékin (Beijing), Black Brick Project (New York), and All St Gallery (New York), among others. She has also conducted multiple lectures and workshops on Zen and contemporary art at the Chan Meditation Center and Parsons The New School, both in New York. 

Billy Chen is a visual artist based in New York City. Born and raised in Shanghai, he moved to New York at the age of 13. The coming of age in the U.S have profoundly influenced how he interprets visual icons embedded within different cultures and societies. He overlays plains of photographic space to draw parallels between the hidden depth of photography and nuanced layer of cultures. Billy worked under civil rights office Sussman & Associates in the Hudson Valley. He graduated from MFA Photography program at Parsons School of Design in 2024.

Billy’s work was included in the group exhibition “Sip from the Skull: Chapter I” by Agora, “Liminal Edifice” at Gallery MC, Pingyao Photography Festival 2023, “Anything Can Be a Hammer” and others.

Originally from central Florida, Frances Teppner relocated to upstate New York in 2024 to join the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, where she performs professional modern dance compositions and teaches creative movement workshops throughout the Capital Region. 

Frances graduated from Jacksonville University In 2024 and holds her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance with a minor in Psychology. During her studies, she trained in the styles of Modern, Jazz, and Ballet under distinguished faculty members Lana Heylock, Yidi Lin, and Katherine Levitz. In addition to performing their choreographic works, she had the opportunity to collaborate with and perform the modern dance pieces of renowned artists Jens Bjerregaard, Yoshito Sakuraba, and Norbert De La Cruz III.

As an ever-evolving student/teacher of dance, her artistic process is influenced by the subtle nods of art in everyday life. She is interested in the impetus behind movement and how energy moves through and extends beyond the body. 

Dewen Ju is a multidisciplinary artist now primarily working on ceramics in Jing De Zhen, China. In the past years, Dewen had been working primarily as an architect and painter before he decided to go with the flow. Dewen has a BS in Architecture from ASU, and a MArch in Architecture from RISD. He worked on the design of Community Musicworks and a few residential projects during his time in 3SIX0 Architecture. He has been helping with the construction of Arts Letters & Numbers since 2020.