Our Founding Members
ART Founding Members
Ryel Kestano | CO-FOUNDER
Ryel Kestano is one of ART’s Co-founders, and served as its CEO. He also served as a Senior Course Leader and was the primary developer of ART’s courses and programs. Ryel also co-founded ART’s sister nonprofit organization, Realness Project, dedicated to bringing authentic relating to prison inmates. He is also the author of Authentic Relating: A Guide to Rich, Meaningful, Nourishing Relationships, and is a master coach working with individuals, couples, and small groups.
Ryel has delivered over a thousand workshops and sessions in over 40 locations around the world during his ten years at the forefront of the authentic relating community, and regularly presents at conferences and festivals, and on podcasts.
Prior to ART, Ryel was the Training Operations Manager and a Certified Facilitator at the Integral Center in Boulder, Colorado, a leading institution in authentic communication and community development training. His entrepreneurial endeavors include co-founding Virtuance, the world’s largest real estate photography company, the People’s Farm, a farm-to-consumer distribution network, and Pink Mammoth, a prominent creative arts collective based in San Francisco. He lives in the Colorado mountains, has four very authentic children, and is an avid skier, rock climber, sailor, and long-distance hiker.
Jason Digges | CO-FOUNDER
Author of Conflict = Energy, The Transformative Practice of Authentic Relating, Jason is a modern renaissance man. Equal parts artist, philosopher, teacher, and media producer, he worked for Ken Wilber from 2003-2012 to create thousands of hours of educational media on the topics of transpersonal psychology, spirituality, productivity, and personal growth.
For 4 years before Co-Founding ART International, Jason Studied with all of the major leaders in the circling and authentic relating. This allowed him to synthesize the curriculum into a concise guide and publish Conflict = Energy in 2020. He was the first person to start a podcast for the global AR community and spread The Art of Being Human course to Bali and Europe. Obsessed with how humans can live and relate optimally, he’s facilitated groups and taught authentic relating and circling since 2012, and has led courses in over 20 cities around the world.
Jason is also passionate about translating deep wisdom principles and personal growth methods for mainstream audiences. His latest work on Polarity Guidance for managers and leaders, brings the Authentic Relating teachings and practices into companies.
Jamie grant | founding member
Jamie was ART’s first official staff member shortly after it was founded, and helped build the company from the ground up for the next six and a half years. She was often referred to as “The Heart of ART,” bringing her big love and deep care to our staff, faculty, and the wider community, infusing our work with heart and generosity of spirit from day one.
Although Jamie was instrumental in building and expanding ART’s operations, her deepest passion was for company culture, guiding ART to ever more relational health and wellness as she stepped further into her leadership, shaping and embodying the values we now hold most dear: integrity and togetherness. Jamie will be remembered for how deeply and purely she cared for ART and our people, and for her fierce and unwavering stand for truth and integrity. She also loved to play, bringing joy, light, and laughter to so many.
Jamie says her life before ART is a bit of a blur, and she doesn’t know what’s next for her work in the world. All she knows is that she’s taking a nice long break, spending most of her time in nature, with animals, and deeply immersed in the present moment. Last we saw her she was drinking mocktails in the Caribbean, speaking of things like magic and mystery.
