Biography

Annalisa Burello is an independent scholar, writer and cultural practitioner working at the intersection of art, spirituality, creativity and the human sciences. Her work explores how art, aesthetic experience and creative practice can generate meaning, affective transformation, self-transcendence and contemporary forms of the sacred outside traditional religious frameworks.

She holds a Laurea in Monetary and Financial Economics from Bocconi University, a BA in Photography from the University of Westminster, and an MSc in Social Anthropology — Religion in the Contemporary World from the London School of Economics. Her research investigates art as spiritual technology, with particular attention to how artistic and aesthetic practices participate in psychic transformation, affect regulation, meaning-making and secular spirituality.

Annalisa has published peer-reviewed articles on art, spirituality and non-religious awakening experiences, and has presented her work at conferences and public events including the International Network for the Study of Spirituality, the Scientific and Medical Network, Channel McGilchrist, and the London Arts-Based Research Centre at the University of Oxford.

From 2022 to January 2026, she founded and co-chaired the Spirituality and the Arts Special Interest Group within INSS, developing and moderating public conversations with artists, scholars and practitioners. This work reflects her wider practice as a cultural convenor: using dialogue, public conversation and interdisciplinary exchange as forms of research.

Her own visual practice includes The Seeker’s Project, whose triptych Impermanence was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2022. Alongside her research and writing, Annalisa has supported artists, exhibitions and cultural institutions, reflecting her conviction that the arts are not a cultural luxury but an essential field for transformation, public meaning and human flourishing.

She is currently developing a book-length project on art as spiritual technology and secular spirituality, while extending her enquiry into storytelling, screenwriting, documentary and AI-assisted moving image. In 2024, she completed a certification as a Holistic Integrated Creative Arts Therapy practitioner with the Soul School / HICAT, and in 2025–26 undertook further creative training at NABA — Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan — in short filmmaking, AI for the creative industries and scriptwriting for television.

Annalisa is available for essays, talks, podcasts, interviews, panel moderation, public conversations, research collaborations, curatorial research and exhibition development, particularly in relation to art, spirituality, consciousness, secular sacredness and transformation.

Her work is also available to support curatorial and public-facing projects, including exhibition research, catalogue essays, public programmes and conversations around art, spirituality, consciousness and the contemporary sacred.