Samavesha unites art, nature, and people.
Mission
Samavesha is a multidisciplinary arts non-profit organization that brings arts programming to communities.
We seek to:
- make world-class arts accessible to all
- explore the intersection of traditional art forms with contemporary artistic languages,
- awaken and express personal creativity,
- foster collaboration,
- encourage diverse and resilient communities,
- connect people with nature,
- increase awareness of the vital importance of creativity in human lives as an inexhaustible source of meaning, inspiration, and healthy living.
History
Based out of the San Francisco Bay Area and founded in 2007 by visionary Sicilian Artistic Director Laura Inserra, Samavesha creates an occasion for both performers and participants to become fully immersed in the nature of art. Often taking place in nature and bridging traditional and contemporary world art forms, our work fosters intercultural dialogue, artistic innovation, connection with nature, and environmental action.
Samavesha is the Sanskrit word for ‘divine union’ or ‘immersion into divine consciousness’. This word holds a double meaning: to immerse yourself in and already to be immersed in it. Our productions create an occasion for both performers and audience to immerse themselves in what is being created.
Samavesha believes that experience is best elicited by reaching out through as many sensory gates as possible. In this experientially-based expression of art, we extend the definition of art beyond the usual performing arts, visual arts, and literary arts, to include expressions such as culinary arts, costumes, martial arts, circus arts, crafts, and more. We draw upon a vibrant international network of artists and artisans of all disciplines to bring you unforgettable experiences.
In 2010, Samavesha took over the 501(c)(3) status of the Octave Alliance (aka Green Music Network), merging the two organizations, which first collaborated in 2009 to produce the innovative, multidisciplinary piece HANG Rhapsody as part of the Cave Concert Series. Through this merger, Samavesha inherited a stellar team of board and crew members, who have professional experience in bookkeeping, financial consultation, high-budget project management, executive-level non-profit organizational direction, environmental planning, and stage production management. In 2011 Samavesha completed its first year as a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization. Having produced multiple Cave Concerts and Art In Nature Festivals as the entity Samavesha, the organization has consistently budgeted responsibly and accurately, both before and after full non-profit incorporation.
Samavesha also bridges diversity by developing and expressing new artistic languages, with the awareness that art embodies the historical period in which it belongs.
As creative beings, each of us possess a creative nature: the powers of exploration and manifestation. Art should not be considered the exclusive domain of artists, but the product of human creativity. Art is the celebration of the beauty of life, as well as the attempt to illuminate the ineffable and we strive to awaken that inspiration in the hearts of everyone involved in our events.
sam·a·vesh·a [sam-Ah-vesh-ah]
noun
1. immersion into divine consciousness, losing duality, divine union
2. a practice, a state of being, (to immerse,) a goal (to be immersed)
3. entering into ones’ true nature
4. a non-profit based out of Oakland, that melting away boundaries between artists and art goers, traditional divisions of class, ethnicity and religion, nature and urban jungle, personhood and community, self and other, antiquity and future, and all conceivable artistic mediums through highly improvisational (r)evolutionary collaborations in caves, redwood forests, homes, labyrinths, and performance venues near you.
5. liberation
Origin: [approximately 1500s – 500s B.C..] Sanskrit
Programs