Imagine a free arts festival among ancient trees and open meadows, with festivalgoers engaged with nature and art in a multitude of ways. This is the annual Art in Nature: The Nature of Art Festival, held along the Stream Trail in Redwood Regional Park in Oakland, California. Featuring over 120 artists and arts groups, the festival will attract over 2000 participants.
The festival title reflects two distinct aims:
Art in Nature: performing different expression of art in nature.
The Nature of Art: revealing the artists’ process, techniques, and tools.
The festival is guided by the principle that all art forms originate from a universal human characteristic—creativity. Our festival conveys this universality by revealing the creative process in a variety of art forms, and also by giving festivalgoers access to their own creativity through many participatory activities and performances.
Founder and Artistic Director Laura Inserra is an Italian composer and multi-instrumentalist with over 15 years’ experience writing and performing music for theater, dance, art exhibits, and film. In 2007, Inserra founded Samavesha. In addition to the Art in Nature: The Nature of Art Festival, Samavesha produces the annual Cave Concerts in the Marin Headlands, the Musical Journeys series in tea houses, and a Community Program located at schools, camps, health care facilities, community centers and parks.
