critically exploring, creatively discovering, aesthetically expressing
The Three Stages of Insight Artistry
TÉA has been engaging with companies of diverse artists in creating works of Insight art – theatrical performance pieces guided by Insight artistry.
There are three main stages of our work: critically exploring, creatively discovering and aesthetically expressing
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Critically Exploring
The TÉA artists begin by participating in Insight conversations with dozens of individuals concerned about the personal and social dynamics of something that matters in their lives. We collectively wonder with the individuals about the way they are using their minds to understand and respond to these dynamics – which circumstances they identify as salient, the feelings that animate their responses, the options they consider, and the decisions they make.
What we explore during these Insight conversations is invariably illuminating and dramatic, and as a company we pay critical attention to what has been shared with us.
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Creatively Discovering
In a series of Insight Design labs, we devise experiences that enable the Company of artists to creatively discover various aesthetic expressions. These artistic manifestations actualize the theory of change distinctive to Insight art. The TÉA Artists pay explicit attention to how their own minds are working during this discovery stage, heightening the recognition of the need to be more curious when we catch ourselves in a rush to judgment or to be more conscientious when we realize we have been rash. This self-attention and reflection informs and becomes part of the art we are creating.
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Aesthetically Expressing
By creating a theatrical performance piece we are aesthetically expressing what we have explored and discovered during our process. We strive for a theatrical experience that enables artists and audience members to gain at least momentary liberation from the inner constraints of polarizing patterns of thinking and feeling by experiencing firsthand, the intrinsically dramatic, entertaining, and compelling inner shift from certainty and righteousness to curiosity and empathy. By immersing audience members in a theatrical experience that will heighten their awareness of the way they use their minds to respond to personal and social dynamics of an issue or set of issues, we hope to provide a dramatic opportunity for change.
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Continue reading here for an in depth explanation of Insight artistry method.
History
For over a decade, TÉA has been progressively developing a platform for the collaborative design and creation of Insight art.
In 2009 we partnered with Intersections International to gather and train the original company of TÉA actors, with whom we worked collaboratively to create Under the Veil: Being Muslim (and Non-Muslim) in New York, post-9/11. The piece was performed in six states, to thousands of audience members.
In 2012, we produced Cadence: Home, exploring the personal experiences of veterans returning to their friends and family from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was a site-specific piece performed in midtown Manhattan and Tampa, Florida.
On the strength of this success, TÉA became an official initiative of Intersections International, we continued to collaborate until 2015, at which time we formed TÉA Creative, Inc. to further develop and propagate Insight Artistry.
In 2014 in collaboration with the Mayor’s Innovation Team in Memphis, Tennessee we created Uniform Justice, a piece about police community relations. Uniform Justice premiered in Memphis and performed in Cleveland, New Jersey and in New York City where it was a part of the New York Fringe Festival.
In 2012 we began the incubation and development of a piece exploring the polarization of the United States. Originally titled There’s Something About America, the process became an initiative which yielded three distinct projects.
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Rocco, Chelsea, Adriana, Sean, Claudia, Gianna, Alex
Multi-disciplinary and highly experiential, the piece was co-produced by the Private Theatre and premiered at HERE Arts Center in New York City in 2019.
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ACCORD(ing)
A movement based performance piece, premiered at Burning Coal Theatre in Raleigh North Carolina and was a Co- production of SoundingLine Arts.
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Insight Artists for Global and Social Change
An intensive workshop series in which nine artists trained in Insight, deepened the practice of Insight artistry and created pieces of Insight art culminating in an evening Salon. This work led to the formation of the Insight Artists Collective.
Current
Insight artistry and spiritual experiencing
We are in the nascent stages of a new Initiative using our method, Insight Artistry, to wonder about the very present, yet often elusive, experience of the spirit. We are engaging companies of Insight artists in the exploration of what it means to experience being pulled, tugged or lifted to recognize and inhabit a more transcendent version of ourselves.
As we discover and explore the nature of this experience, we will collectively create art that reflects our discoveries and hopefully, as with all Insight art, moves audiences to experience something similar in themselves.
We look forward to sharing the work in several culminating evening salons.
Being Chaka, an inquiry into making Insight art
We are currently engaged in a collaborative writing project focusing on the Weaver Initiative, our four year long process in which we explored the personal dynamics of race. We are specifically focusing on the culminating performance piece, Being Chaka: the process of creating the piece, the weaving of four years of discovery, exploration and aesthetic expression, gathering and training the artists involved, and how we collaboratively staged the piece for an audience experience.
Insight artistry workshop series
Insight artistry is for anyone and everyone. The Insight artistry workshop series is now available for artists, creatives, and communities of individuals working on a common cause. We use the TÉA Insight artistry handbook as a guiding text and design workshops that attend to what it is your hoping to achieve.