Written evidence submitted by National Centre for Circus Arts

The National Centre for Circus Arts is based in Hackney, London. We offer a Foundation and BA [Hons] Degree in Circus Arts to a cohort of around 60 students across the three years of the programme. We deliver a substantial curriculum-based widening participation and access programme for young people including the only circus Centre for Advanced Training, for around 350 young people each week. Professional membership is available for all circus artists with currently around 650 active members accessing professional support services including training space, mentoring, networking and professional development opportunities. We deliver recreational circus activity to around 700 enthusiastic participants each week. Our building is open from 8.30am until 10pm daily, seven days per week and is a hub for circus arts activity in London. We have a core staff team of around 40FTE and we employ in the region of one hundred specialist teachers on a scheduled hours basis.

We closed our building for all activity due to Covid19 on March 19th 2020.

Circus is a relatively small and fragile sector and the impact on our wide community is vast and varied, however we are resilient and seek opportunities to play a key role in rebuilding cultural activity in the months to come.

Students

• Students in training have experienced a complete closure of all access to physical facilities and have had to embrace online learning for what is a fundamentally physical art form.
• Mental health concerns and the need for student support and interventions have increased as the effects on isolation have taken hold. 
• Many students have lost part time work meaning they are experiencing extreme financial hardship.
• No access to regular training means fitness may be lost and will take time to rebuild, increasing the risk of injury.
• Uncertainty in the UK and global sector mean graduates have lost a sense of where they will fit into the world once they are in the workplace.

The National Centre is seeking to support all of our students by making clear plans for both reopening the building alongside social distancing regulation and hygiene guidance and for continuing to develop our online provision and technical capacity so we can still deliver learning opportunities for all students that have real value and benefit. We need additional resources to be made available to support this work and to recognise that we will need to grow, develop and change protocols as time passes.

The National Centre needs financial support to ensure it can support the community without being able to generate the significant corporate and commercial income it relies on to cross subsidise its  charitable education work, until those markets are re-established.

Professional Members and Circus Companies

Circus Artists often have complex portfolio careers, moving from contract to contract, as freelancers. Many travel internationally and extensively. Circus really is art without borders or the barriers that come with spoken language. Circus Artists are true entrepreneurs and are often very willing to change their practice and engage with new technology. In a post-pandemic world circus could be creating work that resonates with audiences and is transferable into many spaces.

• Professional artists need access to training spaces to maintain and develop skills throughout their careers and to ensure they remain fit, healthy and injury free.
• Training with social distancing measures in place will create unique challenges for our sector in preparing to return to work.
• Many, many artists are those who have fallen through the cracks in government support being unable to fulfil the criteria to make any sort of claim.
• Individual artists and circus companies large and small are likely to find challenges with acquiring insurance cover. Support must be found to underwrite and reduce this risk.
• With travel restrictions in place the international market will remain closed for circus artists many of whom ‘commute’ throughout Europe regularly.
• UK employers are generally also small, unstable and at risk and creating circus is time consuming and expensive. However, the end product is often hugely flexible in terms of how and where it can be presented and is accessible to a wide range of audiences.
• Venues may need support to enable them to take what could be perceived as a risk, on programming circus work against more traditional and bankable content.

The National Centre, with support, could act as a hub of information and support for the wider sector, sharing resources, information and intelligence both digitally and physically.

The classic and tented touring circus faces other unique challenges, but also offers opportunities for re-engagement with audiences across the UK if the right support can be made available.