Resources and networks

We own documentary resources on circus arts : reference works, posters of the previous Festivals of Contemporary Circus, posters of many shows, as well as videos of the shows performed at the last CIRCa festivals made by the audiovisual unit of the CNAC (national centre for circus arts).

For any consultation or loan, please contact us +33562616581.

Library of Grand Auch

The library owns a collection about circus (documentary or educational works, books for young readers…). The catalogue is available online (write “cirque” on the search page or the website).
Contact : +33562616470 ou
Gaëlle Panighetti : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Cathy Danflous : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Canopé Auch

The Centre Départemental de Documentation Pédagogique du Gers (educational documentation centre of Gers County) provides teachers and trainers with documentary resources about circus arts.

HorsLesMurs

HorsLesMurs is the National Information Centre for Street Arts and Circus Arts and aims to find connections between these specific contemporary artistic fields and important societal issues.

rueetcirque.fr

HorsLesMurs proposes a catalogue of documentary resources on street and circus arts online. It holds thousands of documents: the professional directory of HorsLesMurs, companies' contacts, details of venues or places for residences, shows information, photos, videos, articles, records.

Resource Centre of the National Centre for Circus Arts (CNAC)

The CNAC holds a rich collection works about circus and performing arts. Associated with the Bibliothèque nationale de France / BnF (French National Library), the centre is dedicated to students, trainees, researchers and the wider public. It also aims to collaborate with foreign high schools.

CNAC TV

The Resource Centre of the Centre National des Arts du Cirque (National Centre for Circus Arts) has an audio-visual production unit that develops an online collection of more than 300 videos (end of term shows, students works, shows performed at the festivals of CIRCa, Furies, CircusNext...)

En Scènes – performing arts on video

A selection of shows' extracts sorted by topics like “circus” or “clown” proposed by the Institut National de l’Audiovisuel.

Study of circus arts in Midi-Pyrénées - December 2013

At the Territoires de Cirque's instigation, this study was conducted from June to December 2013 after an initial work done between February and May 2012. Study of circus in MP

Espaces chapiteaux

This online collaborative platform is proposed by the GNAC (national group for circus arts), in collaboration with the CITI (International Centre of Travelling Theatres).

Currently, 30 entities encouraging contemporary circus production and programming are members of this organisation created in 2004.

The members do not have the same mission or operating system but they all work in the areas of programming, co-production, cultural activities and professional training in circus arts.

They constitute a structured national network dealing with different aspects of a rich and passionate but economically fragile sector. It consists in enabling the existence, in different regions of entities dedicated to circus arts, with the aim to develop the discipline.

The organisation aims to:

• To create a space for consultation and professional ventures dedicated to circus arts and open to those with artistic project by providing artists with residency and programming opportunities.
• To take part in the national and international debate around supporting and developing circus arts.
• To be an active and influential partner when working with public authorities, field partners and other professionals for the implementation of political decisions in favour of circus arts.

The members of the organisation Territoires de Cirque regularly meet during events organised in each entity to share and expand the reflection on issues around the discipline. CIRCa takes great pleasure in hosting these meetings in the midst of its festival.

President : Didier Patard / Transversales (Verdun - 55)
Vice-presidents : Hélène Langlois, Théâtre Louis Aragon (Tremblay en France - 93), Patricia Kapusta / Le Prato (Lille - 59), Alain Reynaud / La Cascade (Bourg St Andéol - 07)
Treasurer: Marc Fouilland / Circa (Auch - 32)
Secretary : Philippe Le Gal / Le Carré Magique (Lannion - 22)

Project manager:
Marie JACOLOT
Les Subsistances - 8 bis quai St-Vincent - 69000 Lyon
+33478303737 - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Siège social :

Territoires de Cirque – ONDA - 13 bis rue Henry Monnier - 75009 PARIS

The GNAC represents the solidarity between all the constituents of circus arts (representatives from training, production, programming; agents of the different circus trends called “traditional” circus and “contemporary” circus; employers and employees; networks, unions, both individuals and organisations) who work together for its development.

Présidente : Agnès Célérier

Groupement National des Arts du Cirque
c/o Fédération Française des Ecoles de Cirque
13 rue Marceau - 93100 Montreuil
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Since 2003, Circostrada Network works to develop and structure the fields of Circus and Street Arts in Europe and beyond

With more than 80 members from 25 countries, it contributes to build a sustainable future for these sectors by empowering cultural players through the production of resources and actions of observation and research, professional exchanges, advocacy, capacity-building and information.

Since 2004, the SCC offers tailored support to artistic teams for the implementation of their creation process, production and organisation. Solidarity, creativity, diversity and transmission, strong circus values, form the basis of each action undertaken by the SCC. The SCC is proud to implement economical solidarity, where employees are fully actors of their enterprises and the first to contribute to its success.

Nine cultural establishments on both sides of the Pyrenees have joined forces to design PYRENART a project selected within the framework of the European program Interreg Poctefa (2014-2020), whose ambition is to develop and strengthen internationally the performing arts sector of the Pyrenean cross-border area.

This project of nearly 2 million euros is co-financed by the European Union under the FEDER (European Fund for Economic and Regional Development) for 1.3 million euros until 2020, and brings together:

• Réseau en scène (leader),
• Le Parvis scène nationale Tarbes Pyrénées,
• CIRCa – Pôle National Cirque Auch Gers Occitanie,
• L’Estive – Scène Nationale de Foix et de l’Ariège,
• l’OARA Nouvelle-Aquitaine,
• BitÒ Productions S.L.,
• el Patronato municipal de artes escénicas y de la imagen de Zaragoza,
• la Escuela navarra de teatro
• la Ville de Bilbao.

>>> Read the 1st PYRENART newsletter

Partners and co-financers :

(2013/2015)
Initiated by the KIT (Københavns Internationale Teater) in Denmark, the project [Circus] work ahead! is part of the 2007-2013 Cultural Programme of the European Union and placed in partnership CIRCa with Les Halles de Schaerbeek in Belgium and Cirqueon in Czech Republic.

The “[CIRCUS] WORK AHEAD!” project aimed to develop its activities at the meeting point between training and distribution networks, for the benefit of young circus artists seeking to embrace a European wide career.

In order to ensure the development of its aims, “[CIRCUS] WORK AHEAD!” intended to focus on the following four objectives:

• Reinforce relations between the sphere of professional circus schools and that of creation and development networks for young artists who have just finished their training, thus promoting the further training of young professionals by means of master classes;
• >Intensify mobility and distribute the work produced by contemporary circus artists to decentralised audiences which, since they are not connected to distribution and programming networks in big urban centres, continue to harbour a circus experience which is out of step with our times;
• Evaluate and document the question of audiences and locations in the reception of contemporary circus through collaboration with a university research centre;
• Promote in terms of distribution (cultural stakeholders) and in terms of cultural policy (local decision-makers) the raising of adequate financial means needed by the specific economy generated by circus productions (equipment, large teams).

Activities

Four distinct activities have been implemented by the project partners:

1/ master classes : See the video of the Master class hosted by CIRCa in October 2014.

2/an international distribution initiative focused on artists who experience difficulties in breaking through into an experienced professionalism;.

3/ a local decentralised programming initiative aimed at conquering new territories for the circus arts and calling on local government authorities;

4/ the development of a documented and analytical axis on the development on contemporary circus audiences in relation to given areas.

Download the survey on circus audiences: "Circus audiences on the scale of 4 European territories" by Emilie Salaméro - Lecturer à l'Université de Poitiers (in French)

Initiated by Circuscentrum (Flemish centre for circus arts), the European project UNPACK THE ARTS welcomed across all media, journalists, critics and chief editors to offer them within the frame of festivals, opportunities to reflect on ways of developing a critical discourse around circus arts, to even query the role played by critics, and to broaden their knowledge.

This programme constituted of 12 residencies organised within 10 European festivals, over a two-year period (August 2012 to February 2014).

What for ?

• To raise cultural journalists’ awareness of the contemporary circus scene by exposing them to artistic works and provoking discussions with key experts and artists – both on creation processes and on ways to engage with circus' audience
• To create a community within the press who are aware of circus' vocabulary, history and influences, and who are able to produce literature and reviews of shows that encompass critical discourses on new trends and recognise the specific nature of circus dramaturgy
• To offer media professionals ‘time and space’ to advance and explore their practice through intellectual encounters, artistic innovation within their work, and creative engagement across borderss
• To reach out to European citizens, in particular the ones who have a low level of cultural consumption and are usually under-represented at festivals and venues

Residencies
This programme constituted of 12 residencies in 8 countries (10 festivals), spread over 2 years (August 2012 – February 2014). Each journalist only participated in one residency. Each residency was set within the framework of a festival and followed the same format: over the course of 4 days, the participants contributed to a series of moderated thematic discussions, attended lectures by key circus experts, saw 3-5 shows, and met with and interviewed programmed artists along with a representative of the host festival. Some sessions, in particular the interviews with artists and the lectures, were open to the wider public.

At the end of the residencies, each participant wrote 1 article (2,000 words) in their native language. These texts have been collected, translated in English and turned into an online, multilingual publication, with each article appearing both in its original language and an English translation.

Consult the articles

The co-organisers

• Københavns Internationale Teater - (DK)
• Subtopia (SE)
• Mala prsa - Festival novog cirkusa (HR)
• Les Halles de Schaerbeek (BE)
• Finnish Circus Info Centre (FI)
• Circusstad Festival Rotterdam (NL)
• Humorologie, Festival of Emotions (BE)
• Crying Out Loud (UK)
• CIRCa