Aware Newsletter - August
Read about emerging artist performances, new programs, collaborations and more!
Can you believe we are already nearly through Term 3? It’s been an absolute cracker, with our staff and students exploding out of the gate with their new ideas! We’ve been collaborating with Belconnen Arts Centre to send emerging artists to perform in new shows with mind-blowing results. The Department of Health has afforded us grants to pursue new programs with YWCA Canberra and Flexible Education Programs driving social inclusion, and helped us to update our Spin Out program!
Read on below to find out more about all of this!
But first: some housekeeping.
Our Members Portal has been updated and you can now easily log any known absences in advance! Simply log on to the portal (linked below, and on our website), navigate to the “students” tab on your account, and click the button labelled “Future Absences”. How easy!!
And we would like to gently remind all participants that the disabled parking spaces in the Chifley carpark are reserved for people with a Disability Parking Permit. This includes weekends and after hours. There is ample after hours parking in the lower carpark by the ovals!
Now that’s out of the way: exciting things!!
L’entreprise du Risque
Presented by the Covid-Safe “Where You Are” Festival by RISE Canberra with the support of the ACT Government - aerial expert Bernard Bru, renowned costume designer Olga Dumova, and world-class circus performer Jake Silvestro together with our very own emerging artists collaborate to create original works that explore risk, danger and fragility.
We are so proud of our emerging artists Clare Pengriffyn and Imogen Drury for taking the big leap and starting their professional journey! You can catch the shows on the 9, 10, and 11th of September. Seating is strictly limited to ensure Covid safety - book in today so you don’t miss out!
Spring Holiday Program
We are back to our much loved School Holiday fun in under a month! Enrolments are open now for Canberra’s only circus holiday program. It’s the perfect way to keep the kids busy getting fit, making friends, and building confidence while you try to get a little work done!
There are full day programs for ages 8-13 and half day options for the smaller carnies (ages 5-7)! Enrolments are open now via our Members Portal - click the button below to secure your spot!
New Grants thanks to Department of Health!
A long, long time ago (in June), the Hon Richard Colbeck, Senator and Minister for Youth and Sport, along with The Australian Governments Department of Health, announced the recipients of the Driving Social Inclusion through Sport and Physical Activity Program. We were fortunate enough to be on that list!
This two-year funding block provided by the Australian Government's Department of Health will see a big growth to Warehouse Circus’s social inclusion programs across the ACT and beyond.
It will support a new partnerships with YWCA! This will allow us to enter a new space in Condor and reach out to the surrounding schools to run programs free of charge to disadvantaged young women in the area. As well as financial support to begin after school classes for anyone in the area. This new space for us is in the Mura Lanyon Youth and Community Centre, with amazing support from their staff.
The grant is already supporting a new partnership for us with the ACT Department of Education’s Flexible Education Team. A relatively new entity in Canberra, the Flex Ed team manage a wide range of school groups around ACT. They currently manage The Cottage at the Calvary Hospital, Muliyan (an off-campus education model run at the Smith Family Building in Woden), and the Murrumbidgee Education and Training Centre at Bimberi Juvenile Justice Centre. We’ll be running weekly classes for a number of these partners throughout the next two years, as well as workshops and other collaborations.
Lastly, the grant is also going towards the internal development of our support and engagement structures concerning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders communities (ATSI). This demographic is highlighted repeatedly as being one of the most disadvantaged and underprivileged lot there is. Twenty-six percent of children in out of home care in the ACT are of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent. This is despite Indigenous children making up only three per cent of the ACT’s entire child population (figures from ACT Community Services). There have been many a push within the circus industry to increase the support and engagement for ATSI communities (notably Circus OZ’s BLAKflip program that supported our initial application). We know well the benefit that Circus can have for the underprivileged, and the circus industry as well as Warehouse Circus pride ourselves on our inclusive and accessible artform. Yet without active plans and efforts to minimise the barriers people face to engagement and participation, little progress can be made.
With this funding support from the Department of Health, we will be better positioned, informed, and supported in our efforts to provide a meaningful activity for all whom desire it. Watch this space, as in the coming years we hope you will see much improved collaborations with ATSI communities and key Indigenous organisations.
As part of this we have launched a new Southside Kick Ups Program!
We hear you, southside - that parkway after school is killer and you want circus you can get to quickly. That’s why we are starting a brand new Kick Ups class in Conder at the Mura Lanyon Youth and Community Centre!
Mondays 3:45-4:45pm, click the button below to enrol!
Spin Out - Circus For Health
In addition to the grants for driving social inclusion, Warehouse Circus is continuing our partnership with ACT Health to deliver our well loved Spin Out Program for Term 4! Circus For Health - School Spin Out Extension Program, is a community based circus therapy and nutrition program addressing preventative health for young people in the ACT with complex and multiple disabilities. We will collaborate with numerous key partners, including ACT schools, Occupational Therapy (OT) services and Nutrition Australia ACT Inc. (NAACT) to deliver circus therapy and healthy eating classes to students 5 to 18 years old.
Thank you for joining us in Term 3!
As you can see, we are so so busy learning, playing, and creating. Thank you all so much for being with us and allowing us to pass on the circus joy. Stay tuned in to our social media channels for more regular updates, remember that you can still learn wherever you are via our Circus Online tutorial portal (updated every week with new videos!), and make sure you catch all our upcoming shows and projects!