Vulcana Womens Circus

WHO
Vulcana Womens Circus grew out of the lively arts community of West End in Brisbane in 1995.

Vulcana Women's Circus was established to provide circus skills training and performance opportunities for women and young people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Over the years this vibrant community arts organisation has provided large numbers of women and young people with access to cultural expression.

Learning circus is great fun and provides participants with the opportunity to develop physical skills, to improve their health and wellbeing, and to develop personal empowerment in a noncompetitive environment. From the first major community show (A Girls Own Adventure) performed in October 1995, Vulcana has grown to provide a diverse annual program of activities.

WHAT
Vulcana offers a series of circus workshops, a variety of performances projects, outreach programs and team development workshops and creates performances for functions and events.

Vulcana Women's Circus is renowned for staging large-scale community shows which combine "brilliant physical theatre" (The Australian) with "dazzling skills" (The Courier Mail).

WHERE
New Farm, Brisbane, Queensland

WHEN
2007 - 2008

WHY
• To provide Vulcana Womens Circus with 12 months funding for a program of work in 2008 incorporating workshops and performance skills building for young people and women.

• To provide participants with pathway options, mentoring, professional development and performance opportunities. By putting such systems in place and building capacity participants can make a transition into facilitators if they so desire.

• To provide a safe comfortable and supportive environment for women to gain new skills and experiences, increase confidence and self esteem as well as providing
physical body training.

HOW
The program of work in 2008 will provide workshops and performance skills capacity building for young people and women as well as providing opportunities for major performances.

Download the PDF of this Case Study here.

This Case Study was originally produced by the Australia Council's Community Partnership Section as documentation of its Program Grants.
The Australia Council for the Arts is the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body.
It supports and promotes excellence in the arts and community engagement with them. www.australiacouncil.gov.au