TAKE CARE - Circus life in a swing

ongoing

TAKE CARE aims at preventing mental health issues in the contemporary circus arts sector by training students and professionals on the topic, by raising awareness about mental health, and by facilitating the exchange of good practices in caring for young artists. Furthermore, the project will gather evidence, as well as collect and disseminate tools and resources to help the sector evolve structurally, towards more conscious and sustainable models. Circus arts typically require artists to integrate high levels of muscle strength for an extreme range of movement, while developing artistic expression in order to perform in a high-stress environment. Despite stress is therefore part of circus artists daily life, little is known about the mental health of (future, young, amateur, semi-professional, professional) circus artists. TAKE CARE is led by FEDEC – International network for professional circus education (BEL, with 82 members in 31 countries) in partnership with Codarts University of the Arts (NLD), the CircusDanceFestival (DEU), Filip Jacobson Film (DEU), Miikkael Christoffer Kukkula (FIN) and Around About Circus (ITA). TAKE CARE will carry out the following activities for 27 months: - 8 Experts committee meetings to pilot the project - 4 Workshops, to train and raise awareness about mental health and well-being. - 4 Video artworks featuring circus artists talking about their mental health in their practice - 3 public Conferences in renowned circus festivals to raise awareness on the topic and disseminate results - 4 Digital Meetings to support the creation of network of performing arts festivals committed with mental health - 1 Study on young circus practitioners’ mental health, to gather evidence collect data on the mental health of young European circus practitioners - 1 Digital Library to collect good practices and tools - 4 Articles to document the project with high-quality interviews - 1 Communication campaign to raise awareness