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03.07.24

Learning about Circus Leadership in Riga

Galway Community Circus's Development Coordinator Maeve Keane travelled to Riga, Latvia with our Executive Director Lynn Carroll for the Leadership in Circus Conference. Read on to learn about Maeve's experience at the conference!

The two-day conference, which was co-funded by Creative Europe, was the closing event of the New Horizons Leadership Programme (NHLP), an initiative where several emerging circus professionals were mentored by established circus and creative leaders across Europe.

The conference brought together the partners and participants involved in this programme, as well as other creative and circus professionals from around Europe. Over the two days, valuable insights from the programme were shared, as well as visions for the future of circus leadership.

As a newcomer to the circus, the conference proved to be a great introduction to the world of circus and specifically contemporary circus. It took place in the newly renovated Rigas Cirks, a beautiful space that caters for circus performance as well as a range of other arts and public events.

The first day of the conference kicked off with an insightful talk from the directors of In Between Time who spoke about the importance of collaborative leadership in the arts and avoiding burnout. The practice of carrying out artistic collaborations remotely using a ‘call and response’ method was discussed as an alternative way of collaborating in a more sustainable and accessible manner. Artistic director and curator Santa Remere, spoke about the importance of creating for and with the environment – a great reminder to continue creating work in a way that aligns with the UN’s SDGs.

Silja Kyytinen, Director of Sirkus Magenta, then spoke about equality and joy in the context of value-based leadership in social circus. She also shared a video of their new circus facility, a really impressive space which was exciting to see.

In the afternoon, we spilt into different workshops. I chose the sustainability workshop which was facilitated by Santa Remere. We used sustainable prompt cards to dissect, explore and discuss important questions related to the environment and our relationship with it.

Having hopped on a very early flight to get to Riga earlier that morning, I fell straight into bed at the end of the day after having a quick bite to eat at our hotel.

With a good night’s sleep behind me, I was ready for day two of the conference. The sessions featured presentations and roundtable discussions highlighting innovations in and future directions of circus leadership. These discussions featured mentees and mentors from the Horizon Leadership Programme who were from Finland, Hungary, Sweden, Italy… the list goes on! Each speaker shared a bit about their creative background along with their experiences of leadership within their respective organisations and collectives.

It was interesting to hear from speakers who have worked within a range of leadership structures and the advantages and disadvantages associated with each one. As someone who has primarily worked within more traditional leadership structures, it was insightful to hear how shared leadership structures can work in some contexts where clear roles and responsibilities are defined. The importance of softness and vulnerability in leadership was also brought up which I found quite interesting as it’s not something that I’ve often heard encouraged in the context of leadership.

Having reached the end of the conference, Lynn and I managed to take in a few of the main sites in Riga’s Oldtown, before meeting a few familiar, friendly faces from the conference for a farewell dinner.