Paying Artists Benefits Us All
At Galway Community Circus, we understand the value of artists and their perspective. That artistic perspective is so important to what we do, and we value artists not only as performers but as key members of the team. In 2020 we were proud to be able to hire two company artists in full-time employment with two-year contracts as a core part of GCC’s small team of seven staff members.
“We have been so lucky to have incredible circus artists working with us from all corners of the world at Galway Community Circus. Some of them have stayed in Galway only for a short time while others have made a home here and have worked with us for up to twenty years,” says Executive Creative Director Ulla Hokkanen. “As we know, making a living as an artist is tough. The working and living conditions of artists remain below acceptable standards and many circus artists still need to leave Ireland in search of viable career opportunities. We are delighted that we are making, at times slow, but steady progress in this area.”
Being in a position to offer some stable employment for artists has been all the more meaningful during what has been an extraordinarily difficult and precarious time for so many across the sector. Like many arts organisations around the country, Galway Community Circus has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, and plans had to be adapted and changed throughout 2020 and 2021. We would not have been able to survive without the support from our community and funders.
Company Artists Isabela Mello and Davi Hora are both highly-skilled circus artists who have made their homes in Galway after studying at Brazil’s National Circus School. Both started with Galway Community Circus in volunteer roles and began teaching more and more, developing their pedagogical skills. Isabela and Davi’s work as company artists includes one day per week on personal artistic development and four days a week working as artists and educators with GCC’s youth programme.
“What I like the most about my job is seeing how children are the future. We have a saying in Portuguese: ‘Faith in the Children’. I’m amazed by their wisdom, their capacity to change, improve, think, rethink… To have empathy for others, to the world, to be critical and resilient,” Isabela said of her students. “That’s what motivates me the most. That’s what gives me meaning."
The company artists have worked on a range of youth-and community-centric programming including ‘The Streets Are Ours’, a collaboration with Baboró, Galway Dance Project and Galway 2020, a street performance project ‘Streets Alive’ supported by Galway City Council, and Erasmus+ funded programmes including ‘ABCirk’ Youth Leadership programme and ‘Circus Transformation’ training for Social Circus teachers.
“It’s really important to acknowledge the social and psychological challenges young people face and how important it is for them to create a meaningful sense of belonging to a community,” Davi said. “Being part of something [like circus] helps young people unlock their creativity and gives them dreams to fulfil. Circus training is an opportunity for youth to engage socially and develop themselves through circus art, which encourages being resilient, engaged, and curious.”
“We work hard to play our part to ensure that Ireland can be a place where artists can have productive and rewarding careers in their chosen discipline,” Ulla said. Galway Community Circus also employs artists on a freelance basis, and is working towards providing sustainable employment for more artists through our circus school. Other artist supports that GCC provide include continued professional development opportunities in-house and with GCC’s European partners, a daily training and rehearsal space, production supports, and mentoring and access to professional networks. Both Isabela and Davi provide training and mentoring for other circus educators around Ireland.
Before finding a home at Galway Community Circus, Davi said it was difficult to find affordable practice space when he needed to practice four or five hours at a time. In his first year volunteering with GCC, he also balanced working as a cleaner and developing a juggling show with his performing partner. Later they received Arts Council funding which enabled them to travel and perform, representing Ireland in Italy and Japan. Isabela’s main disciplines are handstand and Washington trapeze (in which performers balance on their heads). She also enjoys the technical stage management side of circus productions, and has benefitted from trainings, projects, and seminars thanks to her role with Galway Community Circus.
"Creating employment for artists is something that traditional circus as an art form has long been a leader in. It is truly wonderful to see this tradition continue in the work of Galway Community Circus, through the contracts with Davi and Isabela. It seems somewhat ironic that arts organisations should have to declare this as a small win, but when the world of employment is entirely geared towards output and capital gain, it remains a fact that the unquantifiable and intangible role that artists play within an organisation can sometimes be omitted to, what we believe, is the arts organisations detriment," explained Lucy Medlycott, Director of the Irish Street Arts, Circus and Spectacle Network.
Galway Community Circus is grateful to the support of our funding partners The Arts Council of Ireland, Galway City Council, Galway County Council, Erasmus+ and Creative Europe for making our work possible, and for making it possible for us to provide employment for artists.