Circus City immersed me in a world where ideas … took flight and went in directions I could have never guessed. I’ve realised …. how important it is to protect ideas because you never know how amazing these might become (Volunteer Feedback 2023)
Circus City and Handstand Arts
Circus City festival is produced by Handstand Arts, a leading national performing arts organisation for the development of contemporary circus.
Based in Bristol and originating from a biannual festival that launched in 2015 we established as a charity in 2019 that is recognised locally, regionally, and internationally in our field.
Our Vision
We are dedicated to sharing the power of collective live experiences for audiences and peers, recognising the unique experience that happens when we share moments of awe, joy, and challenge together.
We achieve our aim of promoting live performing arts by:
Championing diversity in performances, workforce, and audiences, ensuring greater access to the live arts experience and recognising the importance of different perspectives.
Encouraging experimentation and innovation through our curated and commissioned artistic practice, supporting artists to evolve and take risks with their work.
Building a stronger, more collaborative sector by working with a wide range of partners to share knowledge, skills and opportunities.
Our year-round programme includes place-based outdoor performances, residencies, workshops and artists development opportunities. We punctuate this biannually with Circus City, the largest UK (and only English) festival dedicated to contemporary circus.
The Next 5 years
Our goal for 2024-29 is to evolve our year-round programme ensuring that it is substantiable, integrated into the community, and celebrates Bristol as a city of circus accessible to all. We will soon be sharing more information on what this will look like and how you can get involved. In the mean time if you would like to understand more about our work to date visit Our Impact here.
Nicole A’Court Stuart & Rhiannon Jones
Artistic Director & Executive Director, Handstand Arts
Circus City festival is proud to have George Ferguson, Bristol’s first elected Mayor, as our patron.
George kicked off Bristol’s ambition to be a City of Circus in 2012 and has been an enthusiastic supporter of our work ever since
Meet The Team:
Amy Nicholls
Board Member
Amy Nicholls
Board Member
Amy Nicholls is a freelance Circus Producer, Fundraiser and Director. She is the Co-Director of female-led circus; Lavrak and new disabled-led circus; Make Space, the Programme Manager for Scarabeus Aerial Theatre and Fundraiser for Levantes Dance Theatre. She is passionate about access in the arts and built an artist development residency programme at Flying Fantastic, supporting the creation of new accessible work.
She first came across Circus City in 2017, when she was commissioned to produce a cabaret for the festival and has been in love with the festival ever since. Amy joined the Handstand Arts Board in 2023.
Kate Webb
Chair of the Board
Kate Webb
Chair of the Board
Kate trained at The Laban Centre and Circomedia, she was initially an aerialist performing with Skinning the Cat Aerial Theatre, In 2001, Kate set up Circomedia’s outreach programme and went on to set up and run their BTEC National Diploma qualification, as well as teach on the FDA and MA programmes. Kate has an MA in Educational Research and was the lead tutor on Circomedia’s Teacher Training Course. As a freelance director and producer, Kate works regularly with Cirque Bijou, most notably on Drawer of Dreams (2006), Battle for the Winds (2012) – a south West project for the Olympics and Green Space Dark Skies (2022), an outdoor participatory collaboration with Walk the Plank. She was the Associate Circus Director for Extraordinary Bodies production of Waldo’s Circus of Magic and Terror (2023) and regularly directs for Tumbellina International. Kate was also the producer of Bristol’s Circus 250 celebrations in 2018.
Strategic work includes development for Circomedia (2018-2021), leading on Circus Change Up – an initiative to develop sector support for circus, working with Equity to develop safe working practices and working on talent development for disabled artists with Extraordinary Bodies. Kate is also a member of the advisory board for Revel Pucks Circus and is a member of Circus Works board. Kate is an RD1st Coach and regularly supports artists at all stages of their careers.
Sascha Goslin
Board Member
Sascha Goslin
Board Member
Sascha Goslin is a freelance producer and founder of the Norfolk Black & POC Creatives Network. Passionate about physical theatre and politics, she focuses on circus, outdoor and accessible shows, believing that performance has the power to change people, perspectives and hopefully, the world.
Nicole A’Court Stuart
Artistic Director
Nicole A’Court Stuart
Artistic Director
Nicole has 10 years experience as a creative producer in the circus sector, including five years with Handstand Arts as Circus City producer and key roles developing and touring circus internationally with Extraordinary Bodies and Laura Murphy. Her Queer and neurodivergent position, coupled with her training as an RD1st coach, has led her to place accessibility, care, and representation at the core of her practice. As Artistic Director she is keen to develop the accessibility of our events and to deepen our relationships with the artists we programme and commission. Motivated by Circus research, she is passionate about the role our work can play in the continual questioning and development of what circus is and can be, and what it can offer to audiences.
Rhiannon Jones
Executive Director
Rhiannon Jones
Executive Director
Rhiannon joined HSA in 2023. She brings over 20 years’ experience working in the arts and cultural sector from traditional theatres to combined arts and community venues including Trinity Centre, Bristol, where she led the artistic programme for 8 years. Her passion is to work with and for organisations that put artists and communities at the centre of what they do, empower people to think differently about their own creativity and lead their own cultural expression.
Rhiannon completed the Clore Social – Experienced Leaders Programme (2022 – 23) and holds an MA in Arts Policy and Management. She is also currently Strategic Lead at Misfits Theatre Company.
Thea Woodrow
General Manager
Thea Woodrow
General Manager
Thea brings experience as a Producer, Finance and Project Manager over the last 7 years of working in the arts and voluntary sectors, including 5 years with international show makers Cirque Bijou. Drawing on roots in classical music, she is passionate about working creatively and collaboratively to make socially engaged, inclusive, accessible live performances, events, and experiences. Thea is excited to take on the new General Manager role for Handstand Arts, and work with Nicole and Rhiannon to grow the organisation and Circus City festival.
Kate Hartoch
Associate Director
Kate Hartoch
Associate Director
Kate Hartoch has worked as a Creative Producer specialising in outdoor arts and circus for over 20 years working with organisations such as the Roundhouse, Circus Next, Shambala Festival and Bristol City Council.
With Lina B. Frank, Kate founded Circus City in 2014, creating Handstand Arts CIO in 2019 after 2 festival editions being exec produced by Theatre Bristol.
Since stepping down as Festival Director in early 2023 Kate has become co-director of MUTI, a training provider for the Live Arts and Events sector and looks forward to an ongoing relationship with Handstand Arts as Associate Director.
We are grateful to our supporters who have made our work possible:
Handstand Arts is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, No. 1181762
