HOW THEATRE BRISTOL SUPPORTED CIRCUS CITY
Theatre Bristol offered to be the exec producers for Circus City (2015-2017) which gave us financial systems; insurances; opened up avenues of funding and gave us an organisation that was able to issue contracts.
Theatre Bristol enabled Circus City to happen for the first two years of the festival.
We had mentoring and support from Theatre Bristol – regular meetings, making sure things were on track with the festival. Key decisions and finances needed to run past Theatre Bristol’s board so that there were added layers of checks and balances.
Theatre Bristol enabled Circus City to happen for the first two years of the festival – giving us the time and space to focus on making the festival rather than having to set up an organisation, acquire a board, and set up financial systems.
The main thing that TB did was to take a risk financially which was amazing for us. – we did pay for their services but if the festival lost money TB would have had to take that hit.
Theatre Bristol’s support definitely put us in position to receive funding for the first two festivals; helping us create new work; getting us to a point where we could deliver successful festivals. The end result is that we are now at a stage where we have set up a CIO, have a board and are able to take that organisational development work to the next level.
If TB did not exist I would notice that there would be a lack of an organisation that is very well informed, very capable and able to take risks on behalf of artists. TB is able to feed down the knowledge and experience they have and make themselves available to artists.
