Galway Community Circus

Galway Community Circus: Fuelling Creativity, Confidence and Change

Galway Community Circus is a centre of excellence for youth and social circus in Ireland. Established in 2002, Galway Community Circus is one of the most active youth organisations in Ireland with 650 members attending activities on a weekly basis, in St. Joseph’s Community Centre Shantalla. GCC uses circus as a tool to equip young people with life skills, and socially, to empower, strengthen and build, self-esteem, community and personal development. 

Galway Community Circus believes in ‘Circus for All’ and provides circus programmes for all ages, from toddlers to grandparents. From aerial to balancing, juggling, to clowning, GCC encourages play, team building and discipline. Through learning to trust yourself, our participants become a more active citizen, confident in their purpose, supported by a foundation of acceptance and encouragement. 

Galway Community Circus has a substantial European network of partners and realises European projects of scale, on a yearly basis. The most notable of these at the moment is the Wires Crossed project, which will feature in Galway 2020's Capital of Culture programme. In August of 2020 Galway Community Circus, together with their European partners, will attempt a world record by having 400 people cross the Claddagh Basin and the River Corrib, on tightwires, over a period of 2020 minutes. This project has funding to continue into Timisoara 2021 (Capital of Culture) and includes links with universities and nine circus schools internationally. 

Galway Community Circus runs an extensive outreach programme and has partnerships with over 30 organisations including Galway Autism Partnership, The Brothers of Charity, Downsyndrome Ireland, DeafHear, RehabCare, Educate Together and many more.  

Galway Community Circus is the national leader in Youth and Social Circus. In 2019 the circus received funding to work with 9 other circus schools and 3 universities to draft a syabllus for the first ever BA and MA Programme in Youth and Social Circus in the world.