Circus Research Europe 

Worldwide Platform for Circus Arts Research is Online–Get Hooked on CARP

CircusTalk
There is now a tool for circus researchers. It’s a place for them to communicate, exchange research studies and resources and it’s called Circus Arts Research Platform (CARP). This free online resource is primarily for academic research and studies related to the circus arts. Published online, the platform stimulates and strengthens collaboration between scholars and professionals interested in circus arts studies across all academic disciplines. The Platform was launched on the 29th of August 2018, at the conference Circus and its others in Prague.
Pieter Willems and Circuscentrum

This new platform is important because it offers the academic community an international directory of researchers and an international, accessible bibliography of academic publications related to circus arts studies. It also gives information on current academic research in circus arts to a wider public. The platform collects and maps universities and research institutions with circus-related research programs or research chairs; institutions offering residencies to scholars, as well as relevant collections in circus art.

At the time of the launch, the platform contains more than 120 profiles of researchers, references to 2000 academic publications in all languages and a world-wide map of more than 200 significant circus collections in archives, museums, libraries and resource centres. The references in the bibliography have been collected from the library collections of the Centre national des arts du Cirque (France), the École Nationale de Cirque (Canada) and from more than 100 academic databases all over the world. The international bibliography and its thematic bibliographies will be updated on regular bases.

In addition, CARP offers an overview of links to institutions, networks and other information resources in circus arts. The News & Events page gives information of the latest activities, conference calls and publications.

The Circus Arts Research Platform is an initiative of Centre national des arts du Cirque (FR), Center for Circus Arts Research, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer of the National Circus School in Montreal (CA), Circuscentrum (BE) and CircusInfo Finland (FI) in collaboration with researchers all over the world, for widening the reachability of knowledge regarding academic research in circus arts.

The CARP Team is composed of:

Centre National Des Arts du Cirque (CNAC) & Chaire D’Innovation Cirque et Marionnette ICIMA-FR : Jeanne Vasseur & Cyril Thomas
Ecole Nationale de Cirque & Centre de Recherche D’Innovation et de Transfert en Arts du Cirque (CRITAC)- CA : Anna-Karyna Barlati & Patrice Aubertin
Circuscentrum (Flemish Center for Circus Arts) – BE : Mui-Ling Verbist
CircusInfo Finland – FI : Johanna Mäkelä

 Feature photo: Cyril Thomas, Head of Research in CNAC presents the website of CARP. Photo: David Konečný

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