As I sit here sipping my coffee, watching the sun come up, listening to what seems like the beginning of the endless rain of the Seattle winter, I look back over this past year at SANCA and I’m endlessly grateful.

Grateful for our staff — who show up each and every day to enrich the lives of our students and make every day a little more fun. With more than 1,000 students and families coming through SANCA’s doors every week, it’s a busy circus! It’s a joy to see all the activity in SANCA, from tots learning to tumble, to adults learning new ways to work with their bodies, to our staff and visiting professionals who continue to amaze and inspire all of us toward ever more challenging feats of circus.

• Youth Scholarships: I’m very pleased to share that SANCA has continued its commitment to make circus possible for any child through our need-based scholarship fund. This year we gave $221,645 in scholarships to 847 youth to take circus classes or participate in Social Circus and Every Body’s Circus.

Grateful for our partners — who help us bring circus to more kids in schools and community centers throughout Seattle. We’ve continued our work with wonderful partners like Broadview Emergency Shelter & Transitional Housing; Powerful Schools; Refugee Women’s Alliance; Rainier Boys & Girls Club; Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative; and the South Park, Delridge, and Garfield community centers.

• Circus works! Over the past year, SANCA partnered with the American Youth Circus Organization (AYCO) to participate in a Socio-Emotional Learning Study conducted by AYCO and the Weikart Center that unequivocally demonstrated that circus arts improve the socio-emotional health of youth. Compared with national data of youth development programs, social circus has proven to be among the top-ranking, exemplary programs.

Grateful for YOU, our supporters — who have faith in us and the work we do to bring circus to the world — which is exactly what we did this year! I’d like to share with you some of this year’s highlights and the impact you have made with your support – read or download SANCA’s 2017 Community Update.

I am grateful. Each and every day.

Kristina Wicke
Executive Director

Tumbling students at SANCA can look forward to an exciting new extended Tumbl-Trak with a new spring bed, coming just in time for our Fall Session classes! Students can also look forward to new aerial fabrics and updated rigging blocks for our aerial equipment.

A big thank you to 4Culture – the cultural funding agency for King County for providing a $4,000 equipment grant. Thank you 4Culture!

by Madeline Anderson
SANCA Development Assistant

Social Circus Director Ian Jagel works with a group of teens from Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative

Voter ballots were mailed today for the August King County Election! We are really excited about the prospects of the upcoming election here at SANCA because Proposition 1 on the ballot could provide up to $65 million annually in funding for the arts county-wide, and represents a significant boost in funding for SANCA’s circus arts programs.

This August, King County voters will have the opportunity to increase public access for arts and cultural organizations, like ours. Proposition 1 proposes a 0.1% increase in our current sales tax to fund a grant pool to be distributed to arts and culture organizations in King County. Funds would be directed toward programs that increase access to geographically or economically disadvantaged youth. The program is estimated to cost the average family only $30/year, and will dramatically increase the availability of equitable cultural and arts programming in King County. We believe this is a cause everyone in our community can rally behind.

All organizations that receive grant funds will be held accountable in their pursuit of providing equitable and accessible programs. Granted organizations are responsible for maintaining accurate documentation measuring program benchmarks, visitors served, and community impact. Funds will be distributed through 4Culture, a trusted, well-grounded arts and culture funding organization which has been granting funds and providing contract oversight for more than 40 years.

What this means for SANCA

A child from Helper Hands learns to balance while taking an Every Body’s Circus camp.

At SANCA, we have always believed that every child deserves the right to access arts education. Arts and culture programming focused on access and equity bring an important value to the community. We know, for example, that if youth currently experiencing homelessness have the opportunity to express themselves through art and build community, the impact can be life changing. If passed, Proposition 1 may provide a huge opportunity to increase our Social Circus outreach programs, giving even more youth the opportunity to experience the joy of circus, reduce isolation, build community, and develop healthy life habits.

The proposition includes the stipulation that 20% of granted funds go toward “Public School Access.” What this means is that granted organizations must partner with local schools to ensure equitable access to programs. This is something near and dear to our mission at SANCA, where we have already partnered with more than 30 local schools and community centers in our Social Circus programs. An increase in funding directed to these programs would expand our reach and allow us to work with even more youth.

Stable funding for our Social Circus and Every Body’s Circus programs will also give us the opportunity to do things like offer paid internships for older youth, give staff the opportunity to participate in race and equity training, and provide specialized training for working with students with disabilities. Proposition 1 funding would even help pay for bus fare so that transportation isn’t a barrier to accessing cultural and arts institutions like SANCA. These improvements would help us better serve our community and expand access to programs, all good things!

What you can do
Talk to your friends about what being a part of the SANCA community (or any other community arts organization) has meant for you and your family. Share your experiences and talk to your friends about the impact of expanding access for our community.

If you have a SANCA story you’d like to share with us, we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to email us at [email protected]. And most importantly, don’t forget to vote in the August election!

For more information about Proposition 1, check out their website at www.culturalaccesswa.org. If you are interested in volunteering, visit https://accessforallwa.org/get-involved/volunteer.

SANCA received two grants in June to fund the purchase of a Genie Lift Aerial Work Platform, which will be used to service and maintain all of our aerial rigging, lights, fans, and heaters. We would like to thank The Norcliffe Foundation for a $5,000 grant, and the Norman Archibald Charitable Foundation for a $3,500 grant for the purchase of a Genie Lift.

SANCA just received two grants for general support – a $5,000 grant from Growing Tree Foundation and a $500 grant from The Ruddell Kroll Charitable Fund. Thank you!

We are deeply grateful for the support of our grant partners.

All about SANCA! Do you have a question about taking classes at SANCA? What to wear? When to arrive? What are general classes and what are specialty classes? Who to talk to when you have more questions?

You can find all these answers and more in the new Student Handbook! SANCA is debuting a Student Handbook that is a comprehensive guide to SANCA’s Session classes, policies, and important information including overviews of all of SANCA’s programs. This is a resource for you to better access what SANCA has to offer. Download a PDF copy of the new SANCA 2017 Student Handbook

Let me start by saying, THANK YOU for being a part of our SANCA Circus Community! You are at the heart of everything we do and you inspire us every day to make SANCA better, more fun, and more accessible. Thank you for your continued feedback and we are committed to taking your suggestions and manifesting positive change.

Summer is just around the corner and in our efforts to improve the quality of our program offerings, I wanted to take a moment to let you know about some exciting developments at SANCA.

Summer Camps! – Following the resounding success of our Summer Camps last year, we are working hard to ensure that this Summer is our best yet. We’re thrilled to announce we’ve added more weeks of our Specialty Camps and redesigned our ongoing partnership camps with the Seattle Children’s Theatre and the Pacific Science Center. Oh, and last year, we nearly sold out 100% of our camps and we’re filling up faster than last year already-enroll your child today!

Business Hours – We’re changing our hours slightly this Summer, have a look:

• Monday – Friday: 8:45 a.m. – 9 p.m.
• Saturday – Sunday: 9:45 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.*
  *Note we’re shifting our weekend hours one hour later

Enrollment Periods – In an effort to streamline our enrollment process, and after much feedback from our community, we have opted to give more time for all current SANCA students to enroll through Priority Enrollment. We will be replacing our Re-enroll week with an additional week of Priority Enrollment for all currently enrolled SANCA students and families. If you are currently enrolled in a SANCA class and hope to re-enroll in the same class, we encourage you to enroll early. Doing so will not only increase your chances of enrolling in the class you prefer, but will also allow us to open more classes that you desire.

Introducing “Creative Circus” Single Serving Classes – We are excited to announce that we are expanding our Single Serving class offerings with a 55-minute Creative Circus class for each age group! Creative Circus offers an exploratory and creative approach to circus, aiming to provide current and new students alike with chances to experience the playful side of circus, all while building skills and getting a healthy dose of physical exercise. Creative Circus will be offered at $10 for current students and $20 for the general public.

A Note about Make-up Classes – After receiving feedback from our students, parents, and coaches about our Make-up classes, we have decided to discontinue Make-up classes and focus on expanding our Single Serving class offerings. We know this is a significant shift for our Session students, and that changes in schedule and structure can be difficult and require a period of adjustment. For this reason, we are offering our new Creative Circus classes at a significant discount for current students. We are confident that through an alternative approach to circus that focuses more on the creative, collaborative and joyous sides of circus, we can improve the quality and variety of our programming.

Student Handbook – SANCA is debuting a Student Handbook that is a comprehensive guide to SANCA’s Session classes, policies and generally important information including overviews of all of SANCA’s programs. This is a resource for you to better access what SANCA has to offer. Starting in Summer, look for it on our website, in your confirmation e-mail, and in our office.

Finally, YOU make SANCA. We are committed to serving you better and we want to work with you to make SANCA the best that it can be. If you have questions, suggestions, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to send them to [email protected].
May all your days be circus days,

Kristina Wicke
Executive Director

The Lucky Seven Foundation has awarded SANCA a $5,000 grant for the Social Circus Program.

SANCA Social Circus uses circus arts as means of positive intervention for Seattle’s most vulnerable communities, and is dedicated to deepening and expanding safe space for youth. The Social Circus curriculum combines circus arts with educational social intervention to help young people, using an arts-based curriculum that emphasizes 21st century skills: creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. The program works with Seattle’s most vulnerable populations, including youth who are homeless, refugees or immigrants, or have disabilities. We help young people develop confidence, realize their strengths, and discover hidden talents, and work with them to enhance their quality of life, boost their self-esteem, and encourage their participation and active involvement.

The Social Circus program partners with 30 schools and youth organizations, giving $46,000 in free circus classes to at-risk youth annually. Partners include Powerful Schools; South Park, Delridge, and Garfield community centers; Refugee Women’s Alliance; the Broadview Shelter; and Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative.

Thank you Lucky Seven Foundation!