Petition the NEA

Summary:

This letter is submitted on behalf of the Circus Arts Guild of America (CAGA) in support of the National Endowment for the Arts’ consideration of recognizing the U.S. Circus Arts industry as an independent arts category. We appreciate the NEA’s longstanding role in strengthening the nation’s arts infrastructure and submit this testimony to provide clarity on the scope, scale, and administrative relevance of the Circus Arts within the contemporary U.S. arts ecosystem. Circus Arts organizations and workers currently apply for NEA support under the multidisciplinary arts category.

 

Recognition as an independent category would improve alignment across federal arts frameworks without mandating new funding levels, creating new regulatory authority, or privileging any single organization. We urge the NEA to add an additional grant submission category for the Circus Arts. Currently, circus grant applications must apply through the multidisciplinary arts category, which is defined as a combination of performing, visual, media, design, and literary arts, which does a disservice to the specific needs and particularities of circus arts. Particularly during this time when there is pressure to make tough budgetary decisions, we strongly urge the NEA to include Circus Arts as a driving arts industry in the U.S. 
 

Written Testimony:

According to a 2022 survey of U.S. Circus Arts workers, these workers are distributed fairly evenly across regions of the country, with the highest concentration in the Western U.S. The Circus Arts are an evolving art form of popular entertainment that synthesize physical technical mastery with artistic expression of one or more circus techniques recognized by professionals as, including but not limited to, aerial and floor acrobatics, hand balancing and object manipulation, the art of the comedian and clown, equestrian arts, and variety arts. Additionally, the extensive technicians, tent and theater laborers, coaches and educators, along with its producers and directors the U.S. Circus Arts workers are a vital component to the arts and cultural fabric both nationally and internationally. 

 

Recognition of the U.S. Circus Arts Industry by the NEA would have an outsized effect to support the well-being of our community in order to influence and promote the formation of cultural policy at the national, as well as regional and local levels. Legitimizing circus organizations as cultural players alongside other art forms enhances our ability to collaborate with the already recognized theatre, dance, music, and film communities in advocacy efforts. It would help the industry build an accreditation and education pipeline for circus classes to become normalized and integrated into physical education programs and after school programs, mental health programs, as well as, degree programs in higher education institutions. 

 

Circus Arts recognition will provide more protections for circus workers, regulating safety policies that are specific to our community. It can lead to more risk awareness and drive protective policies for circus arts organizations in both legislative bodies and with insurance companies. Recognition would bring more awareness and lead to better Equity/Diversity/Inclusion policies within the industry.

 

Circus Arts recognition will provide more access to funding/grant/loans for the Circus Arts. The Circus Arts ecosystem has already benefited directly from NEA funding through Grants for Arts Projects. For example, the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) received $20,000 in support in FY 2022 and has reached over 45,000 audience members in public, private and school settings in rural Southern Vermont and throughout New England. Circus company Parallel Exit received $15,000 from the NEA in FY 2023 and has reached over 50,000 audience members and 25,000 public school students throughout New York City. 

 

Specific investment in the U.S. Circus Arts industry from the NEA supports the arts economy as a whole and expands the U.S. arts economy. The creative economy represented 4.4 percent of the gross domestic product in 2021, more than $1 trillion in total, according to a joint report from the NEA and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Additionally… “According to its study, the United States spends about $6 per person on direct public spending on arts, the lowest of any of the countries tracked by the ACE study. By contrast, Germany, a country comparable to the U.S. in terms of per capita gross domestic product (GDP), spends an estimated $85 per person on public arts spending.”  NEA Research Report #61. Recognition of the U.S. Circus Arts expands the U.S. arts industry in the international community and drives awareness and understanding of its cultural relevance on the international stage. 

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Beyond performers, the Circus Arts workforce includes technicians, riggers, tent and theater laborers, coaches, educators, producers, and directors. Together, these workers contribute to a complex cultural ecosystem that operates across nonprofit, educational, commercial, and community-based contexts. Despite this scale, the absence of a clearly defined federal arts category creates administrative inconsistencies that affect funding access, workforce recognition, and inter-agency coordination.

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Workforce Development, Education, and Public Benefit:

Recognition of Circus Arts as an independent category would support workforce development and education pipelines without imposing new mandates. Circus education intersects with physical education, after-school programming, mental health initiatives, and higher education degree programs. Clear classification would improve consistency in accreditation, curriculum development, and program evaluation across these systems.

Administrative recognition would also support industry-specific safety awareness and equity practices. Circus Arts involve specialized physical environments and risk profiles that differ significantly from other performing arts disciplines. Clear recognition allows agencies, insurers, and policymakers to better understand and address these realities.

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Why This Moment Matters:

As Circus Arts increasingly intersect with federal systems related to labor, education, health, immigration, and arts funding, the lack of a clear classification creates growing administrative ambiguity. Addressing this issue now allows Congress and federal agencies to guide the framework deliberately, rather than respond reactively as inconsistencies continue to arise.

 

Conclusion:

The National Endowment for the Arts plays a critical role in supporting development and accessibility of art to people all across the Nation. The NEA supports arts organizations and artists in every Congressional district in the country, by receiving funding that is appropriated by Congress annually. Arts funding is vital to inspire and connect people, and it has a powerful economic impact. 

 

On behalf of the Circus Arts Guild of America, thank you for your consideration in recognizing Circus Arts within the NEA as an independent art category.