Circus Survey 2020

Thank you for your interest in the 2020 AYCO/ACE Circus Survey. We have committed to conducting a survey of the circus education sector every 2 years – and we truly hope you’ll join us. Our survey is especially important this year as we work to advocate for circus educators who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We want to hear from you both about what your work was like before COVID-19 and how the virus has impacted you.

Please help us learn about all the wonderful circus education programs that operate around the United States by taking the survey and sharing it with other circus educators you know. The more organizations we hear from, the better information we will have to support the whole sector. And to thank respondents for their time, we are offering a raffle drawing for one free registration for the Virtual ACE EdCon 2020.

To learn more, please see our FAQ below. You can also preview the entire survey in PDF form, but please be sure to click the “Take the survey!” button to fill the survey out in SurveyMonkey. (We cannot accept pdf responses.)

If you have any other feedback, comments, or concerns, we’d love to hear them. Please contact us at survey@americancircuseducators.org.

Take the survey!

FAQ

Why are you doing this survey?

We do this survey to learn about circus educators, the sector that we are trying to serve! This survey will help us understand where circus education is happening, how well supported it is in different places, and what challenges the sector is facing. This year we have added a special section to assess the immediate impacts of COVID-19 on the sector. Information gathered in this survey will help ACE and AYCO to advocate for and support the circus education sector in the United States.

What is the deadline to respond?

The deadline has been extended to Wednesday July 15th!

Who will see my response?

Only a limited number of internal AYCO/ACE staff and contractors/interns specifically hired to work on the Circus Survey 2020 may see your response. Your response will not be shared with any other person or organization. Results will be shared with the community in aggregate only (i.e. no organization’s individual response will be shared or identified).

What will you do with this information?

Our survey team, who have expertise in survey design, data analysis, and circus, will combine all the responses together and summarise the results. They will look for patterns to help us understand the landscape of circus education in the U.S. We will use these results to make decisions about how best to support circus educators and advocate for our sector.

Where can I get a copy of the results/data?

We plan to release the results at the ACE EdCon 2020. After that, the results will be publically available online.

Who should take the survey?

The survey is for U.S. circus education organizations, companies, and programs. This means any business, program, or organization that teaches circus skills in the United States. If you consider yourself to be a circus educator, we want to hear from you! All teaching formats and all circus skills count. 

Can I answer as an individual?

If you are an individual with your own coaching business where you recruit your own students and rent space for regular instruction, we want to hear from you! If you are a coach who is affiliated with another organization (a school, company, program, etc) and that organization generally recruits students and facilitates their lessons/classes with you, please send this survey to that organization to fill out.

What if my company/organization went out of business because of COVID-19?

We are very sorry to hear that. We would still really value your input on the survey–it will help us understand the landscape of the circus education sector prior to COVID-19 and document the impacts of the pandemic on our sector.

What if my company/organization has a circus program but also does other things?

We definitely want to hear from you! In some cases, larger companies and organizations offer circus training or performance as a subset of their usual activities. If that’s you, we’d like to know just about that section of your operations that relate to circus. If all of your operations relate to circus, please answer with the relevant data for your entire company or organization.

I don’t think my company or organization fits into these categories.

We always expect circus companies and programs to fall outside of common definitions and categories. If that’s you, we would like to know more! Please feel free to contact us at survey@americanyouthcircus.org. You may also fill out the survey as best you can, writing in any additional information in the write-in questions.

What is included in the survey and why?

We’ve tried to include questions that will feel relevant to most circus education organizations and programs while keeping the survey doable for everyone. The survey includes sections on basic business information, COVID-19 impacts, circus education offerings and participants, performances, insurance, relationships to other organizations, and challenges. Please feel free to review the full survey at the pdf link below (but be sure to submit your responses via SurveyMonkey).

What do I get out of responding?

You’ll help the whole sector by giving AYCO/ACE more information about who is out there, what they are doing, and what the challenges are. Also, to thank respondents for their time, we are offering a raffle drawing for one free registration for the Virtual ACE EdCon on November 5-8, 2020.

How can I contact someone with another question?

Please reach out to us at survey@americanyouthcircus.org.

Take the survey!