The jugglers association, which runs Carampa Circus School in Madrid, started in 1987 with the aim of renovating circus performance and training. The association has been a pioneer of new circus in Spain and has always kept a specialized library to conserve different documents related to circus.
After almost 30 years of activity and 16 classes of students graduating from the school, the moment has come to create a Documentation Centre that catalogues all the material that has been accumulated and makes it available to our students and any interested parties from the general public.
At the moment the library at Carampa holds almost 3000 documents in the form of books, magazines, promotional publications, videos of shows, festivals, circus related films and other types of documents such as posters and postcards etc. Currently it is one of the most important collections in Spain and the only one with a vocation towards public service.
Right now our collection, unfortunately, finds itself packed up in a storeroom and has been there for the last two years since the Alcorcón city council decided to close the Municipal Circus School, where we had begun to catalogue and classify all our material with the aim of creating a Documentation Centre. This year we have decided to invest in a new space at Carampa to house the collection and make it available to the interested public and encourage an interest among our students and performers in the history and the evolution of circus up to the present day.
The funding is for a Documentation Center (multi media library), that will be located at the Carampa Circus School in Madrid: it will consist of two prefabricated modules, that, when united will create a space that measures 36 m2 equipped with the shelves and furniture necessary to house the collection. As a result our funds will be united in a single space, and the resources dedicated to the history of circus, and contemporary circus in Madrid and Spain will be able to continue to grow. At the same time, it will offer a tranquil place, away from the maddening crowd, to sit down and contemplate several bibliographic gems
The Documentation Centre will also serve as a classroom for the school´s theoretical courses. That these classes will take place in the Documentation Centre will connect the funds with the contents of these courses: there are books on the history of circus, on stage management, on theater techniques such as scenery, lighting, wardrobe, there are books on choreography, physical training and anatomy… This way, the center will help to actively create the habit of going to these sources and, in general, different sources of information than those available on the Internet.
What will allocate your contributions?
Together with the funding that Carampa will provide, all contributions, (after the costs of the crowd funding have been deducted) will be used for the acquisition of the prefabricated modules, their installation by the Carampa tent, including their technical needs (electricity, internet) and transporting the collection and existing furniture from the warehouse. If you want to see where the books are now, click here!.
Additional Goals
If we exceed the 5,000 € goal of this campaign, we will be able to equip the center with a video projector, screen and computers, and prepare a nice opening party. See the budget and calendar for the execution of the project below.
About the rewards
• The rewards will be available from march 2016 onwards, once the Centre is open.
• All the rewards are to be collected in our school in Madrid, except if the sponsor wants it to be sent by post, for which they will have to pay the postage costs.
• All our sponsors will get a year’s membership card for the Documentation Centre except the special members who will have a lifetime membership.
• The digital files come from the Documentation Centre´s collection and are original. Their publication is allowed if their origin is referenced.
• The tickets for the shows have to be reserved with 10 days of anticipation at [email protected]. You can see our show's schedule here.
• The rewards with a room to sleep don´t include the travel and meals
Process
November-december 2015
• Buy and install a prefab hut measuring 7.20 by 4.80 outside Carampa Circus School.
• Install electrics, heating and shelves.
• Move all the material.
• Crowdfunding.
Budget : 6.000€
January-Febraury 2016
• Buy a computer and hard drive to complete the cataloguing and to help with the consulting and viewing of material.
• Make a catalogue which features all the material.
Budget : 3.000€
March 2016
• Official opening of the Documentation Centre in February 2016 with a party-performance in Carampa.
Budget : 1.000€
Why do we need funding?
Because, despite being an active part of FEDEC (Federación Europea de Escuelas de Circo), Despite receiving in 2011 the National Circus Prize from the Ministry of Culture and despite almost 30 years of activity, our project remains little known by Madrid-based institutions and it does not receive the same institutional help that other spaces do in the rest of Spain that are supported by institutions in their regions.
Because our annual budget is quite tight due to the small amount of public funding which our teaching project receives, making it economically fragile and almost wholly reliant on what we receive from our students. This impedes the planning of investments that will develop our project in different areas.
Because Madrid is a region and a city that does not support it´s inhabitants´ cultural projects, unlike other regions and cities in Spain and we want to continue being at the heart of new circus in Spain and in Madrid, and to do this we want to make available a space where one can look up and research the history of circus in the world and in Spain, and its evolution from its beginnings to the present day, to encourage research and make available all the material we have accumulated over the years.
Because Carampa was born and has survived and grown thanks to the human factor. Artists, students, friends, supporters and lovers of the circus and therefore culture, have maintained the project, despite the bad times, and this is an essential factor in making the project worthwhile.
For this reason, to fund part of this investment, we have decided to launch a crowdfunding campaign. Because we want a colective project from the beginning.
+ Info
Centro de Documentación Circense
Escuela de Circo Carampa
Clip sobre Carampa
Documental sobre Carampa
Circo Méliès. Blog sobre cine y circo
Revista El Ambidextro
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