Circus Oz Welcomes New Board Members And Recruits For An Executive Director

At the recent Annual General Meeting, Circus Oz welcomed three new Board members:

• Kate Torney (State Library Victoria - Chief Executive Officer);
• Mike McCreadie (FTI Consulting - Senior Managing Director); and
• Annie Stephens (Circus Oz - Community & Corporate Programs Coordinator).

Circus Oz Chair, Nick Yates, highlighted that the new Board members offer skills and experience that will complement the Circus Oz strategic vision, including the company's diversity of audience and community engagement; and also the artistic vibrancy of the expanded portfolio approach to programming.

"We bid farewell and offer a deep vote of thanks to long-serving Board member and Treasurer, Graham Maloney and we're pleased that Mike McCredie has accepted the Treasurer role on the Board."

"Kate Torney's experience at State Library Victoria, and previously as ABC News Director, provides us with strong connections to key stakeholders and experience in the evolving digital space."

"We are pleased that long-standing Circus Oz team member Annie Stephens joins the Board as a Working Group member and will offer integral on-ground knowledge and expertise," said Mr Yates.

At the Circus Oz Annual General Meeting, Mr Yates was pleased to acknowledge that the 2018 financial result for Circus Oz was a healthy net surplus achieved through rigorous cost control and also a range of new strategic partnerships which have resulted in improved audience numbers. The company remains focused on ongoing financial sustainability in 2019 and beyond.

The Annual General Meeting identified some of the 2018 Circus Oz highlights, including:

• Celebrating 40 years since being founded in 1978;
• Premiering three new main stages shows: Precarious, Rock Bang and Tutti;
• Premiering two new smaller scale shows: NEON and SKILLZ;
• Extensive Model Citizens tour of over 112 performances from Mildura to Madrid;
• Collaborations with Sydney Festival, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Otto & Astrid and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and creative developments with Company 2 and The 7 Fingers;
• 209 performances performed by over 50 artists in 32 locations with 98,520 audience members;
• 19 school shows engaging with 5,880 students;
• 3,177 students participating in 95 education workshops;
• 337 community engagement programs with 1,944 workshops and classes attracting 6,473 program participants;
• The Melba Spiegeltent increased audiences substantially to almost 33,000 audience members and received the 2018 Melbourne Fringe award for best venue; and
• The Sidesault sector development program committed almost 2,500 hours of supported training, rehearsal and creative development for almost 250 artists.

"Circus Oz continues to evolve, embrace the responsibility of age and is focused on being more than a world-renowned performance company. We've grown into our first ever purpose-built home and now empower a broad cross-section of the community through circus," explained Mr Yates.

Since being appointed as Circus Oz Artistic Director in 2016, Rob Tannion has implemented an exciting and refreshed vision that has laid a solid foundation for a broader artistic approach for Circus Oz, which continues to grow and set new standards of artistic vibrancy.

Currently, the Circus Oz Board are focused on recruiting for the newly created Executive Director role, which will work In partnership with the Artistic Director, and closely with the Board, to shape and implement the Circus Oz strategy and mission.
Applications for the Circus Oz Executive Director are due on at 5pm AEST on Wednesday, 22 May 2019 through REA Consulting.

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