St. Louis-based public art producer Counterpublic is debuting a new sort of gathering this weekend.
The Circus of Life festival will feature a wide range of participants, including musicians, authors and politically outspoken puppeteers.
Inside the Big Top’s main venue and scattered around its grounds, festival attendees will have chances to hear a conversation between writer Roxane Gay and artist Chloë Bass, groove to a live set by the Kendrick Smith Quartet and learn about the history of magic in a workshop by feminist art collective Hilma’s Ghost.
The three-day event begins Friday evening. No tickets are required, though Counterpublic invites donations.
Organizers hope attendees will learn, discuss and suggest new ways of using art to push for social change. The eclectic mix of performances, discussions and workshops is inspired by the variety of acts a circus visitor may encounter.
“The circus is also a place where you expect weird things to happen,” said organizer Laura Raicovich, a New York-based curator. “One of the enduring challenges of presenting contemporary art is that sometimes it's kind of weird. People can get intimidated by that, rather than kind of being willing to go along with the weirdness and kind of seeing where it leads.”
Other key planners include four visiting curators, known as ringleaders: Kenneth Bailey, Galen Gritts, Nontsikelelo Mutiti and Jeanne van Heeswijk.
Additional attractions include a workshop in the circus arts led by Circus Harmony, performances by Bread & Puppet Theater and a Sunday morning parade from the Big Top to Counterpublic’s nearby administrative offices for a community meal and open discussion.
Circus of Life will also feature traditional carnival booths given a fresh spin by artists.
“The goal is to have people show up, be delighted, be inspired and walk away with real tools and resources they can apply to their daily lives to push change forward,” said Counterpublic Deputy Director Kristen Fleischman Brewer, formerly of the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
“Art has the possibility to make things different, to further generational change, and we hope to challenge people's perceptions of what art can do,” Brewer added.
The three-day convening is a new venture for Counterpublic, whose leaders are also planning the next iteration of its triennial public art exhibition, scheduled for September 2026. The organization, which grew out of a program produced by the Luminary art gallery on Cherokee Street before becoming an independent nonprofit organization, has been busy lately.
Counterpublic recently realized its years-long goal to facilitate the purchase and return of Sugarloaf Mound to the Osage Nation. The organization also started a partnership with the International Institute of St. Louis. Counterpublic moved its administrative offices to Grand Center in August, after buying the home of the late Stanley Jones, a noted booster of the arts in St. Louis who died last year. The handsome building sits across the street from the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.
