It's coming up to the winter Solstice on December 21st, the shortest day and the longest night of the year. In the days around the Solstice, I'll be hunkering down and journeying inwards, contemplating life as it is and dreaming into my desired future. If this sounds like something you might want to do, here's a reflective solstice ceremony you can do at some point over the festive period.

...cast your mind back to the heady days of May when the air was thick with the scent of blossom and the baby ducklings were just starting to hatch. Anthony Trahair from Playfulife approached me for an interview after watching my Bristol TEDx talk. 

Anthony was especially interested to hear about how safety and risk, vulnerability  and allowing ourselves to be seen in all our weirdness and wildness, feature in my Clown-o-therapy work...

We are happy to offer gift vouchers for our February Zoom Clown 1 courses- what a Christmas present to give your loved ones - the promise of joy and laughter in the new year!

This account was originally written by Bee Golding, Holly Stoppit Workshops' Radministrator and Poet in Residence, as part of our December newsletter. I have edited it a little for this context (all spelling and grammatical mistakes will undoubtedly be mine!).

We're so proud of what we achieved on the weekend of November 6th, 7th and 8th - it was an amazing adventure into producing our first ever online conference, hosted by Holly Stoppit and Robyn Hambrook as The Online Clown Academy, supported by Holly's Radministrator Bee Golding. 

On the 6th of November 2020, 12 international students of The Online Clown Academy performed a series of short solo clown acts which they created through the Zoom Clown level 3 course – exploring Personal and Political Clowning.

On Sunday 8th November 2020, we held an online Open Space session on Zoom, exploring the theme of our conference, 'Clowns In Crisis.' All weekend, through performances, workshops and a panel discussion, we'd been exploring what clowning can do for us and what clowns can do for the world. 

The Open Space was a chance for an international group of clowns and clown enthusiasts to come together and discuss what was relevant to them personally and professionally. This blog captures a little of what happened, including notes and pics from participants.

Here is a recording of The Clowns In Crisis panel discussion, which took place on Zoom on 7th November 2020, as part of The Clowns In Crisis Conference, organised by The Online Clown Academy.

The topic of discussion was: "What is the role of the clown in times of crisis? What can clowning do for you and what can clowning do for the world?

Introducing the panelists for our panel discussion, exploring the role of the clown in times of crisis, as part of the Clowns In Crisis Conference. 

The Online Clown Academy have been courting the media, in the run up to their first ever Clowns In Crisis Conference, coming up on the 6-8 November.

Here's a lightly edited Facebook Live from 27th October.

Bring your curiosity, your body and some paper and a pen and let's play