National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA)

NICA is a national arts training institute that offers Australia's only Bachelor of Circus Arts. The course is accredited by Swinburne University of Technology and the institute is located at its Prahran campus. The course attracts applicants from across Australia and the world and entry into the first year is highly competitive.

The National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) is Australia’s Centre of Excellence in contemporary circus arts training. NICA’s mission is to deliver innovative training programs to talented students, whose performances will re-imagine circus. As the only training institution of its kind in Australia, NICA fosters passion, creativity and a high level of skill in its graduates who will be recognised as inspiring circus artists.

From humble beginnings in an unrenovated warehouse in the Melbourne Docklands, NICA ran a pilot national training project in 1999. All eight participants graduated with a Diploma of Circus Arts from Swinburne University in 2001, and found employment with Australian companies the following year.

NICA has now grown significantly, receiving accreditation for the Certificate III and Certificate IV in Circus Arts in order to continue training artists to meet the demands of a growing local and international circus industry. Today there are more than 100 students across five year levels.

NICA is a national not-for-profit arts training organisation registered as a cultural organisation and primarily funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Communications and the Arts. Auspiced by Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, NICA is the only training institute of its kind in Australia.

As well as providing professional training through a three year Bachelor of Circus Arts course, NICA also offers a wide range of fun and safe recreational courses for children, teenagers and adults, and supports the circus industry with professional development and master classes. NICA also believes in the many benefits of circus as a tool for social change and through its Social Circus projects makes a difference to the lives of Indigenous people and young Australians living in regional and remote communities.

CircaNICA, NICA’s commercial arm, supports the careers of Australia’s circus artists by providing creative and production services to clients from a wide range of industries, contributing enormously to the popularity of circus as an art form.