Eli Whitney Museum

This year, the other Whitney Museum celebrated the ingenious Circus that Alexander Calder constructed in Paris 80 years ago. Calder was an artist who had trained as an engineer. His performers are playful constructions of wire, wood, and scraps assembled with an artist's imagination and an engineer's love for clever mechanisms. Our finale workshops will construct animals and performers inspired by Calder, circus traditions around the world, and your imagination. With a grand performance on August 21.

Ballistics is the science of bodies in motion. Construct acrobats, trapeze artists, wire walkers who balance, leap, swing, flip and roll with clever movements and glittering costumes. Construct a human cannonball and cannon, a knife thrower and fearless assistant. Plus some dizzy clowns. All fold into a small case for easy transport.