Debby Maziarz founded the Westside Circus in 1996 and was the Artistic Director/CEO until 2010. Westside was an expression of Debby’s desire and commitment to create accessible arts opportunities with and for diverse communities. Key achievements during Debby’s tenure include:

• Established a new circus which inspired the social circus movement in Australia.
• Raised over $3 million from government and philanthropy for a range of core operation, capital and community based arts programs.
• Produced and directed nine large-scale circus performances reaching an audience of 60,000.
• Produced a range of interdisciplinary and cross sectoral community arts projects addressing issues of homelessness, intergenerational poverty, poor literacy, low community engagement and youth crime.
• Supported the creative pathways of artists through mentoring, internships and associate director/social circus facilitation training.
• Secured major organisation mentorships from industry experts to address a range of skill gaps and strategic issues in the areas of change management and financial modelling.
• The Westside Circus is still going strong today – check it out HERE!