About
Fern Street Circus After-School Circus Programs offer circus instruction through Circus Fun classes and After-School Circus Clubs, with activities that include juggling, tumbling, clowning, conditioning, and balance skills. Students take circus classes that can include cartwheels, hand stands, flips, and work on a mini trampoline, and some classes also include nutrition. Circus Fun classes teach City Heights youth from beginners to advanced free-of-charge.
• Ages: 6–18 years old
• Schedule: Circus Fun classes meet two afternoons per week for 8 weeks; After-School Circus Clubs in South Bay bring circus instruction four days per week throughout the school year
• Price: Circus Fun classes are free-of-charge for City Heights youth, and the Board of Directors helps offer programs free-of-charge or at low cost for communities of need
Students are trained by skilled, paid instructors, and the bi-lingual staff works with parents to support the effort. Every Wednesday, up to 35 Central students walk to Fern Street’s gym for circus instruction and snacks on the school’s minimum day, and the program allows parents to pick up their kids at the regular end of school time of 2:30 p.m. Fern Street Circus creates customized circus learning programs for schools and community organizations, adding elements such as literacy, conditioning, or nutrition to curricula, and also offers a Circus Youth Apprentice Program that focuses on enhanced training, act creation, and participation in a month-long Neighborhood Tour.
Fern Street Community Arts, through its principal project Fern Street Circus, serves families and transforms neighborhoods through performance and teaching of circus arts, and aims to create social change, neighborhood by neighborhood. Fern Street Circus works with the South Bay Union School District, the City of San Diego Park & Recreation Department, and the California Arts Council to bring circus instruction during and after the school day, and every year determined students join coaches and professional circus and musical artists in a month-long Neighborhood Tour to Mid-City San Diego parks. Fern Street has been designated Cirque du Soleil’s Social Action Partner in San Diego. An After-School participant, Molly Murcia, who took part from 1995–2005 and is now a working circus professional, states, “Fern Street gave me my career, but it taught me so much more beyond circus.”
Executive Director John Highkin is a circus impresario, educator, and musician with over 25 years of management experience, and Co-Founder Cindy Zimmerman is a locally known visual artist and educator with over 25 years of teaching experience. Fern Street Circus grows community through circus and is part of a global movement in creating and documenting the impact of circus as an agent of social justice and change.
Last updated July 13, 2026.
• Ages: 6–18 years old
• Schedule: Circus Fun classes meet two afternoons per week for 8 weeks; After-School Circus Clubs in South Bay bring circus instruction four days per week throughout the school year
• Price: Circus Fun classes are free-of-charge for City Heights youth, and the Board of Directors helps offer programs free-of-charge or at low cost for communities of need
Students are trained by skilled, paid instructors, and the bi-lingual staff works with parents to support the effort. Every Wednesday, up to 35 Central students walk to Fern Street’s gym for circus instruction and snacks on the school’s minimum day, and the program allows parents to pick up their kids at the regular end of school time of 2:30 p.m. Fern Street Circus creates customized circus learning programs for schools and community organizations, adding elements such as literacy, conditioning, or nutrition to curricula, and also offers a Circus Youth Apprentice Program that focuses on enhanced training, act creation, and participation in a month-long Neighborhood Tour.
Fern Street Community Arts, through its principal project Fern Street Circus, serves families and transforms neighborhoods through performance and teaching of circus arts, and aims to create social change, neighborhood by neighborhood. Fern Street Circus works with the South Bay Union School District, the City of San Diego Park & Recreation Department, and the California Arts Council to bring circus instruction during and after the school day, and every year determined students join coaches and professional circus and musical artists in a month-long Neighborhood Tour to Mid-City San Diego parks. Fern Street has been designated Cirque du Soleil’s Social Action Partner in San Diego. An After-School participant, Molly Murcia, who took part from 1995–2005 and is now a working circus professional, states, “Fern Street gave me my career, but it taught me so much more beyond circus.”
Executive Director John Highkin is a circus impresario, educator, and musician with over 25 years of management experience, and Co-Founder Cindy Zimmerman is a locally known visual artist and educator with over 25 years of teaching experience. Fern Street Circus grows community through circus and is part of a global movement in creating and documenting the impact of circus as an agent of social justice and change.
Last updated July 13, 2026.
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