Send in the Clowns

“Send in the Clowns” was an interactive 2-week digital engagement project sponsored by Allianz Partners which explored the clown as a figure between tragedy and comedy, between self-identification and stage–a character designed to (literally) mask the performer’s true feelings behind a façade of happiness. “Send in the Clowns” used the prominence of the “clown” figure in Fritz Ascher’s work as a lens through which to explore the duality of the clown both historically and today. Communicating via social media platforms as well as Zoom, “Send in the Clowns” included two interdisciplinary virtual roundtables—one entitled “The Clown on Stage,” featuring a commedia dell’arte scholar, an art history and theology scholar, and the founder of a clown school in Minnesota; the other “The Hospital Clown: Between Joy and Sadness,” featuring the founder of Red Noses Clowndoctors International and two clowns currently working in the pediatrics wards at American hospitals—as well as further posts exploring Ascher’s interest in the subject, and Twitter and Instagram takeovers by the founder and creative director of Red Noses Clowndoctors International and a theater scholar.