Meredith Gordon
Decatur, Georgia
Clown
Meredith Gordon is an artist working with live performance, clowning, theater, and music. He is inspired by Motown era soul music, Buster Keaton and the circus and uses clowning to comment on the absurdity of our experiences. As a clown, he expands our perception of what is possible and focuses on the artistic opportunity and the obligation to revive hope. He works with Big Apple Circus Clown Care, the world’s first professional medical clowning organization that brings clowning and circus to hospitalized children, averaging three hundred visits a year between two hospitals. He is one of the founding members of Humorology Atlanta! and began work with Cirque de Monde, an outreach program of Cirque du Soleil that promoted circus arts as a means of intervention with at-risk youth. As a theater actor, he has performed with the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, Actor’s Express, and Jomandi Productions. In 2019-20 The Tanne award allowed Gordon to volunteer and perform with Clowns Without Borders USA, a non-profit that brings clowning to communities experiencing crisis. Their mission is to promote resilience through laughter by providing clown- and circus-circus oriented performances and workshops. Clowns Without Borders was invited to the Bahamas after hurricane Dorian devastated many of the islands to provide laughter, joy, and a much-needed break for those impacted by the disaster.
This bio/description was originally published in 2019 and updated in 2020. For more current information, please refer to the award recipient's website (if provided).