David Sharps performs Chinese Vase Juggling ©Mark D Phillips

Everyone loves the circus. Clowns, magic, and acrobats take center stage. Put that together on a barge in Red Hook and you have CircuSundays.

The brainchild of Captain David Sharps of the Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge, professional performers from around the world join together for two shows each Sunday in June. It all takes place aboard the Showboat Barge on the new Garden Pier at the tip of Red Hook.

The setting is special and intimate. Children sit by the performers and are often called upon as impromptu assistants. Each year, and each Sunday, is different. Young performers grace the stage with an energy that is infectious.

Built to carry freight from one side of the harbor to the other, the barges plied the waters of New York for generations. Now they are all but forgotten.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge #79 was built in 1914. Sharps rescued the boat in 1985 from the mud flats of New Jersey where it was left to rot away in the 1960s. Purchasing it for $1, the barge has become an icon of the Red Hook waterfront and the history that has been lost in our move to the future.

Located at the foot of Conover Street on a new sculpted garden pier adjacent to the new Fairway, Sharps has finally found a home. His road to Red Hook began in the cruise industry, working as a juggler and assistant cruise director for Carnival Cruise Lines. He traveled to over 40 countries and gained a love for the water. When he left the cruise life for a stop in Paris to study juggling, he lived aboard a barge on the River Seine.

Chris Chiappini

When he returned to the states, he became a caretaker aboard a barge on the Jersey shore. Sharps joined the barge community in their efforts to keep the history and lifestyle alive.

"We loved what we had," said Sharps. "The developers didn't want us there. We were told to go."

That's when he found Barge #79, sunk in 8 feet of mud. It took nine years of mud removal, caulking and repairs, to return the barge to her original 1914 condition.

In 1989, she opened as a Museum with the mission to provide educational and cultural programs to the general public and to advocate for waterfront access. For five years, the barge had different port-of-calls including Liberty State Park, South Street Seaport, Hoboken, and several locations in Red Hook. Thanks to Greg O'Connell, Red Hook became his permanent home.

"I want to bring families to the barge," Sharps said. "When we were in Hoboken, we presented a lot of different programs aboard - lectures, movies, exhibitions, music and three days of entertainment at the end. The entertainment was what brought out the families. Then I met Karen Gersch at a benefit at St John's and we began talking. She was a co-founder of the Big Apple Circus. That was where CircuSundays began."

During this same time, Sharps had a unique opportunity. When his wife moved the family to China for a year from 1994 to 1995, he took the opportunity to learn Chinese Vase Juggling. Through his contacts at the Big Apple Circus, he found a teacher who would come to their apartment in Beijing.

"I would come home to this scene of David with vases on his head," said his wife. His act is one of the highlights of CircuSundays.

Over the years, the shows have grown in popularity and sophistication. The first season was done on a shoestring. Performers donated their time, a grant from the Brooklyn Borough Presidents Office gave the first funds for everything else.

"Karen books and curates the shows," he said.

For their tenth anniversary season in 2006, Gersch decided to showcase child performers who hope to go on to perform with the major big tops. And for Sharps, watching his daughters become involved, is the icing on the cake.

"They put together their own aerial routine," he said. "They went to a camp in Vermont last year to train and developed a routine of their own."

Billed as The Mermaidens, they make their CircuSunday debut during the June 18th show.

If you can't make it to CircuSundays, the barge has open hours each Thursday from 4pm to 7pm. Peter Angelo Simon debuts FLOATAGRAPHS, a new body of photographs from a 2005 visit aboard the Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge. A reception for the artist will be held June 18th from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.

In July, the SUNSET MUSIC SERIES brings Blues, Swing, Rock, Jazz and Country to the venue each Friday from 8pm to 11pm. With stunning views of the Statue of Liberty and cool harbor breezes, the series provides a setting for artists who write and perform their own work. This year's schedule includes legendary Sleepy Labeef, the always wacky Life in a Blender, the very hot Andrew T. Hunt & the Tears, and Ellsworth and Hicks, voted one of 5 finalists in the Crossroads Music Awards.

Big Box on the Basin: Retaining Red Hook's Last Working Shipyard will be displayed on the museum walls.

For schedule, tickets and directions:
waterfrontmuseum.org