Sloyd Circus - the Swedish Handicraft organisation’s largest project for children. The Swedish government appointed Sloyd Circus to carry out a three-year national commission in the field of child culture from 2004-2006. Part of the money was earmarked for research. The circus toured Sweden in a circus tent, and gave a performance conducted by a team of three young skilled craft tutors and three artists (dancer, musician and actor). Children were invited to take part in a very interactive performance. The artists created an atmosphere that promoted aesthetic learning. The craft tutors worked hard to promote a gender-neutral environment in the workshops, skilfully manoeuvering past the “treacherous underwater rocks” of gender and multicultural issues. They inspired the children to venture beyond their usual roles by showing them adults who “dared”, and by inviting them into a room that did not signal differences between people or cultures.