It was founded in 1984 by Wendy Parkman and Judy Finelli as the San Francisco School of Circus Arts.

In 1990, master instructor Lu Yi was hired[2] with the mandate of developing the most comprehensive Chinese acrobatics program outside of China.

In 1996, the San Francisco Circus was established, and later that year the school staged its first student production, Zoppo!, a show that played to a sold-out house at the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason.

All of the purchase price was raised from contributed sources, and from this date on, all of the organization's professional productions have been staged under the banner of the New Pickle Circus.

In 2001, the board of directors changed the corporation's name to Circus Center, reflecting the fact that the organization now encompassed more than a school.