11 Jun 2021
An overview of the latest Arts Grant results, including a link to who got funded. Find out what the strongest applications included, both generally (ie across all artforms and applications) and artform-specific.
About Arts Grants
Arts Grants offer short-term project funding for New Zealand artists, arts practitioners and arts organisations (including groups and collectives). This funding enables more sustainable careers, encourages innovation and the development of arts practice, and provides opportunities for diverse communities to access the arts.
More about the Arts Grants programme
Results of the latest round (round 8)
53 grants totalling $2,533,502 have been offered to support projects by New Zealand artists and practitioners in this funding round, across the three funding pools (General, Māori and Pacific).
We received 182 eligible applications, with a total of $7,298,841 requested.
This was broken down as follows:
- General Arts: 34 projects totalling $1,372,219 were supported. $5,356,005 was requested by 144 applicants.
- Ngā toi Māori: 11 projects totalling $706,048 were supported. $1,151,265,587 was requested by 22 applicants.
- Pacific Arts: 8 projects totalling $455,234 were supported. $791,570 was requested by 16 applicants.
Also:
- 27 of the funded projects supported the development of arts practice and the creation of new work.
- 10 supported projects enabling New Zealanders to experience high-quality arts.
- 6 supported projects enabling New Zealanders to participate in the arts.
- 4 supported New Zealand arts to gain international success.
- 6 supported building the resilience of the New Zealand arts sector.
Read more about the results of this latest Arts Grants round (ie who got funded in round 8) – this includes artform and regional breakdowns.
Overall comments about all applications
There were some common features in the strongest applications for this round. These comments apply to all artforms and applications for Arts Grants round 8 (final round for the 2020/21 financial year).
In this Arts Grants round, the strongest applications tended to include:
- clear examples of how their arts practice was to be developed by doing the project
- concise support material directly relevant to the project
- support material that didn’t assume too much background knowledge from the assessors about the applicant, the applicants’ values and ways of working
- strong support material including video, audio or photographs that illustrated prior planning or completed phase one detail (if relevant)
- a detailed description of:
- the proposed project and its goals
- a strong and robust delivery plan with well-articulated and achievable timeframes
- letters of support that were recent, relevant and specific to the application and included confirmation of artist participation if relevant, rather than generic letters
- thorough and accurate budgets, using the Creative New Zealand templates, that clearly show:
- fair and appropriate remuneration/payment for both artists and practitioners
- realistic revenue forecasting
- how any funding gaps will be funded with evidence of support from relevant parties.
General feedback for emerging artists and practitioners
- Assessors want to understand your voice as a practitioner, as well as your practice. Think about that when drafting your application.
- Many emerging practitioners enlist the support of established artists to support them in the development of work or their practice. It’s useful to understand why you have chosen your mentor, how they will help you and what this process will look like.
General feedback for established artists and practitioners
- When applying for the development and presentation of new work, assessors are interested in how this work fits in your future or previous body of work. How will this challenge, expand or deepen your practice? How does this show in workshops or rehearsals (if appropriate)? What is your feedback process to continue refining your practice?
- If your project includes emerging performers, what’s the process you have put in place to help them develop as practitioners?
Additional artform-specific comments
Further to the comments above, there were strengths for some specific artforms. Not every round will have commentary for all artforms, and trends relating to specific artforms may vary between rounds. This is because each Arts Grants round receives a different range of applications. These are the artform-specific comments for Arts Grants Round 8.
For Ngā Toi Māori, the strongest applications also:
- showed clearly how Mātauranga Māori is used in the process and visible in the final result
- included budgets with fair remuneration/payment for the artists, kaumātua and/or tohunga.
- included Cultural Advisers that had expertise in the chosen artform (if that was relevant to the application).
For Pacific Arts applications, the strongest applications also:
- showed an understanding of what it means by ‘Pasifika-led and supported’
- were clear about how the benefits of the project were not just focused on the applicant, but emerging artists too.
For Community Arts, the strongest applications also:
- clearly outlined the community that would be involved – what they want from this creative project, how they had been consulted and/or would be involved in shaping and delivering the project and what their artistic experience would be
- focused on the arts outcomes that the project would deliver and were clear about the artistic quality of the project and how it would deliver these outcomes
- showed a strong understanding of best practice in working with communities (see Community Arts Toolkit tip sheets on what makes a strong community arts project).
For Literature, the strongest applications also included:
- a compelling outline and sample of work that revealed important elements of the work – such as:
- compelling characters or participants
- issues or themes that are addressed
- a sense of variety and/or cohesion.
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