Annual Report 2024/25

On this page:

• Our Chair and Chief Executive's Foreword
• Stories about our work and achievements

Our Chair and Chief Executive's Foreword

Creative New Zealand is the national arts development agency of Aotearoa New Zealand. We encourage, promote and support the arts in Aotearoa for the benefit of all New Zealanders.

In 2024/25, we farewelled long-serving Chief Executive Stephen Wainwright and welcomed new Chief Executive, Gretchen La Roche. We pay tribute to Stephen’s 17 years of leadership as chief executive.

Over the year, we invested $61 million in the arts through our funding, development, advocacy, leadership and partnership initiatives. Our funded programmes and initiatives made a significant difference in connecting people with the arts and fostering creativity across Aotearoa New Zealand.

As we worked to achieve our outcomes in 2024/25, our support enabled:

• over 250,000 people to participate in funded arts activities or events
• more than 3 million people to attend funded arts activities
• the development of over 2,500 new New Zealand artworks.

These results were achieved through investment in the sector, including:

• over $35 million in 80 arts organisations through multi-year investment programmes
• over $12.7 million allocated through Grants and special opportunities
• over $6 million in opportunities for arts organisations and groups and artists and arts practitioners to build their skills
• more than $4 million awarded to local arts activities throughout New Zealand under the Creative Communities Scheme

• over $1.21 million provided to implement Te Hā o ngā Toi—Māori Arts Strategy
• over $2.38 million provided to implement the Pacific Arts Strategy.

This year we advanced significant change, including our three-step programme to put artists, arts organisations, and communities at the centre of our thinking. In 2024/25, we implemented Step 1, changes to our grant programmes, and progressed Step 2 focusing on how we support arts organisations and groups. Over 2025/26, we’ll implement Step 2 and begin Step 3, looking at how we can increasingly support communities to make their own decisions about the arts development that has the greatest impact for them.

In March 2025 we consulted on a new long-term strategy to 2040, Tū Mai Rā, Toi Aotearoa. We expect to release the strategy this year alongside our refreshed strategy for ngā toi Māori, Toi Ora Strategy 2025–2030. We’re planning to update our Statement of Intent from 2026/27 to reflect our new strategies and Amplify: A Creative and Cultural Strategy for New Zealand, the Government’s strategy for the sector, released in August 2025.

With new strategies being finalised, we are reviewing our operating model to ensure we’re set up to deliver our strategic intentions, operate efficiently and effectively, and achieve the greatest value for the arts community and the public.

We’re ambitious for the arts. We want to see artists and ringatoi being able to dedicate themselves to producing work that will inspire us all. We want to see the arts and ngā toi Māori central to the lives of New Zealanders and New Zealand communities, and we want to see our arts and ngā toi Māori succeeding on the global stage.

This will take a collective effort, and we are building new relationships and expanding partnerships. We’re also focused on growing the resource base and thinking differently about how we leverage our resources, while acknowledging the pressures on funders across the board.

We’re grateful for the support we receive from our core funders, New Zealand Lottery Grants Board Te Puna Tahua and the government through Vote: Arts, Culture and Heritage.

Inspired by our arts communities, we’re committed to working hard over the next year to meet the challenges and opportunities that exist with dedication, heart and manaaki.

Kent Gardner
Manukura—Chair, Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa

Gretchen La Roche
Tumu Whakarae—Chief Executive, Creative New Zealand

Stories about our work and achievements

Individual stories of work and achievements we have shared throughout the year are linked below. Many more stories about Creative New Zealand’s work and the achievements of the artists and arts organisations we have supported in 2024/25 are available at https://creativenz.govt.nz/news-and-blog