Our change journey

We’re taking things one step at a time.

• Simplifying our short-term grants: In March 2024, we introduced eight new support opportunities designed to make our shorter-term grants more accessible, fair, and focused. These changes were shaped by what you told us was needed.
  See these opportunities under Funding and support
• Simplifying our support for arts organisations and groups: In 2025, we’re shifting our focus to arts organisations and groups, recognising the vital role they play in their communities and making it easier for them to access multi-year funding from 2026.
• Empowering communities as decision-makers: From 2025, we’ll begin exploring how communities can take a greater role in shaping arts development. We’ll be reaching out to hear your thoughts on what this could look like for you and your community.

We're committed to making sure you know what’s happening and why throughout the journey, so we’re sharing what we’ve learned from artists, ringatoi, arts organisations and their communities – as well as our progress.  

We’re recording what you tell us at each step.
See what we've learned from the sector

What’s changing for arts organisations?

In October 2024, the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa decided to build on the Arts Organisations and Groups Fund with additional tiers and more multi-year funding opportunities. Applications will open in 2026 for support for programmes of work from 1 January 2027.
See our October 2024 announcement, Extending and streamlining support for arts organisations

This means our Tōtara and Kahikatea funding programmes will finish on 31 December 2026.

What you need to know

We’re building on the current Arts Organisations and Groups Fund, developed as part of the first step.

From September 2025 we’ll be able to share all the details on when and how to apply. 

We can already confirm the fund will:

• offer longer-term support with increased funding amounts
• require applications to focus on community impact, artform development, and supporting artists’ careers
• have simpler and more streamlined applications and reporting
• retain dedicated funding pools for Ngā Toi Māori, Pacific Arts, and General Arts.

You can start getting ready now

All arts organisations and groups can start preparing by:

• getting familiar with the guidance for the Arts Organisations and Groups Funds
• thinking about your community or communities. These look different for every organisation and group, and we will be asking you about their needs and how you engage with them
• keeping an eye on Creative New Zealand’s strategy development – we’ll be seeking feedback from the sector in late March.

What we’ve learned from the sector

We’ve gained insights from artists, ringatoi, arts organisations and their communities as we progress. These insights have been captured in document and videos.
See the For the arts videos on Creative New Zealand’s YouTube channel 
The future of arts development in Aotearoa New Zealand April 2023 (pdf. 706kb)
The future of arts development in Aotearoa New Zealand July 2024 (pdf. 429kb)

We’ve been set five challenges

These challenges came out of our conversations and collaboration as we worked to simplify our short-term grants. As we continue on our change journey we’re responding to them more and more.

• Connection: build relationships with artists, ringatoi, and arts organisations based on trust, respect and longevity so Creative New Zealand can better understand their needs when making decisions that affect them.
• Accessibility: make it easier for artists, ringatoi, and arts organisations to work with Creative New Zealand in both process and interactions. 
• Autonomy: give communities a stronger decision-making role about the arts development activities in, by, for and with their community so that specific and nuanced arts development needs are met more effectively.
• Leadership: use our status as a crown entity, our resources and our networks to broker relationships between artists, ringatoi, arts organisations, territorial authorities, local governments and businesses to build better communities.
• Advocacy: use our existing government relationships more effectively so the lives of artists and the value of art and ngā toi are better respected and understood.

There’s more detail about each challenge in our April 2023 summary.

Arts organisations told us the three types of support that matter most.

We began our work to simplify our support for arts organisations and groups by asking arts organisations to identify the type of support that made the most difference for them and their communities.

This is what they told us.

1. Financial support: Long term, flexible funding makes the biggest difference alongside the ability to use this as and when needed to achieve the desired outcomes. We are committed to providing multi-year funding for arts organisations.

2. Non-financial support: More than just funding is needed to make an impact, starting with more effective communication, supporting governance, safeguarding ngā toi, practical resources and stronger advocates.

3. Support that comes from artists and communities working together: Ongoing support from their communities - including other artists, practitioners, and organisations is critical because when organisations do well communities do well. This is why we’re continuing to support arts organisations for their community impact and their roles in artform development and supporting artists’ careers.