Creative New Zealand is transforming the way it works. This transformation recognises that we need to put artists, arts organisations, and communities at the centre of our thinking. We’ve approached this work in three steps. Each step builds on the previous one to create a coherent set of supports that meet the sector’s needs and our strategic goals.
Step one: We changed the contestable grants programmes
In 2023 we engaged with artists and creatives all over the motu to understand their experience of working with Creative New Zealand. Then we redesigned the contestable programmes to better meet their needs. You can read more about what we heard in the summary report we published in April 2023.
The future of arts development in Aotearoa New Zealand April (pdf. 706KB)
Our For the arts programmes are targeted at early career artists, artists and practitioners, and organisations and groups.
Step two: We’re focusing on arts organisations and their communities
Our governing body, the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa, accepted recommendations at its October 2024 meeting to set the direction for how to better support arts organisations and groups.
We’re moving to a single model for supporting arts organisations and groups. The Council has decided to extend our existing Arts Organisations and Groups Fund by adding additional tiers for multi-year funding, creating one support model for all arts organisations. This will be ready for applications from 2026 to support programming from 1 January 2027. The extended Arts Organisations and Groups Fund will offer support for a longer duration and at a higher value than what is currently provided through this fund.
This decision means that the Tōtara and Kahikatea multi-year investment funding programmes will be disestablished from 31 December 2026. Current Tōtara and Kahikatea organisations will be offered a one-year extension of funding, for activity from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026 as we move through this transition period. We don’t yet know the detail of fund content and processes. That is being developed over the next 12 months and we’ll keep you updated.
We do know that the new funds will:
- provide opportunities for multiple years of support and for higher amounts than currently offered in the existing Arts Organisations funds
- focus on demonstrating community impact
- have simpler application and reporting requirements
- separate funding pools for Nga Toi Māori, Pacific Arts and General Arts.
We gathered information from the sector to inform the Council’s decision
This decision was informed by the findings from the sector engagement in 2023 and more targeted engagement with arts organisations and groups in April 2024.
More than 300 arts organisations responded to four questions about the types of support that make the biggest impact for communities. We’ve summarised the responses in this document.
The future of arts development in Aotearoa New Zealand July (pdf. 429.KB)
We also summarized the responses in four short videos which you can watch on our YouTube channel
Three things came through clearly
Arts organisations identified three types of support that make the biggest difference for them and their communities.
- 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.
- 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.
- Support that comes from artists and communities working together: Ongoing support from communities, artists, practitioners, and other organisations is critical because when organisations do well communities do well.
Step three: Recognising and empowering communities
The third step of our transformation is to work towards recognising and empowering communities as decision-makers for arts development.
We expect to start this work from 2025, coming back to hear from you about what this could mean for you and your communities.
The sector set five challenges for us to respond to
These five challenges emerged from our work with the sector in step one. We’re responding to them more and more as we make progress with our transformation.
- Connection – to build relationships with artists 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 – to make it easier for artists and arts organisations to work with Creative New Zealand in both process and interactions.
- Autonomy - to 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 – to use our status as a crown entity, our resources and our networks to broker relationships between artists, arts organisations, territorial authorities, local governments and businesses to build better communities.
- Advocacy – to use our existing government relationships more effectively so the lives of artists and the value of the arts are better respected and understood.
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