Creative Fellowship Fund 2025 - Round 2

45 fellowships totalling $1,225,000 have been offered to support artists, practitioners, and collaboratives to develop, innovate, and create across three funding pools (Ngā toi Māori, Pacific arts, and General arts). We received 453 eligible applications, with a total of $15,600,000 requested.

Funding type summary

• Ngā toi Māori: 9 fellowships were offered funding totalling $225,000
  $2,850,000 was requested by 80 applicants
• Pacific arts: 4 fellowships were offered funding totalling $125,000
  $1,450,000 was requested by 41 applicants
• General arts: 33 fellowships were offered funding totalling $875,000
  $11,300,000 was requested by 332 applicants

Artform summary

• 4 – Craft/Object
• 4 – Customary Māori arts
• 2 – Dance
• 9 – Literature
• 6 – Multidisciplinary arts
• 4 – Music
• 3 – Theatre
• 13 – Visual arts 

Key themes and round observations – Creative Fellowship 

The Creative Fellowship Fund is focused on support for artists, practitioners, and groups of collaborators for a period in which to explore, create and develop fresh ideas and approaches to their work.

In this round we received the most applications from Visual Arts and Literature practitioners. Assessment sought to ensure a spread of results across region, career stage and genre as much as possible, with consideration to Creative New Zealand’s investment through other funds and channels.  

Strong applications in this round demonstrated these characteristics: 

• Clear articulation of the research, experimentation, or conceptual development leading to innovative work
• Boundary-pushing approaches with new technologies, future-focused methodologies, or expanding artform reach and impact
• Demonstrated understanding of arts practice within the wider artform context with strong opportunities to share their discoveries 
• Inclusion of relevant support material to show how proposed activities build on current practice and enable a creative leap
• Provision of samples of the proposed work, especially when exploring a new approach to arts practice or developing work in a new genre 
• Evidence of the time-sensitive significance of support at a pivotal moment in the artist's practice 
• Depth of mātauranga Māori and its application in process and presentation, alongside innovation and sustainable methods oranga taiao
• Engagement of Pacific arts practitioners focusing on new artforms or skill development aligned with their arts practice 

Artists supported

$50,000 Fellowship

General arts fund

• Leilani Tamu (Literature)
• Rowan Pierce (Multidisciplinary arts)
• Susan Williams (Theatre)

Pacific arts fund

• Edith Amituanai (Visual arts)

$25,000 Fellowship

General arts fund

• Amelia Hampton (Visual arts)
• Carl Shuker (Literature)
• Frances Libeau (Visual arts)
• Georgina Watson (Visual arts)
• Jennifer Laracy (Craft and Object art)
• Jillian Sullivan (Literature)
• Jordan Hamel (Literature)
• Joy Holley (Literature)
• Kerrin Sharpe (Literature)
• Kieran Monaghan (Music)
• Laurence Fearnley (Literature)
• Louise Wallace (Literature)
• Marianne Infante (Theatre)
• Meg Porteous (Visual arts)
• Michelle Mayn (Craft and Object art)
• Moniek Schrijer (Craft and Object art)
• Owen Connors (Visual arts)
• Rosamund Philpott (Dance)
• Sarah Elsworth, Anita Clark (Multidisciplinary arts) 
• Shiraz Sadikeen (Visual arts)
• Sian O'Gorman (Music)
• Stacey Robertson (Craft and Object art)
• Stella Reid (Theatre)
• Troy Kingi (Music)
• Valerie Smith (Dance)
• Victoria Kelly (Music)
• Cindy Huang (Visual arts)
• Zena Elliott (Visual arts)
• Zina Swanson (Visual arts)

Ngā toi Māori fund

• Chevron Te-Whetumatarau Hassett (Visual arts)
• Darryn Joseph (Literature)
• Komako Silver, Khali Philip-Barbara, Whetu Silver (Customary Māori arts)
• Lance Ngata (Customary Māori arts)
• Maaka Pepene (Multidisciplinary arts)
• Phillipa Hartley (Customary Māori arts)
• Tibet Ranginui (Visual arts)
• Tui Ranapiri-Ransfield (Multidisciplinary arts)
• Warren Warbrick (Customary Māori arts)

Pacific arts fund

• Christopher Charteris (Visual arts)
• Max  Stowers (Multidisciplinary arts)
• Pelenakeke Brown (Multidisciplinary arts)