Creative Fellowship Fund 2025 - Round 1

48 fellowships totalling $1,350,000 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 410 eligible applications, with a total of $13,642,700 requested.  

Read more about the Creative Fellowship Fund

Funding type summary

• Nga toi Māori: 11 fellowships were offered totalling $325,000
  $2,419,300 was requested by 66 applicants.
• Pacific arts: 4 fellowships were offered totalling $125,000.
  $1,225,000 was requested by 36 applicants.
• General arts: 33 fellowships were offered totalling $900,000.
  $9,998,400 was requested by 308 applicants.

Artform summary

• 4 - Craft/Object
• 2 - Customary Māori Arts
• 3 - Dance
• 10 - Literature
• 5 - Multidisciplinary arts
• 3 - Music
• 1 - Pacific Heritage Arts
• 5 - Theatre
• 15 - Visual arts

Key themes and round observations

A wide range of practitioners across various career stages and artforms were supported, with the most represented artforms being Visual arts and Literature, followed by Theatre and Multidisciplinary arts.

Here we provide some key themes and observations of the results for the Creative Fellowship fund. This fund focused on support for artists, practitioners, and groups of collaborators for a period in which to think, explore, create and develop fresh ideas and approaches to their work.
 
Strong applications under the Creative Fellowship fund tended to:

• clearly articulate the research, experimentation, or conceptual development that would lead to the creation of innovative work
• show an understanding of applicants’ arts practice within the wider context of their artform and show strong opportunities to share their discoveries, in the case of $50,000 fellowships  
• include relevant support material and information to help assessors grasp how the proposed activities would build on current practice to support a creative leap 
• provide samples of the proposed work, especially when taking a new approach to arts practice or developing work in a new genre.
• demonstrate timeliness and evidence of demand 
• show strong elements of innovation, oranga taiao or sustainable methods of use within toi māori and depth of mātauranga māori and its application within the process and presentation of the work proposed
• involve Pacific arts practitioners focussing on new artforms or developing a particular skill set aligned with their arts practice

Artists supported

$50,000 Fellowship

General arts fund

• Umar Zakaria (Music) 
• Dilohana Lekamge (Visual arts) 
• Yona Lee (Visual arts)

Ngā Toi Māori fund

• Kristyl Neho (Theatre)
• Kereama Taepa (Multidisciplinary arts)

Pacific arts fund

• Faiumu Matthew Salapu (Multidisciplinary arts)

$25,000 Fellowship

General arts fund

• Rachel Turner, Kelly Bensley (Theatre)
• Sorawit Songsataya (Visual arts)
• Colleen Lenihan (Literature)
• Freya Boyle (Multidisciplinary arts) 
• Nicola Farquhar (Visual arts)
• Sung Hwan Park (Craft and Object art)
• Damon Keen (Literature)
• Hannah Tasker-Poland (Multidisciplinary arts)
• Essa Ranapiri (Literature)
• Dominic Hoey (Literature)
• Jack Hadley (Visual arts)
• Rowan Panther (Craft and Object art)
• Scott Brough (Craft and Object art)
• Selina Ershadi (Visual arts)
• Anoushka Akel (Visual arts)
• Li-Ming Hu (Visual arts)
• Xiaole Zhan (Literature)
• Yukari Kaihori (Visual arts)
• Paul McLachlan (Visual arts)
• Rebecca Reilly (Literature)
• Jeremy Beck (Dance)
• Lauren Daly Sadgrove (Literature)
• Abigail Jensen (Visual arts)
• Bridget van der Zijpp (Literature)
• Christopher Duncan (Craft and Object art)
• Reuben Derrick (Music)
• Lisa Benson (Visual arts)
• Yin-Chi Lee (Dance)
• Johanna Cosgrove (Theatre)
• Emily Duncan (Theatre)

Ngā Toi Māori fund

• Turumeke Harrington (Visual arts)
• Sonni Tukiwaho (Theatre)
• Ngaroma Riley (Visual arts)
• Ruby Solly (Literature)
• Shilo Kino (Literature)
• Deborah Goomes (Customary Māori arts)
• Rongomai Grbic-Hoskins (Customary Māori arts)
• Seth Haapu (Music)
• Jade Whaanga (Dance)

Pacific arts fund

• Sesilia Tatuila (Pacific heritage arts)
• Hannah Teipo (Multidisciplinary arts)
• Iokapeta Magele-Suamasi (Visual arts)