04 May 2021
This summary of the latest Arts Grants round results includes an overview of the results (including a link to who got funded), commentary on our observations about what the strongest applications this round included, both generally (ie across all artforms and applications) as well as artform-specific.
About Arts Grants
Arts Grants offer short-term project funding for New Zealand artists, arts practitioners and arts organisations (including groups and collectives). This funding enables more sustainable careers, encourages innovation and the development of arts practice, and provides opportunities for diverse communities to access the arts.
More about the Arts Grant programme
Results of the latest round (Round 6)
54 grants totalling $2,252,187 have been offered to support projects by New Zealand artists and practitioners in this funding round, across the three funding pools (General, Māori and Pacific).
168 eligible applications were received, with a total of $6,823,232 requested.
This was broken down as follows:
- General Arts: 35 projects totalling $1,313,669 were supported. $4,510,339 was requested by 122 applicants.
- Ngā toi Māori: 7 projects totalling $377,092 were supported. $1,212,089 was requested by 23 applicants.
- Pacific Arts: 12 projects totalling $561,424 were supported. $1,100,802 was requested by 23 applicants.
Also:
- 21 of the funded projects supported the development of arts practice and the creation of new work.
- 17 supported projects enabling New Zealanders to experience high-quality arts.
- 8 supported projects enabling New Zealanders to participate in the arts.
- 5 were to support building the resilience of the New Zealand arts sector.
- 3 supported New Zealand arts to gain international success.
See who got funded in Arts Grants round 6 (includes artform and regional breakdowns).
Overall comments
There was some commonality in the strongest applications for this round. These comments apply to all artforms and applications for Arts Grants Round 6.
In this Arts Grants round, the strongest applications tended to include:
- clear examples of how their arts practice was to be developed by doing the project
- concise support material directly relevant to the project that did not assume too much background knowledge on the part of the assessors about the applicant, the applicants’ values and ways of working
- detailed description of proposed project and goals, planning and implementation, including strong and robust delivery plans with well-articulated and achievable timeframes
- letters of support that were recent, relevant and specific to the application rather than generic letters
- thorough and accurate budgets, using the Creative New Zealand templates, clearly demonstrating:
- fair and appropriate remuneration shown for both artists and practitioners
- realistic revenue forecasting demonstrating how any funding gaps will be funded with evidence of support from relevant parties.
Additional artform-specific comments
Further to the comments which apply to all applications in this round overall (above), there were application strengths for some specific artforms. Trends relating to specific artforms may vary from round to round because applications are different each round. Therefore, rounds won’t always have commentary for all artforms. These are the artform-specific comments for Arts Grants Round 6.
For Ngā Toi Māori the strongest applications also:
- clearly articulated how Mātauranga Māori is used in the process and visible in the final result
- included budgets with fair remuneration for the artists, kaumātua and/or tohunga.
For Pasifika Arts applications the strongest applications also:
- demonstrated an understanding of what it means by Pasifika-led and supported
- were clear about how the benefits of the project were not just focused on the applicant, but emerging artists too.
For Community Arts the strongest applications also:
- clearly outlined
- the community that would be involved
- what the community want from this creative project
- how the community had been consulted and/or would be involved in shaping and delivering the project
- what their artistic experience would be
- focused on the arts outcomes that the project would deliver and were clear about the artistic quality of the project and how it would deliver these outcomes
- demonstrated a strong understanding of best practice in working with communities (see Community Arts Toolkit tip sheets on what makes a strong community arts project).
For Literature, some of the strongest applications also included:
- a compelling outline and samples, where applicable
Share this
