03 Jun 2022
Results are in for the first round of our new capability fund designed for individual artists and arts practitioners to build business skills. The fund was timely and well received in the current environment, with a wide range of capability projects supported in its first offering.
We received 82 eligible applications, with a total of $734,353 requested. We have offered 66 grants totalling $598,353 to support projects by New Zealand artists and practitioners across the three funding pools (General Arts, ngā toi Māori and Pacific Arts).
Results for 2021/222
The 66 grants totalling $598,353 have been offered to support projects broken down as follows:
- General Arts: 46 projects totalling $405,730 were supported. $545,271 was requested by 60 applicants.
- Ngā toi Māori: all 14 projects to a total of $134,062 were supported.
- Pacific Arts: six projects totalling $58,561 were supported. $76,877 was requested by 8 applicants.
A wide range of individual practitioners across various career stages and from all artforms were supported, with the highest artforms represented being Multidisciplinary arts, Visual arts and Theatre.
Overall comments
Here we provide an overview of the results for the Building Business Capability for Individual Practitioners Fund.
This was an important fund for individuals to build and expand their business capabilities, to future-proof their business and to take time and space to focus on the ‘business side’ of their practice.
Supported projects for this round tended to have a very strong focus on digital skills and capability from e-commerce, live streaming to social media training and website development, with many having a component of digital capability. Digital equipment and tools were also a strong feature of the round, showing a high demand for technology to practically support the implementation of the project.
Reflection on future pathways and hauora via mentoring and tuakana/teina partnerships was also a feature of the round, alongside other skills building such as financial skills training, strategic planning and marketing and professional development.
In this round, the strongest applications tended to include:
- a clear sense of the applicant’s own capability needs as an individual
- a compelling need for why the skills development is needed now
- detailed information about the people involved in the People section of the application
- concise support material directly relevant to the project:
- clear quotes
- clarity of the work to be carried out by contractors
- a detailed description of:
- the proposed project and its goals
- a strong project plan and how it would be carried out
- clear 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.
About the Building Business Capability for Independent Practitioners Fund
This newly-established fund offers grants to support individual artists and arts practitioners to develop skills that increase their career sustainability and future-proof their business practice. Individual artists and arts practitioners can apply for activities that help them remain relevant to audiences and communities and become more resilient to changing environments.
More about the Building Business Capability for Independent Practitioners Fund
We’ll offer a second round of the Building Business Capability for Individual Practitioners Fund later in the year. This opens on 19 September and closes on 14 October 2022.
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