09 Jul 2024

This content is tagged as Creative NZ .

NEWS

Dancers
The Butterfly who flew into the Rave, Photography by Jinki Cambronero 

Creative New Zealand’s International Presenters Fund supports the presentation and touring of New Zealand works overseas. 

Eleven grants totalling $354,885 have been offered to international presenters and agents to enable the presentation and touring of high-quality New Zealand art overseas. 

Over the next 12 months presenters and agents will help 60 artists from New Zealand to find new audiences for their work in Australia, Canada, Columbia, Germany, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates. The funds are supporting presentations of theatre, dance, music, visual arts, craft and object art.

Presenters include major international biennales, arts festivals and performance venue networks working in collaboration. The International Presenters Fund required applications from presenters with programmes either celebrating and showcasing more than one New Zealand artist, or programmes taking New Zealand work to multiple locations to reach greater audience numbers and generate more income for artists. 

This new fund is targeted to cover basic touring costs including accommodation, transport, and freight for NZ artists and companies. These essential costs often make all the difference when presenters are weighing up local acts verses international presentations. 

Kate Britten, Senior Producer at Sydney’s Performance Space, is bringing two dance works from Aotearoa to Syndey and Melbourne in October for the Liveworks Festival.

“Our programme attracts audiences looking for the next big thing. We present work from around the Asia Pacific, but increasingly the costs of bringing work to Sydney are prohibitive. Having support from Creative New Zealand to help get the creative teams here for the festival is game changing and helps us showcase the best our region has to offer,” she says.

“Both The Butterfly who flew into the Rave and The Bloom will tour to venues in Melbourne, in addition to their programming at Liveworks in Sydney. That means the networking and audience development opportunities for these artists is huge,” says Kate.

Vera Mey, Co-Artistic Director of the 2024 Busan Biennale, says the support from Creative New Zealand means resources can remain focussed on core production costs.

“We're extremely grateful that this crucial support allows us to bring existing and new artwork from Aotearoa New Zealand to audiences in Asia and beyond,” she says.

“We're very honoured to bring the work of New Zealand visual artists Sorawit Songasataya, Sriwhana Spong, Abigail Aroha Jensen, John Vea and Layne Waera to the Busan Biennale 2024 in South Korea. The support given by Creative New Zealand enables us to bring over all the artists to participate in opening the weekend events, panels and performances,” says Vera.

Felix Preval, Lead International Advisor at Creative New Zealand, says the fund is designed  to encourage international presenters to collaborate and extend the impact for New Zealand works abroad.

“We know that there’s a lot of interest in presenting high quality New Zealand work overseas. The collaborative nature of the fund means some of the shows will be presented in 25 or more different venues, making a significant difference to the artists in terms of audience reach. Others will have the chance to be presented in major international festivals or biennales alongside their New Zealand peers, telling a richer story about what New Zealand’s arts and artists offer the world,” he says.

View the results of the International Presenters Fund on our website