03 Feb 2026
Creative New Zealand has made significant changes over the past few years as we focus on our role as the national arts development agency.
Starting with arts community consultation in 2023, we’ve updated our grants programmes and the way we offer multi-year funding to organisations and groups. Along the way we’ve simplified application processes and reporting and worked hard to improve accessibility.
Our extended Arts Organisations and Groups Fund opens for applications for support over $125,000 for up to three years on Monday 9 February. Applications for lower levels of financial support open in March, also with the option of up to three years.
Now we’re getting ready for the most significant phase of the change: tuku rauemi. This means empowering communities as decision-makers, entrusting them to support arts and ngā toi Māori development that best meets their communities’ needs. You’ll hear more about this from us in the coming months.
This aligns with our conviction that the arts and creativity are part of everyday life for everybody, whether they recognise it or not!
We’ll soon be releasing Tū Mai Rā, Toi Aoteraoa, our new long-term strategy to 2040 that sets out our vision for the arts and ngā toi and puts these changes into context. Alongside that, we have a new strategy for Māori arts, Toi Ora. We’ve also updated our Pacific Arts Strategy to align with these documents and the Government’s Amplify: A Creative and Cultural Strategy for New Zealand.
Co-funding grows the pie
We’re exploring ways to secure more financial support for the arts, to grow the pie. Co-funding brings more into the funding pool; it’s not just money, but also engagement, ownership and pride.
Boosted, from the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi, is a great example of how co-funding works. Artists put up projects with their funding target, and anyone can contribute. If the project hits the target – happy days – the funding is handed over.
Our Pacific Arts team has run Boosted x Moana since 2020, adding match funding on top of public contributions. The results show year-on year increases in every metric, with $405,000 raised last year for 46 projects. Our Māori Strategy and Partnerships team had great results from a pilot Boosted initiative in 2025 too. A specific Christchurch round, Boost Ōtautahi, co-funded with other community funders has also been a success.
We want to find out what else is possible when Creative New Zealand invests alongside communities.
We’ve partnered with Christchurch Art Gallery for the 2026 Venice Biennale
New Zealand’s participation in the 2024 Venice Biennale was an exception. We didn’t have an Aotearoa pavilion but were instead represented by eight artists selected by the curator of the international exhibition. And it worked out very well, with Mataaho Collective receiving a Golden Lion Award.
For the 2026 event, we’re implementing the recommendations of an independent review of our approach. We’ve contracted Christchurch Art Gallery as our delivery partner to present Fiona Pardington’s Taharaki Skyside exhibition, photographic portraits of extinct and endangered birds, preserved in museum collections. The artistic, curatorial and administrative work has been underway for months, ready for the opening in April.
We welcome our two newest Council members
All our work is guided by our board, the Arts Council, chaired by Kent Gardner.
The Minister approved the appointment of two new Council members late last year, Heather Harris and Mark Kneebone. You can read Heather’s and Mark’s impressive credentials on our website.
They join at an exciting time, as we prepare to deliver to the goals and vision in our long-term strategy, Tu Māi Rā, Toi Aotearoa.
Share this
