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Grants To Professional Arts Organisations

Published: Mon 2 Sep 2002 01:13 PM
2 September 2002
Grants To Professional Arts Organisations Announced
Festivals, residencies, touring, the commissioning of new New Zealand work and professional development are among a wide range of activities and artforms supported in Creative New Zealand’s latest recurrent funding round, in which its 27 annually funded arts organisations were offered grants for the 2003 calendar year.
Announcing the funding decisions of its two boards – the Arts Board and Te Waka Toi – Creative New Zealand Chief Executive Elizabeth Kerr said that in an overall static funding environment, the boards were able to offer modest increases to most of their emerging “New Voices” organisations to support their consolidation and contribution to the sector.
In addition, the Arts Board was also pleased to support established activities such as Sing Aotearoa (New Zealand Choral Federation) and the Interdigitate Festival (Moving Image Centre), which occur every two or three years.
Creative New Zealand, this country’s leading arts development organisation, provides recurrent funding support to a total of 38 professional arts organisations on an annual or three-year basis. In this funding round, it considered the 27 annually funded organisations. This includes regional orchestras and theatres, contemporary dance companies, Mäori arts organisations, national advocacy and service organisations, and experimental galleries.
Following the Government’s Cultural Recovery Package funding, announced in May 2000, Creative New Zealand offered overall funding increases of 31 per cent to its recurrently funded organisations. Over the past two years, the organisation has also provided annual funding to seven emerging organisations for the first time.
“This year is the final allocation of grants through the Cultural Recovery Package funding and overall, we were able to maintain funding levels,” Miss Kerr said. “The boards supported a number of exciting activities that will benefit the arts sector, provide opportunities for individual artists, develop arts practice, and be enjoyed by New Zealand and overseas audiences.”
Miss Kerr said that although the Cultural Recovery Package funding to Creative New Zealand will be fully expended by the end of 2003 the Government has maintained the enhanced level of funding to Creative New Zealand in this year’s budget.
Preliminary findings from research commissioned by Creative New Zealand show that the Cultural Recovery Package funding has had a tangible, positive impact on Creative New Zealand’s portfolio of recurrently funded organisations. Key findings show that overall, organisations have:
 commissioned more new works
 expanded their repertoire and become more innovative
 employed more artists
 provided more professional development programmes for staff
 engaged additional marketing staff
 increased their revenue and operating surpluses.
In addition, these preliminary findings show there has been an increase in audiences, particularly in theatre and dance.
With the Cultural Recovery Package funding, Creative New Zealand developed three strategies. Under one of the three-year strategies, Future Strengths, a programme of initiatives was developed to complement the increased funding to the recurrently funded organisations.
Future Strengths aims to strengthen New Zealand’s professional arts infrastructure and is guided by its four goals: Capability, Sustainability, Development and New Voices. To date, its initiatives have included a national contemporary dance conference in Auckland followed by the development of a contemporary dance strategy in close consultation with the sector; a Wild Opera initiative to encourage collaborative, professional productions of New Zealand-composed operatic theatre; and the publication of Getting on Board: a governance resource guide for arts organisations.
An updated edition of Getting on Board will be published later this year and will be complemented by a series of forums on governance issues for boards and general managers of Creative New Zealand’s recurrently funded organisations.
Another recent initiative is aimed at strengthening the leadership of professional arts organisations. Creative New Zealand is supporting 17 New Zealand arts managers to attend The Arts: Serious Business, a conference hosted by the Australian Institute of Arts Management to be held in Melbourne in October.
Along with its recurrent funding round, Creative New Zealand has two project funding rounds a year to which artists and arts organisations apply for grants for clearly defined, one-off projects. Funding decisions for the next project round will be announced in October.
ends
For further information contact:
Undine Marshfield
Media and Communications Adviser
Creative New Zealand
Tel: 04-498 0725 undinem@creativenz.govt.nz
Mobile: 025 965 925
Iona McNaughton
Writer, Creative New Zealand
Tel: 04-498 0715
Recurrent funding round 2002/2003
Creative New Zealand offered annual grants to 27 professional arts organisations for their annual programme of activity over the 2003 calendar year. This is a complete list of the grants, which totalled $5,510,886.
Artists’ Alliance $100,000
Arts on Tour NZ $127,000
Artspace Aotearoa Trust $265,000
BATS Theatre $195,000
Black Grace Dance Company $341,000
Booksellers New Zealand $132,500
Capital E: National Theatre for Children $200,500
Centre for New Zealand Music Trust (SOUNZ) $146,000
Christchurch Symphony Orchestra $425,000
Dance Aotearoa New Zealand (DANZ) $200,425
Downstage Theatre $460,000
Footnote Dance Company $204,000
Fortune Theatre $372,500
Kahurangi New Zealand Maori Dance Trust $133,700
Moving Image Centre $147,657
Museums Aotearoa $160,000
New Zealand Book Council $140,000
New Zealand Choral Federation $135,000
New Zealand String Quartet $152,500
Playmarket $258,000
Southern Sinfonia $250,000
* Taki Rua Productions $305,000
Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust $90,000
* Te Whanau Paneke $103,000
** Te Whare Tu Taua o Aotearoa $100,000
The Physics Room Trust $137,000
Wellington Sinfonia $230,000
* Co-funded by the Arts Board and Te Waka Toi
** Wholly funded by Te Waka Toi
The remaining organisations are funded wholly by the Arts Board

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