Creative New Zealand: All news feed

A season of change

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 10:44:23 +1200

Poipoia te kākano kia puāwai
Nurture the seed and it will bloom

In recent times we seem to have been constantly juggling transitions and dynamism.

The world seems to be ‘getting on with it’ irrespective of the COVID context. As I’ve been getting out and about a bit more lately, it’s been evident that there’s some pent-up demand for engaging with the arts, now that there aren’t constraints on congregating – this is of course a good thing.

What may be less visible or obvious to the public are the ‘work-arounds’, risk management and COVID-induced ‘adjustments and changes’ that are a necessary part of how things are now, so that arts activity – and the consequential public enjoyment and congregation – can actually happen. It’s no surprise that creative workers are smart and creative, but I want to both applaud this mindset and acknowledge the personal wear and tear that comes with it.

One of the consequences of the phase we’re in, as you may have seen in the Government’s recent Budget, is that the funding lines around one-off COVID support are being kept as just that; one-off and temporary.

Consequently, at Creative New Zealand we have less to invest for the coming financial year than we did in the last few years, as our 2022/23 programme (released today) shows. An upside to the many interventions enabled by additional Crown investment over past two years or so is that we’re mostly still here as a sector; and as a sector, we’ve learnt some new things, we’re pretty tired, but we’re doing our best to get on with what it is we’re here to do.

There are some other transitions from the last two years that are very important overhangs in terms of the next phase of the Arts Council delivering to its strategic direction. I’ve outlined some of these below.

Post-COVID transition

The extra investment and support for arts and culture via the Government has been terrific and beneficial. A lot of enterprises and activities have benefitted from the good water of public investment. We all know what happens when we stop watering though – what then are the investment intentions for the medium term?

Wellbeing transition

The shift to a more holistic view of what makes a country successful beyond economic wellbeing is timely and appropriate. Changing the settings to really give effect to these ambitions remains a challenge.

We saw a lot about wellbeing in the submissions provided from the sector to Manatū Taonga, Ministry for Culture & Heritage, on their Long-Term Insights Briefing issues paper. People were keen to understand how the sector could support the Ministry and Ministers to make more of the opportunities that arts, culture and creativity can contribute to social, environmental, economic and cultural wellbeing.

The transition to this is probably essential to ambitious progress – how can we contribute to this?

Transition from the periphery to the core

To look at it from another point of view, history suggests every government finds it very challenging to make significant changes to investment in culture, relative to other things. Culture is on the budgetary margins. By our reckonings (and please let us know if you land elsewhere), the whole vote for Arts, Culture and Heritage is around 4 percent of the Crown’s core expenses of $158.5 billion.

To zoom in with another turn of the microscope, the $16.689 million baseline investment we receive from the Crown through Vote ACH is about 0.01 percent, or one one-hundredth of one percent, of the Crown’s core expenses.

Investment transition

Through legislation, Parliament gave us a job to do for the people of New Zealand in 1964. In 2022, we’re finding a very challenging gap between our aspirations for the arts and the public resources we have available to do the job.

Just to be totally clear, in the coming year we’ll also receive $4 million from the Crown on top of our baseline funding, to support the terrific Pasifika Festivals Initiative advanced by the Minister that runs to June 2023.

The predictability of this Crown investment is great; of course, we’re disappointed that we weren’t successful in attracting positive attention in the May 2022 Budget as others in the portfolio did. We’ll be looking to understand why this is, as we’re acutely aware that the resources we have to support the arts are a key driver of the public value we can contribute via the arts community.

Many readers will be aware that most of the public investment we receive is from the public via lottery proceeds. Although the current year numbers are yet to be finalised given the year has a month or so still to run, we’re expecting the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board contribution to be a bit better than the initially budgeted $51 million. So, the general trend here is our friend.

As mentioned earlier, a dynamic context continues to be the norm. This blog is just a little signposting about how things are shaping up, but they do change regularly. Signing up for alerts on Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture & Heritage’s programmes is never a bad thing and we will, as always, continue to advise on our own landscape through our newsletter and other channels.

In my next blog, once we’ve finalised our Statement of Intent at the end of June, I’ll put a bit more flesh on the bones of how our work will respond to our upcoming strategic focus areas of: Resilience; Access, inclusion and equity; and Wellbeing. It was heartening that we had a record 175 submissions from the arts community on the Statement of Intent discussion document earlier this year. Thank you so much to everyone who contributed for your informed counsel and support.

Hidden jewels

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 16:03:48 +1200

Mā te pohewa mā te auaha hoki, ka whakapuaki ngā kura e huna ana.
With imagination and creativity a hidden jewel can be revealed.

It’s World Creativity & Innovation Week – an annual, global celebration of all forms of creativity, culminating in World Creativity & Innovation Day on 21 April, an official United Nations International Day of Observance.

While for many of us every day is a creative one, it’s always nice to see an international focus on imagination and creativity, which still struggle for explicit attention in our media, in our policies and even in our conversation.

It’s usual enough to talk about products or activities that are born from creativity – like animation, games or concerts – but the 'special sauce’ of creativity and imagination that underpins it all remains difficult territory. Having a World Creativity & Innovation Week (and Day) helps surface the mysterious essence that brings those amazing hidden jewels out into the open, which is a good thing.

Closer to home, the whakataukī above sets the scene for Toi Ōtautahi, the strategy for arts and creativity in Christchurch, in which we’re a founding partner. It refers to the Ngāi Tahu relationship with pounamu, a unique treasure of the South Island. To the untrained eye, the exterior of the pounamu looks like any other stone in the river, but with skilful crafting, a true treasure is revealed.

Fun fact: it was on 21 April 1971 that the Court Theatre performed its first production in Ōtautahi, and the new home for the Court Theatre is now underway in the Christchurch ‘Performing Arts Precinct’. From that pioneering moment just over 50 years ago to today’s new horizons, it’s widely recognised that a city without art is a city without heart. Having that creative, cultural and artistic fabric is widely seen as an essential part of contemporary urban planning, and indeed family planning!

People want to live in cities with a heart, with art. People know what they like, for example the thousands of Court Theatre goers love theatre and, most likely, the theatre-loving community of which they are a part. What sits behind the performance is likely more of a mystery – the performance or exhibition outcome that is built from a wide range of specialist craft, skills and knowledge. The foundations of these are, of course, creativity, imagination and collaboration.

The focus for World Creativity & Innovation Week this year is on the latter, Collaboration, and what a central part of the creative process that is. Collaborations between artists create powerful, inspirational works of art. The process of presenting creative work relies on many people coming together, each contributing their own passion and skill. Presenting to audiences is also a collaborative act – an interaction between artist and audience that aims to leave both sides invigorated, challenged and hungry for more.

Collaborative work is a deep thread that’s woven through the fabric of the arts in Aotearoa New Zealand, as it is in arts communities around the world.

On the international stage, Paradise Camp by Yuki Kihara opened this week as New Zealand’s presentation for the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, better known as the Venice Biennale. Curated by Natalie King, Yuki’s exhibition is told through the unique lens of Fa’afafine and draws on often untold, marginalised histories of her Faʻafafine community in Sāmoa, highlighting New Zealand’s historical and ongoing social, political and cultural engagement with the Pacific.

Back at home, our collaboration with The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi, All in for Arts—He waka toi e eke noa nei tātou, has also just wrapped up. All in for Arts events feature likely, and unlikely, arts lovers talking about what creativity means to them and their communities. There’s a simple power in gathering together – even virtually – to hear from our fellow ‘travellers’ and learn about how creativity makes such a powerful impact on their lives. The 28 stories from this year’s All in for Arts are well worth checking out, as are those from the 2020 edition.

Often these collaborations involve a fair amount of quiet, unsung work – stuff which happens behind the scenes, to grow and uplift the arts in Aotearoa. Like the many many months of collaborative work with partners and the local arts community that went into Toi Ōtautahi. Like the long, hard work it takes to bring artists to the world stage in places like Venice. Like the deep engagement that’s needed to shine a bright light on the power of creativity in communities around the country.

We treasure the arts and we treasure those who create them. While some degree of negativity still floats about, there’s always plenty to celebrate. Our 2020 research New Zealanders and the Arts—Ko Aotearoa me ōna Toi showed us that more and more of us are recognising the powerful benefits that the arts bring to our lives.

Four out of five of us agree that the arts help to develop and foster creativity, and 40 percent say the arts are important to our wellbeing. Almost a third agree that arts and culture have supported our wellbeing through the COVID-19 crisis. Four out of five young people aged 10–14 say doing creating things makes them feel excellent or good, and 69 percent believe they are very or extremely creative (up 10 percent on 2017).

As a COVID side effect it has been fascinating seeing so many people, with that fluctuating COVID-time dividend, re-ignite their enthusiasm for making, writing, painting, singing, dancing and so on. Participation numbers in the survey show this movement too. The creativity muscle is there for many people, it just needs a bit of exercise and it makes people feel sooo much better about life. Silver linings.

We’ve certainly had to dig into our creative reserves over the past two years, in navigating the pandemic. It’s been a rough road, and we’re not through it yet. As the green shoots start to emerge once again, let’s remember, acknowledge and embrace the powerful collaborations that create, present and support the arts.

E hara taku toa, i te toa takitahi, he toa takitini.
My strength is not as an individual but as a collective.

Navigating life at Red

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 12:28:40 +1300

Tuatahi (firstly), I want to acknowledge the uncertainty and anxiety felt across the sector following the announcement that Omicron is in the community and that all of New Zealand is now at Red under the traffic light setting of the COVID-19 Protection Framework.

While the Red setting is not exactly a lockdown that we’ve grown accustomed to, these necessary restrictions are already having a huge impact on gatherings, events and audience numbers, the lifeblood of many artists, arts practitioners and arts organisations.

Our thoughts remain with the sector as a whole – some of the hardest hit when it comes to restrictions. We acknowledge the many festivals, performances, events and arts activities that have been cancelled or deferred due to the move to the Red setting.

As reflected in my last blog, 2021 shaped up to be another challenging and disruptive period – one that our arts community met with considerable resilience. The early stages of 2022 look to be no different and we will once again need to wayfare through this latest stage of the pandemic.

At earlier stages in our COVID-19 response, we’ve been able to provide additional support for the sector, initially drawing on our reserves in 2020 and then through two one-off financial injections from the Government which have now been distributed (most recently through the Delta Relief Funding package). These recognised the critical importance of the cultural and creative sector to the economy and, at an individual and community level, the significant role it plays in enhancing our wellbeing.

At this stage, we’ll continue with our funding offerings as planned. Round 4 of Arts Grants, which offers project funding for a broad range of arts activities, including artist development, opens on Tuesday 1 February.

I want to assure you that we’re continuing to work with Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage to ensure that we build our collective understanding of the consequences of COVID-19 for the sector under the current Red setting of the COVID-19 Protection Framework.

We provide regular updates to the Government (via the Ministry) and offer advice where we can, and the Ministry has been keeping us well-informed on developments. However, it’s worth noting that decisions around any broader Government support, such as a wage subsidy, rest with the Government itself - we appreciate that this is complex work that takes time.

In terms of our funding offerings, we’ve been asking applicants to provide COVID-19 contingency planning in their applications for almost two years and we’ll continue to make funding decisions based on the situation at the time. As a result of this, those already funded should be able to adjust their projects and work to their contingency plans.

Since our first experience of lockdown in March 2020, we’ve evolved our offering to the arts community, guided by the Arts Council. We’ve done our best to future-proof our grants programme, so we can stay on track through uncertainty and change. We’ll continue to do this.

Where to look for information or support:

Unite Against COVID-19 website
For individuals, help with urgent or essential costs is offered on the Work and Income website
The Ministry of Health has some information and tools to help support your own and others’ mental wellbeing and where to get help if you or your loved ones need it.
As explained on the Ministry for Culture and Heritage website, the Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme might apply if you’re planning an “event” and have concerns about whether it can go ahead under the Red traffic light setting.
Both the Leave Support Scheme and Short-term Absence Payment continue to be offered, with information on the Work and Income website.
There is information about tax relief and income assistance on the Inland Revenue website
On the Creative New Zealand website, we’ve provided some information about the COVID-19 Protection Framework in relation to the sector and FAQs about financial and other support.

As always, we will share any updates when we have them.

Kia haumaru tāu noho, please remain safe.

Nā Stephen Wainwright

Reflecting on the year that’s been 2021

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 10:04:53 +1300

Still standing…and anticipating a lie down

I want to first acknowledge the people of Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau, by default our primary gateway to the world and a buffer for the rest of us, and the people who have carried the heaviest COVID-19 burden here in Aotearoa.

With travel out of Tāmaki Makaurau allowed from 15 December there’s the sense that our friends and colleagues will at least theoretically be able to re-enter the wider physical world of our country. That’s a helpful progress marker.

I’m sure this wasn’t a role they sought; but it’s become a koha that benefits everyone else. It’s a tough role for people who quite understandably have had enough of cancelling gigs and working from home and over Zoom, and all the extra burdens that brings.

The ‘wear and tear’ is real, and there are many forms of loss to live with. It has in many ways become a most forgettable year. Yet most of the arts people that have shared their views with me are still standing – standing, and weary. On the horizon there’s anticipation about a summer recharge and hope that there’s a COVID path forward in which the prospects for the arts are better than now.

Traffic Lights

The COVID-19 Protection Framework, aka the traffic light system, is the new guide for protecting one another, keeping our health system running and businesses open. It took effect on Friday 3 December 2021.

If you haven’t seen this yet, here's a good place to start.

More specific guidance:

Events specific guidance: Events — business.govt.nz
Entertainment, recreation and exercise (including theatres and cinemas): Entertainment, recreation, and exercise — business.govt.nz
Public facilities: Public facilities — business.govt.nz

While it would be helpful, the guidance can't expressly cover every activity or situation. I’m sure it will evolve and improve over time but sound judgement will continue to play an important role.

Importantly, the traffic lights are a manifestation of how we live the best lives we can while a global pandemic remains very much with us.

People in so many situations keep doing the mahi, even though it can be hard to do that online or remotely, in a context of profound uncertainty where many are unable to work in the same way they did 18 months ago. There are many quiet champions working for the common good and doing their best to mitigate the myriad negative impacts of COVID-19 and supporting vaccination.

We've pulled together some information that might be useful

If you’re feeling a bit of ‘information overload’ or not sure where to start, we’ve pulled together some FAQs on our website to help direct you to various pieces of key information around the traffic light system as well as sources of financial support:

Traffic light guidance that may be of particular relevance to the arts sector

Sign-posting financial and other support available to arts community impacted by COVID-19

Creative New Zealand's COVID-19 Policy

In response to the COVID-19 Protection Framework, we’ve developed our own COVID-19 policy at Creative New Zealand. The policy contains guidance and expectations around vaccination and operating under the traffic light system – including how we’re protecting and supporting our staff, those who visit our offices and those we engage with in other locations.

Here’s a very short summary of our policy in table form [PDF, 136KB]

New normal?

The traffic light system sets out how we might live with the ‘new normal’ of COVID-19 in a risk-based way. This is welcome.

For Creative New Zealand and the arts sector as a whole, it would seem to require heroic optimism to see this system as heralding a new normal that is remotely like life as it was in February 2020. This would be green lights everywhere.

Recent news of an Omicron variant reminds us that the global pandemic is not done.

As we approach 2022, it’s likely we will need to continue to draw on the traits of adaptation and creativity – which have been hallmarks of managing through since March 2020.

Vaccination is one of the best defences we have. If you look at international comparisons, the vaccination rates here are extremely good, which is encouraging.

Last week we launched a social media campaign, amplifying voices from the arts community to encourage vaccination. The campaign is fronted by artists, who share in their own words their ‘why’: why they do what they do, why they love their creative practice, and why they’re vaccinated.

The $ picture

Firstly, for those of us who rely on public investment from the Crown, it’s important to acknowledge that a key reason New Zealand has lessened the impact of COVID-19 socially, culturally and economically (compared with overseas) is because the Crown has done a lot of extra lifting for the people since COVID-19 struck.

For Creative New Zealand, last financial year and this financial year have been by some margin our biggest years in terms of our ability to support the sector to manage through the pandemic.

We’re appreciative of the ‘one-off’ emergency resources we’ve been able to invest at a time of great need, with Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture & Heritage delivering the bulk of resources this financial year.

While we believe that we can deliver further public good with more public investment, the context in which the Government is operating is markedly different now.

As you can see from the graph below, borrowed money has enabled the Crown to increase the size of its COVID-19 safety net. The Government has signalled that in a traffic light setting of orange or green it will seek to reduce the support payments it has been making to keep businesses afloat and employees employed.

You don’t need to be in the Treasury to understand that the Government is keen to spend less rather than more. For those interested, here’s more context around government debt.

Government debt in New Zealand increased to $102 billion in the year to end June 2021.

While we’ve put our best foot forward in the Crown budget process, we know that much of the emergency money we’ve received was just that – one-off money for the COVID emergency. Unless there are some super Powerball jackpots to fuel the money we get from Lotto, it’s prudent that at least one of our planning scenarios is focused on shrinking public resources next year.

Beyond the gates of our house the good news is that the pandemic response continues to include support for investment in culture. Minister Sepuloni recently announced the Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme which will be a vital safety net for arts and culture events. Also, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is administering the Events Transition Support Payment scheme, designed to provide assurance to organisers of large-scale events.

This support and all the guidance above are important strands of work – and the labour and effort that sits behind them point to the considerable efforts underway from across Government to ensure that we can make the best of what COVID-19 throws at us. Won’t it be good to do more of the things that bring us together and bring us joy – our whānau, the arts and our lovely bush, coastline and beaches.

Tēnā te ngaru whati, tēnā te ngaru puku
There is a wave that breaks there is a wave that swells

It seems Delta's sticking around for now. What’s next for the arts?

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 17:13:05 +1300

Living with a global pandemic

In my last blog (September) we welcomed the Government’s additional one-off emergency resource into the arts and culture sector to address the Delta arts emergency. While we were hopeful for the future, we also signalled our working assumption that the whole country would not be at Alert Level 1 before Christmas – to say it’s unfortunate to be where we are now would be an understatement; this is a difficult environment for much of the arts world to thrive in.

Limits on congregation, and enduring a long level 3 and 4, have been particularly tough for our arts whānau in Auckland. Having had months of stressful re-programming and re-budgeting more Auckland arts practitioners and organisations are making pragmatic decisions and cancelling or deferring work scheduled for November and December 2021 – which must be tough.

This time of year at Creative New Zealand we'd normally be in the throes of our annual awards season, but like many others we're having pivot for the second year in a row. We've made the difficult call to defer the 2021 Ngā Taonga ā Te Waka Toi (Te Waka Toi Awards) to 2022 and to an online delivery only. Changes in alert levels in Tamaki Makaurau and the Waikato-King Country regions have meant that we haven’t been able to safely complete the interviewing and filming of our recipients to produce the beautiful video pieces that the awards celebration is known for. With the Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement we've once again decided to pivot to an online literary panel with this year's winners. And for the Arts Pasifika Awards we've made the tough decision once more to not proceed with a live awards event at Parliament this year (we had planned only to go ahead if the whole of the country was in Alert Level 1). Instead, there'll be an intimate Zoom event with the winners and our Arts Council Chair.

All those who said that Delta was a gamechanger are correct. As a nation we’ve moved from the elimination strategy that we were so familiar with a year ago, to now focusing on how we might ‘live with Delta’. The target of 90% vaccination rate for every District Health Board is key to opening up Aotearoa New Zealand, to a ‘normal Christmas’, and in fact the next phase in our existence of living under the shadow of global pandemic.

What can we do now?

The current feeling of powerlessness and the limitations on our cultural lives thanks to the awful consequences of COVID-19 is an inconvenient truth for those working in the creative sector (as well as people in international tourism, travel, hospitality and in Auckland). These impacts are felt unevenly across different sectors. Our Chair Caren Rangi had some observations on that in her recent Q&A with Stuff.

Right now, one of the most useful things we can do is use our networks to encourage vaccination. In the arts ‘word of mouth’ from those we trust has always mattered. If you feel comfortable, please have conversations with your loved ones about the importance of vaccinating to protect one another and allow us to gather to enjoy the creative activities we love.

Also, with only about seven weeks until Christmas, for those who are able and wish to buy presents, we can all personally support creatives by purchase content and experiences by New Zealand creatives.

Christmas is often extremely stressful, on top of an extraordinarily stressful 18 months, so I hope we can all hold our hands up for self-care.

Looking to 2022

We know that the ‘COVID-19 modellers’ are optimistic that the District Health Boards should achieve that 90% target sometime in December, and the centre has given us a ‘living with Delta COVID roadmap’ which helps us understand how things will roll in the future.

When we eliminated COVID-19 initially in 2020, life went back to how it was in alert level 1 for a while. This time, with new frameworks introduced, we know that there’ll be different opportunities for New Zealanders, depending on whether they’re vaccinated and have a passport or not.

This is a whole new context for us all. A lot of work from political leadership and officials is going into clarifying how this might operate; passports, guidelines around congregation, how offices manage visitors, and so on.

Here at Creative New Zealand, we too are working through these same issues for ourselves in terms of our own employees, guided by our own values and informed by the various advice that has come through from the centre in terms of the Worksafe COVID-19 Risk Assessment and from our own whānau. Our primary concern is the wellbeing of our people – as ever, the devil is in the detail. There are different perspectives to understand, and different scenarios to anticipate.

In terms of the Government, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet are holding the pen on the guidelines work that will accompany the ‘re-opening’ of the country. This points to the importance. As with any other complex system work, it would be remarkable if it’s all perfect when the guidance first lands. It will, though, become clearer over time; improvements will no doubt be made and evolved based on feedback and we’ll all get the hang of it by doing it.

So, a lot of thought is currently going into how we might “get on with it” in this future state, even though we don’t have all the information right now. We’ll work through it; whoever said necessity is the mother of invention was spot on. A better future and some nice summer weather can’t come soon enough.

For the moment, there’s impressive efforts happening to present work to the public in alert level 2 circumstances. It was good to attend one of the opening nights at Enjoy Gallery recently, and on the 4^th of November the New Zealand International Film Festival is premiering ‘The Power of the Dog’ by Dame Jane Campion. I take my hat off to all those who are finding ways to ‘make it work’, and at the same time fully understand that for many performing arts, work of scale can’t happen at the moment.

2022 season programmes are beginning to arrive, as the deliverers of our nation’s arts experiences prepare to deliver their mahi to a populace who are learning to live with the pandemic and re-engage with the things that make life worth living.

Kia mau ki te tūmanako, te whakapono me te aroha

Hold fast to hope, faith and love

Connecting, reflecting and comforting - what arts and culture can do for wellbeing

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 10:23:58 +1300

As a teenager growing up in suburban Hawke's Bay in the 1980s, art was something that you 'did'. In my case, it was once a week with our groovy arts teacher Mr Lister, exploring art from Europe. You ‘‘did’’ art because it was a School Certificate subject that gave some relief from other subjects.

I also spent two days every week practising and performing as a dancer in the Hawke’s Bay Cook Islands Youth Culture Group – somewhat of a novelty to largely Pākehā audiences. While I knew I was sharing my culture with others, I certainly didn’t think of this as 'doing art' – it didn’t look, sound or feel like the accepted definitions of art.

What I did know was that as a member of a minority community, Cook Islands dance made me feel proud, unique, confident and knowledgeable, in a way that nothing else I learned at school had. Now as an adult, hearing the sounds of the drums, traditional chants and songs, and getting up to dance as a form of celebration still fills me with joy and pride.

There were other forms of arts and culture that I engaged with that also contributed to my wellbeing and how I navigated my way as a Cook Islander in mainstream New Zealand. At seven, I joined my school guitar group, taught by a local folk music identity who was a strong environmental and human rights advocate, and who played in a real band at places like Napier venue the Cabana.

So, I learned to play the guitar while singing protest songs like Big Yellow Taxi and a repertoire of Bob Dylan and Neil Young. In contrast, 10 years on I was a pianist in a chamber music trio playing baroque music. Those two creative experiences connected me to other people and perspectives and gave me a sense of belonging amongst my peers, something that was important to me.

As Chair of the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa, I have seen many examples of how arts and culture enhance the wellbeing of New Zealanders, particularly in recent times. Our New Zealanders and the Arts research found that our arts are making a powerful contribution to our wellbeing and are helping us get through Covid-19 – one in four of us say the arts have become more important to our wellbeing since Covid arrived in Aotearoa.

We need to recognise how arts and culture benefits our communities – from strengthening mental wellbeing, to enhancing education, and contributing to the positive rehabilitation of incarcerated prisoners. One example is the Matala Project, a series of digital online art resources that explore Pacific masculinity. Produced by the FAFSWAG Queer Indigenous Art Collective, this initiative was supported by the 2020 Le Va Pasifika Suicide Prevention Community Fund and aimed to increase knowledge about suicide prevention, resilience, and the support available – a wellbeing message delivered through an arts platform.

I remain grateful to dance for providing a beam of positivity during the uncertainty of lockdown periods. Every weekday morning at 8am I join my friend Maria’s Lockdown Dance sessions via Zoom, and we bust out our best dance moves to our favourite disco hits. It gives me a burst of energy, connects me to others outside of my bubble, and it just feels good.

I want more New Zealanders to be able to find an artform or creative activity that enhances their wellbeing. This Mental Health Awareness Week, let’s take time to get creative. It connects us, helps us see from new perspectives, and makes us feel good. And let’s be sure to support our artists – their creativity fuels our collective wellbeing.

Caren's blog was recently published on Stuff.co.nz

Good news from the centre – COVID-19 Delta Relief Funding

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 10:05:53 +1300

In my last blog I talked about the need for us to be in Level 1 in order for the arts sector to fully flourish. In terms of any interventions to minimise the harm that Delta causes to the arts more broadly, it’s the Government itself that has the lions’ share of resources to intervene.

So, it’s with some relief that we acknowledge the intervention led by Minister Sepuloni to again inject some additional one-off emergency resource into the arts and culture sector to address the Delta arts emergency. This happened in 2020 too with that emergency. The evidence and narratives that were assembled by Manatū Taonga via a huge range of folk were key to mitigating harm then, just as it is now.

If you missed the announcement this morning, here are a few handy links:

Media release: Government helps protect jobs and incomes for Arts and Culture sector (issued by Minister Sepuloni’s office)
COVID-19 Delta Relief Funding (Manatū Taonga website)
Our media release in response

I acknowledge and thank the many who shared their circumstances with us since the Delta variant impacted our lives – it was important that you did this. Your work enabled us and others with similar concerns to play our part in explaining that the Delta emergency is as harmful for the arts as the March 2020 COVID-19 outbreak and requires fresh investment to mitigate the harm.

It’s reassuring that we’re part of a governmental system that’s responsive to balancing the immediate needs of the cultural sector with the inter-generational impact of borrowing money to pay for the emergency now that will have to be repaid later.

In addition to the additional $5 million that Creative New Zealand will receive and invest in the short term, we’re pleased to be working closely with our fellow entities and Manatū Taonga so that the roll out of the Government’s Delta Relief Fund package is quick, easy for the sector to access, and complementary. With these factors in mind, noting the understandable COVID-19 fatigue that is evident now, we’ll focus our work on investing more through existing mechanisms rather than establishing new funds with new criteria and so on. We explain more in our media release

COVID assumptions

We know that there’s keen interest in the daily numbers and narrative around COVID-19, and it’s entirely natural that the experience of the rollercoaster is of highs and lows depending on what this news is. A handful of specialists are official forecasters whose views we follow with interest. Others of us have become casual predictors of what will happen COVID-wise with a view to providing clarity about the future. We agree that clarity would be marvellous, but the truth is that we have no crystal ball, but we do need to prepare for the future.

We’ve all learnt the hard lesson since March 2020 that it’s best to make some general working assumptions and change them as circumstances determine we can do so. The ‘least bad’ approach is to set yourself up the best you can and be adaptive, nimble and so on in the face of profound uncertainty. So, this is our general operating model; we reckon we’re now in about phase 3.5 of our COVID-19 Response.

For the moment then, our working assumption is that the whole country will not be at Alert Level 1 before Christmas. We hope that this working assumption is too pessimistic… that would be grand.

What this means in practical terms is that we see that the emphasis for our work in the remainder of the year will be supporting the sector to work through Alert Levels 2, 3, and 4 with minimum damage to the arts ecology.

A nation-wide Level 1, when it comes (our assumption is 2022), means much more will be possible in terms of arts community activation and public engagement.

We’re acutely aware of the wear and tear many of us are experiencing, in particular our whānau in Auckland. The accumulated depreciation of the last 16 months or so is very real. As well as making our offerings as fit for purpose as possible, in terms of how we work, we’re keeping things as simple and as flexible as we can, while operating from a space of manaakitanga.

Progress continues, congregation is key to success

The arts significantly rely on congregation and community, so while Alert Levels 3 or 2 are an improvement on Alert Level 4 for our personal wellbeing, anything other than Alert Level 1 is tough for all whose livelihoods depend on the live arts.

In addition to supporting our friends and whānau in the arts and in the community, what else might we do proactively hasten progress?

Promote the ‘double jab’ for the common good.

As this promotional image above suggests, we all yearn to live a life where we can do the things we love, like experience live music with our friends. We can’t really do this at any scale yet, the business side doesn’t really work with a cap of 100 – but we can accelerate the likelihood of this happy outcome of congregating together if we do one thing, which we can all do:

We can urgently activate our networks to encourage people to get vaccinated. I want to mihi to you in the arts community (and wider) who are already doing this and operating in this space.

As Sir James Henare (Ngāpuhi), father of our treasured and passed Arts Council member Erima Henare said:

Kua tawhiti kē tō haerenga mai kia kore a haere tonu. He nui rawa ō mahi, kia kore e mahi tonu.
We’ve come too far not to go further. And we have achieved too much not to achieve more.

Wayfaring through this Delta COVID uncertainty

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 17:14:25 +1200

Here at Creative New Zealand, we’re very mindful of the multi-pronged impact this latest Delta outbreak brings with it and the myriad consequences that come with the higher alert levels . We’ll continue to do what we can to mitigate harm with our resources.

I know many of you will have questions about what potential support we can provide the arts community during this latest lockdown, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to share a few things with you.

We’ve been talking with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatū Taonga, and Minister Sepuloni has met with Crown Entity chairs to get a quick understanding of the consequences of COVID-19 for the sector. We’re providing regular updates to the Government (via the Ministry) and offering advice where we can.

After using all of our reserves for our phase 1 Emergency Response, in the Government’s May 2020 budget, we welcomed the one-off Government support and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage support, (with proactive Ministerial support) taking a pivotal role backed with significant resources. All of this enabled our arts and culture community to get through with minimal long-term damage to the people and the arts infrastructure.

The different context now

When COVID-19 arrived in 2020, we were all kind of mugged by it – it was a new thing that we didn’t see coming. Aside from Sci-Fi movies, ‘pandemic’ was not a word in our lexicon, nor was COVID-19 for that matter. When the pandemic first struck, we moved quickly to support our sector, using the bulk of our reserves to do so.

Over the past 15 months, we’ve seen a lot of quick learning and adaptation. While it’s collectively exhausting being in this re-cycle, it’s our new normal. Delta hit quickly but we’ve learnt to re-programme, re-budget, Zoom/Zui/Zono, pivot and innovate. I’ve received many welcome invitations which have allowed me to digitally engage with the arts.

At Creative New Zealand, our focus in the third phase of our COVID-19 response is largely about future-proofing our programmes so that recipients of our support can do their work in different COVID-contexts. We’ve also learned to tilt to digital, with our Nui te Kōrero leadership conference this June going online following alert level changes in Wellington.

As we drew heavily on our reserves last year to support the sector with our COVID-19 response, this year we don’t have as much pūtea (money) to do anything new – you can only spend your reserves once! Thankfully, the broader support ecology is richer now than it was in March 2020. And as I mentioned above, we’re regularly advising government.

As I mentioned in my last blog, the Government is offering some income support:

A wage subsidy is available to all New Zealand businesses and self-employed people that meet eligibility criteria – take a look on the WINZ website.
The COVID-19 Resurgence Support Payment (RSP) is a payment to help support viable and ongoing businesses or organisations due to a COVID-19 alert level increase to level 2 or higher – more on the Inland Revenue website.

The Ministry of Health has some information and tools to support your own and others’ mental wellbeing and where to get help if you or your loved ones need it.

The trend looks like it’s our friend

Assuming that normalisation of life at alert level 1 is the goal, it’s encouraging that as spring beckons, the worst early fears from this Delta outbreak look to be pessimistic. Infections look to be flattening out and if history is any guide, we’ll carefully work our way down the levels when it’s safe to do so. For our Auckland whānau this looks like it will take a while longer; kia kaha.

The arts matter to many people and communities, and we know that to flourish we need to be at level 1. We can all play a role in getting to this more sustainable space by encouraging our communities of interest to get their jabs, as an immunised community is the best weapon we have against Delta.

He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tāngata!

Nā Stephen Wainwright
Chief Executive - Pou Whakahaere

Stephen Wainwright responds to level 4 lockdown

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 18:33:15 +1200

Tumanako ia e noho haumaru ana tātou. I hope everyone is well.

We’re all coming to terms with last night’s announcement that we’re all in level 4 ‘lockdown’ until at least Friday; Auckland and Coromandel until next Tuesday.

Tuatahi (firstly), we’re thinking of you all – the arts community is always among the first to be hit by lockdowns, with upcoming gigs, events and projects immediately affected. COVID-19 has been particularly tough on the international gateway cities like Auckland and Sydney, and we’re mindful of the additional disruption and toll that has been endured by our colleagues in the north. Kia kaha Tamaki Makaurau.

Like so many New Zealanders, we’re keeping a very close watching brief on the trajectory of the emergence of the Delta variant in Aotearoa.

A crystal ball that could tell us when the alert levels will change would be extremely helpful right now, but sad to say we don’t have one of those. However, as an arts community we’ve become familiar with responding to whatever COVID-19 throws at us.

Since our first experience of lockdown in March 2020, we’ve been constantly evolving our offering to the arts community, guided by the Arts Council. We’ve done our best to future-proof our grants programme so that we don’t have to suddenly put everything on hold while we figure out what to do or change direction, like we had to do when COVID-19 first hit last year. We appreciate that providing as much certainty and consistency as we can in this COVID-19 context is important.

While we’ve got contingency plans in place (and as we’ve done throughout our COVID response we’ll make adjustments if needed), we don’t foresee a need to make radical changes to our offerings at this stage, and we’ll continue with our funding programmes as planned. For example, round 2 of Arts Grants (project funding) and the Toi Ake – Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kōtuku Fund will open next Monday 23 August, and assessments for round 1 of Arts Grants will continue as scheduled. We’ve been asking applicants to provide COVID-19 contingency planning in their applications and we’ll continue to make funding decisions based on the alert level of the time.

We’re encouraged, as we were last year, by the speed at which the Government has announced its wage subsidy support.

A wage subsidy will be available from this Friday (20 August) to all New Zealand businesses and self-employed people that meet eligibility criteria. Take a look on the WINZ website.
The COVID-19 Resurgence Support Payment (RSP) is a payment to help support viable and ongoing businesses or organisations due to a COVID-19 alert level increase to level 2 or higher. Applications for this latest alert level increase will open on 24 August – more on the Inland Revenue website.

Finally, lockdown can be an anxious time. The Ministry of Health has some information and tools to support your own and others’ mental wellbeing and where to get help if you or your loved ones need it.

Kia haumaru tonu ō tātou whānau. Whaia i ngā kupu āwhina a ngā āpiha.
Please keep your whānau safe, and follow advice given by officials.

Nā Stephen Wainwright

Creativity as a driver for wellbeing

Mon, 02 Aug 2021 14:17:34 +1200

I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak at the LGNZ conference earlier this month. As the Review into the Future for Local Government kicks off, there’s an opportunity to reimagine councils’ role in our communities. We want to make sure that arts, culture and creativity are on the agenda.

We know the power and potential of the arts to transform communities and promote wellbeing, and we want to see this potential unlocked and multiplied throughout all communities in Aotearoa.

The evidence is clear. A World Health Organisation report draws on more than 900 global studies that show how the arts benefit our health and wellbeing. Our own research backs this up. The 2020 results of our triennial New Zealanders and the Arts—Ko Aotearoa me ōna Toi research show that New Zealanders are more positive than ever about the role of the arts, and they’re helping us to get through COVID-19.

Read the WHO report - What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? A scoping review (pdf 2.2 MB)

Beyond the data, the evidence is all around us. Arts and creativity are bringing communities together and telling our stories – what it means to be Māori, to be Pasifika, Asian, Pākehā, young, old, to have a disability, to identify as LGBTQIA+ – they’re helping us to express who we are.

They contribute to our health. The dance class or kapa haka group in every community hall, our libraries and our galleries keep us active and brighten our minds. In our schools, prisons and aged care facilities artists are at work, too. For many, the arts are a form of salve and salvation.

Watch Bonita Bigham – All in for Arts Taranaki (Vimeo)

The arts, as Councillor Stacey Hitchcock put it, can also be the genesis that changes a person’s trajectory. Organisations like Action Education in Auckland, who help young people find their voice through slam poetry and performance, or architecture studio Ākau in Kaikohe, who involve rangatahi in the design process of their projects, are providing that genesis and equipping our young people with the skills that they need for the future.

Watch Councillor Stacey Hitchcock – Arts for All Taranaki (Vimeo)

Arts and culture also make our towns and cities great places to live. Through our 2020 research, two in three New Zealanders told us they agree that arts and culture have a vital role to play in the future of where they live, and that it’s important that where they live is recognised as a place that supports the arts. The winner and finalists for this year’s LGNZ EXCELLENCE Award for Cultural wellbeing are good examples of how the arts can support stronger, more cohesive communities.

Our communities are changing quickly – we have ageing and increasingly diverse populations, and many regions have growing Pacific communities, Asian communities and refugee communities. Supporting the arts and culture of these communities is a tangible way for councils to show that they recognise their value and contribution. Our 2020 research found that for our Māori and Pasifika communities, ngā toi and Pacific arts are vitally important ways of connecting with their culture and identity. That’s why we’re working with Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture & Heritage, to invest $12 million over three years into the Pasifika Festivals Initiative, to ensure these iconic community celebrations of Pacific cultures can continue to thrive.

To harness the potential of all this creativity to drive wellbeing, we need to listen to our communities.

The Tauranga City Commissioners understand this. More than 10 percent of the total submissions received on their long-term plan were about arts and culture, and they recently committed to $750,000 of new investment into a range of arts, culture and heritage projects.

Read the news item: Arts, culture and heritage in Tauranga receive $750,000 injection through Long-term Plan

As Commissioner Anne Tolley said, “The arts are sometimes seen as a nice to have, but we’ve seen arts and culture having a huge impact right across our communities … there are lots of advantages – the creative sector can be extremely healing.”

Listen to Anne Tolly – A boost for Tauranga’s arts sector on RNZ

We heard the same thing when we partnered with the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi and travelled around 10 towns to gather and share stories about the impact of the arts last year. Watch the resulting videos from The Great New Zealand Arts Journey. In Ōtepoti Dunedin, Mayor Hawkins put it this way: “Art is our core business. It is a public service that cuts across everything we do … it’s also essential to our collective social wellbeing as a community and as a civilisation.”

Watch Mayor Aaron Hawkins — All in for Arts Dunedin (Vimeo)

We’re looking forward to hearing from more of you when we head back on the road this September.

If we enable creativity to thrive in our communities, we enable our communities to thrive. Creativity is absolutely a driver for wellbeing – and not just cultural wellbeing, but social, economic and environmental wellbeing.

Let’s think about how we can grow this potential so that no matter where you’re born, or where you live in Aotearoa, everyone has opportunities to experience the transformational impact of the arts on their lives.

Many councils are already doing important work with and for our arts communities. They’ve embraced what artists contribute, invested in their work, and understood their role. Their staff have worked closely with Creative New Zealand to deliver additional funding via the Creative Communities Scheme and Local Government Art Fund in the wake of COVID-19.

In the words of LGNZ Chief Executive Susan Freeman-Greene, “Our joint responsibility to local democracy means a range of things: giving people visibility, creating places where they can express what it is to be human, being better partners, seeing each other’s dreams and aspirations, courageous conversations about what is intrinsic, what we need to keep hold of and what it is time to let go of. Those things are at the heart of our communities.”

Read LGNZ CE Susan Freeman-Greene's address at LGNZ Conference 2021

Local government are key partners in our work to encourage, promote and support the arts for the benefit of all New Zealanders. We’re committed to working with them to collectively support arts and culture in our communities and harness the potential of creativity as a driver for wellbeing.

Caren Rangi
Arts Council Chair

Watch Caren's speech at LGNZ 2021

Delving into New Zealanders’ attitudes towards the arts

Tue, 15 Jun 2021 16:47:19 +1200

Kia ora tātou

The ‘public value’ focus of the work of the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa stems from our legislative purpose – to encourage, promote and support the arts in New Zealand for the benefit of all New Zealanders.

As ever, New Zealanders and the Arts — Ko Aotearoa me ōna Toi gives us much to think about in terms of the value the arts bring to our lives. This solid research evidence is the best proxy we have for ‘all New Zealanders’ and how they see the arts, as well as shining another light on the outcomes we’re looking for around public participation and attendance.

Why do we do this research?

The research serves several unique functions. Firstly, it gives us evidence around the vital existential question, ‘Do people really care about the arts here?’. The good news is that they do, more than ever. A benefit of this research is that the longer it runs, the more we learn. The 2020 research is the sixth edition of this mahi, which first began in 2005 and has been repeated every three years since.

In addition to the evidence, which is necessarily numeric in nature, I hope you’ll be as buoyed as I was by reading what researchers call the ‘qual’ – the qualitative comments that appear through the various research reports.

These reflections bring the research to life quite wonderfully. Comments like ‘Art gives people a sense of purpose, belonging’ and ‘Art gives meaning to our lives and helps us understand the world’ capture the intrinsic essence quite marvellously.

The arts in COVID times

As the surveying took place in October 2020, and asked people to reflect on their engagement with the arts over the previous 12 months, the findings come through a lens of lockdowns. As we all know too well, there were significant limits on New Zealanders’ ability to congregate to enjoy the arts last year. Naturally, this impacted on participation and attendance, especially that which relied on people ‘getting together.’

It’s also true that the COVID-19 landscape of 2020 represents a time in which many New Zealanders reflected on what truly mattered to them. In particular, all that homegrown arts engagement helped many ‘get through’ COVID-19 in better shape than would otherwise have been the case.

The following quote captures the COVID-19 wellbeing zeitgeist particularly well, I think.

“During the lockdown you could see on social media how positively people were reacting to arts culture and the impact it had on keeping a lot of people’s health and wellbeing and general outlook on life happy and fulfilled.”

Research, like culture, is always on the move

Everyone coming to this research will be coming with their own perspective. Our aim is for this research to be of value to you, whatever your interest.

There is great deal of information on offer. Over on our research hub you can find:

our research summary
the detailed adult and young persons reports
dedicated reports exploring Māori, Pasifika and Asian New Zealanders’ relationship with the arts
a report on New Zealanders with lived experience of disability and their relationship with the arts
regional and city reports.

You can nibble or feast on this marvellous research buffet – I invite you to dive right in. If you have any questions, comments or insights to share, then please let us know: research@creativenz.govt.nz

Finding value, and lead indicators

The research summary is a great place to start, and the ‘Key insights’ section gives a nice summary of the main findings for those who are pressed for time or want a quick snapshot.

What’s very stimulating about the data is what it indicates for the future. For me, two things leapt out.

The first relates to attitudes towards the arts. As we note, two of the three biggest ‘movers’ in terms of changing attitudes relate to public funding for the arts. Three out of five adults agree that the arts should receive public funding (60%; up 7% on 2017) and over half of us agree that our local council should give money to support the arts (54%; up 7%).

We don’t just see these positive shifts in a small number of questions though – it’s across the board. Overall, nearly a fifth of adults aged 15 and over (17%) say they’re more positive about the arts than they were 12 months ago.

As a lot of arts activity in Aotearoa is enabled by public investment, it will be reassuring for public investors to know that New Zealanders see increasing benefit in public investment.

The second point relates to a dramatic and positive shift in the attitudes of young people, especially for boys. This is an important lead indicator because the beliefs and practices that shape our world as young people so often flow through the rest of our lives.

When we last did the research three years ago, we noted that boys were well behind girls when it came to how they saw themselves creatively. In 2017, 77% of girls agreed that doing creative things makes them feel ‘excellent’ or ‘good’, compared with 57% of boys. This time, 86% of girls felt positive, but boys leapt up to 73%.

This is quite a remarkable shift. When families see the benefits of creativity for the wellbeing and development of their children, it will lead to benefits for the whole family.

As a final point, in future years the 2020 edition of the research will likely come to be seen as the ‘COVID research’, just as the 2011 research felt the consequences of the Canterbury earthquakes.

Research does that; it reveals a moment in time. In many ways, it’s the COVID-19 context which makes the attitudinal research, especially, so interesting. New Zealanders were having a collective moment and reappraising what matters. Be reassured, the arts matter, more than ever.

Tēnā te ngaru whati, tēnā te ngaru puku.
There is a wave that breaks, there is a wave that swells.

Looking to the year ahead in a COVID world – reflections, lessons, key funding opportunities for 2021/22

Fri, 21 May 2021 19:34:19 +1200

Kia ora e te whānau

With Matariki fast approaching, it’s timely to reflect on where we’re at and the path we’ve all travelled. I know from my conversations with colleagues in the sector, a lot of us are carrying some of the psychic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Where we were this time last year

As a nation, our response to COVID-19 has left us in a position that’s the envy of other parts of the world. Clearly, it’s good to be where we are in Te Moana-Nui-a-Kiva, surrounded and secured by the biggest moat on the planet.

Sensible people in government leading us and a sensible citizenry is clearly helpful in a crisis – one which has been felt nation-wide but with uneven impacts for its people. Amongst the hardest hit sectors in our country is of course the arts, which depend so much on human congregation.

This time last year we were incredibly anxious to leave no stone unturned to ensure that artists, arts practitioners and arts organisations and groups would not suffer irreparable damage because of COVID. The Arts Council figured that the worst impacts would be when we were all locked down, and that things would get better.

We went hard and early (as the saying goes) to refashion our offerings and address the crisis head on, and spent much of our reserves doing so in April, May and June 2020. The Government broadly did the same thing and made COVID resources available to Creative New Zealand which were vital to helping minimise harm in the financial year that began 1 July 2020.

Let’s stay cautiously optimistic

It’s too early to play a victory fanfare, particularly if we look around the world and see just how COVID-19 keeps coming back when we think we have the upper hand. However, the importance of ongoing vigilance shouldn’t disguise the fact that as an arts sector and arts community there is much to celebrate.

We’re now about 14 months on from when we shifted into Emergency Response mode. As an arts community we can, and should, do some canny manoeuvring that’s a combination of crossing our fingers for ongoing good fortune, patting ourselves humbly on the back for amazing resilience and determination, and giving a big hug to those who have uplifted us since March 2020.

Importantly, given the centrality of the public value of the arts to our work, it’s clear from our latest New Zealanders and the Arts research (hoving into public view soon) that for many, these ‘COVID times’ have amplified the significance of the arts for our wellbeing. Benefits for wellbeing both as participants and makers and as attendees and audience communities; the joy of coming together to engage with the arts has not diminished when people feel it is safe to do so.

This is no small achievement. It makes my heart sing that I am attending an Orchestra Wellington concert this Saturday that is already sold out. Looking back a year ago, it was only in my most optimistic moments that I would have visualised this outcome.

Looking to the year ahead

With the end of our financial year approaching (30 June), I wanted to help share Creative New Zealand’s high-level plans for the next financial year to support the arts. We promised to keep the arts community informed about our financial context – even if we can’t provide all the details just yet – as we know this has a big impact on the value we’re able to create for New Zealanders through our public investment in the arts.

The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (our governing body) recently set its first draft budget for the next financial year which, for us, follows the cycle of the Government financial year from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022. It also agreed a draft plan for the upcoming financial year.

Overview of our core opportunities for 2021/22

We’re still firming up the finer details of the overall plan and budget, but today we can confirm some initial funding opportunities and timings for the upcoming financial year. We’re working on other initiatives and will share more as these are confirmed.

Before I elaborate further on our financial context, I’m aware that many people in the arts community will be eager to know what support is available – so here’s the crux of it:

While we won’t have as much pūtea (money) to invest in the upcoming financial year as we did in the current financial year (2020/21), we’ll still be investing significantly more than we did in 2018/19 – prior to COVID-19. The graph below sets this out.
Drawing on what we’ve learnt this past year, for our grants funding we’re prioritising investment into a simplified programme to support artists and arts practitioners.
- We'll be offering six Arts Grants rounds, with a five-week turnaround for decision-making.
- We're making Annual Arts Grants’ eligibility criteria more flexible.
- Arts Grants and Annual Arts Grants will open on 5 July.
We need to retain some flexibility in our budget in the event of further COVID-19 impacts to be able to do more should a COVID-19 resurgence take place.
We’re continuing with some special opportunities for artists, our usual annual awards and our scholarships, as well as the Creative Communities Scheme.
We’ll continue to deliver COVID-19-specific recovery opportunities through the Government’s arts and culture COVID recovery programme – this includes the Pacific Festivals Initiative and the Toi Ake – Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kōtuku Fund.
We’ll reframe our support in the international space to adjust to the changed environment.
We’re still developing its capability and investment programmes – more on this to come.

The graph below sets out our investment context for the previous financial year, the current financial year and next financial year. I’m going to break this down a little further, but you can see the big investments made into helping the arts sector weather the COVID storm.

2019/20 (the previous financial year)

The 2019/20 year (1 July 2019 – 30 June 2020) was one like no other – the year COVID arrived. We quickly swung into action and rolled out the first phase of our response, our COVID-19 Emergency Response Package.

We said that we’d leave no stone unturned to support the arts community as best we could. To do so, we used most of our financial reserves – the rainy day had truly arrived. As a result of this purposeful investment, we were able to elevate our Phase 1 Response to a total of $28 million.

2020/2021 (the current financial year)

In the current financial year (1 July 2020 – 30 June 2021), we received a one-off additional $25 million in core funding from the Government to support artists, creative practitioners and arts organisations through COVID-19. This was on top of the $16.7 million we receive annually as our core funding. We also received a further $5 million tagged to specific initiatives under the Government’s Arts and Culture COVID Recovery Programme. We were delighted to use this extra investment to further support the arts community.

Our main source of revenue continues to come from the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board, which distributes the profits of Lotto NZ. In a normal year, around two-thirds of our revenue comes from the Lottery Grants Board, with one-third coming from the Government.

It’s normal for the amount we end up receiving through lotteries to be different to that predicted at the start of the financial year. For the current financial year, lotteries revenue is now forecast to be $70 million; $9 million over what was initially budgeted for.

This is of course very welcome news, as 2019/20 demonstrated how vital it is to have financial flexibility so we can respond rapidly to support the sector in the face of any emergency.

The record level of revenue we’ve had over 2020/21 has allowed us to provide a range of COVID-19 targeted activity as part of our COVID-19 Phase 1 and Phase 2 responses. The outcome of all this is that, with others, we’ve been able to help mitigate the harm felt by the arts sector at a time when many practitioners and organisations couldn’t operate as normal.

2021/2022 (next financial year)

At its recent April meeting, the Arts Council set its first draft budget for the upcoming financial year (1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022). The 2021/22 financial year is, in essence, Phase 3 of our COVID-19 response.

Overall, Creative New Zealand’s revenue for 2021/22 is forecast to be $71.2 million at this time (compared to the $82.3 million we’d predicted for 2020/21 at this time last year). As you’ll see from the commentary on 2020/21 though, the actual revenue we work with fluctuates quite a lot depending on the available contribution from lotteries.

This overall revenue still includes a sizeable $7.75 million investment through the Government’s arts and culture COVID recovery programme, including the Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kotuku Fund, Culture Sector Capability Funding, and the Pasifika Festivals Initiative.

Our focus for 2021/22

As in recent times, we’re aiming to deliver a fit-for-purpose and affordable 12-month programme to support the arts sector to continue to survive, recover and thrive in a COVID-19 world.

Our offerings for the upcoming financial year are a blend of what we offered pre-COVID and some of the important changes that we’re responding to.

For example, we’re retaining some elements of our Phase 1 and 2 COVID-19 responses, including more frequent arts grants rounds which enable practitioners to nimbly respond to changes in the external environment.

As you can see from the graph above, there’s less money to invest in this upcoming financial year than the year before. In order to invest as much as we can into grants funding and to ensure we can be highly responsive to the sector, there will be some special opportunities, initiatives and pilots that we won’t offer in the 2021/22 year – a tough decision which was not taken lightly.

We’ve shared these decisions and snapshots of key opportunities in this story on our website

Our funding calendar provides the suite of opportunities, at this moment in time, across the year.

What’s happening next

As is customary, the Arts Council will further refine the budget in June and August 2021. By June we should have more information about Lotto NZ’s profit targets for 2021/22, and our final annual investment (through to June 2022) will be confirmed by the Arts Council at the end of August as part of finalising our 2021/22 budget.

After this, we’ll be in a position to share a fuller 12-month investment plan (July 2021 – June 2022); in essence, what we’ll call our Phase 3 response to COVID-19.

We’ll provide a further update, after the late July Arts Council meeting, as the 2021/22 budget and programme are further refined.

In the meantime, take a look at these snapshots of our initial funding offerings for the upcoming financial year.

You might also like to look at our 12-month funding calendar and funding FAQs.

Ka whāia te wāhie mo takururia ka mahia te kai mō te tau
If you look for firewood in the winter, you will have plenty of food all year around

A word from the Arts Council Acting Chair, Caren Rangi

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 16:33:31 +1300

As 2021 gets underway, I am thrilled to be starting the year by picking up the Arts Council (Acting) Chair’s baton from Michael Moynahan, who completed his term with us in December 2020. As the third woman to hold this role during the more than 55 years of the Arts Council, I’m also extremely proud to be the first person of Pacific (in my case Cook Islands Māori) descent in this space.

One of the key strategic focus areas for the Arts Council is looking at our organisational leadership and culture. In particular, we’re looking at how these can better enhance the public value that we seek to create from the work Creative New Zealand does; this is embodied in an approach we call Te Kaupapa o Toi Aotearoa. In thinking about how we can be a fit-for-purpose, 21st century, Aotearoa New Zealand arts development agency, we’re exploring how we can be more intentional in how we demonstrate the wairua of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in our work, and ultimately in how we provide better value for all New Zealanders.

Our work to date has included building on the expertise and experience of members of the Arts Council (particularly members of our Komiti Māori), that of Creative New Zealand staff, and others with deep knowledge of the role of Te Tiriti and its application. Ultimately, we want to take this information as a board and use it to develop our governance practices, so we can be confident that we’re applying a range of lenses to our decision-making. And as we further adjust and respond to life in a COVID-19 impacted environment, there will be an increased demand on our ability to make decisions that take account of the diverse contexts, situations, values and conditions of the people we serve.

So, as the Arts Council vaka continues this journey towards greater public value, we look forward to connecting with people and organisations across the broad arts sector, and to working with you all to strengthen the arts and culture experience for all New Zealanders.

Ei mua tatou!

Caren Rangi
Arts Council Acting Chair

Peering over the parapet

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 10:43:04 +1300

Saying farewell to 2020 wasn’t so difficult; it was a heavy year indeed, largely because of COVID-19. The adaptability and resilience shown by our arts community was as notable as the robust response from Government.

Commonly at this time, here at Creative New Zealand and in many other offices, some mapping of the year ahead takes place. After time with friends and loved ones over the break, there’s a good bit of fuel in the tank to do this work.

This year, there’s a different feel to the work though. If there’s one thing that 2020 demonstrated, it’s that we ought to be a bit humble about the limits on our ability to assert our will on the world.

So, these comments are made with the caveat that as much as we’re delighted by the pretty normal lives we’re living currently in Aotearoa – and delighted by the fact that people can convene together and artists can present their work to large live audiences – we are enjoying a fragile calm.

The purpose of this blog is really to hold to our earlier commitment to regularly communicate the context we’re working in. This has implications for the offerings we’re able to make to the arts sector and, ultimately, the public value that we can deliver. See our Public Value Model for more (pdf 88KB)

Outside our borders and within

I was recently on a Zoom call with Magdalena Moreno Mujica, Executive Director of the International Federation of Arts Councils and Cultural Agencies. It was hard to hear about the cultural harm that is unfolding in most of the rest of the world, given people’s inability to congregate, inadequate support going to the sector and often a basic lack of will to rally around arts communities in this time of crisis.

While the arts here are now ‘working’, the broader context within which creative work is happening is quite variable.

On the one hand, there seems to be shrinkage in terms of sponsorship and philanthropy, and local authorities are signalling a tightening of their purse strings. Costs and risks have also risen as a result of COVID, and the limits on longer-term planning are manifest.

On the other hand, public interest in experience the arts seems high and the summer outdoor activities certainly help from an access perspective. The COVID context has spurred on a lot of activity as the alert levels settled, with people returning to or amping up their own creativity across a whole range of arts practices.

As much as we hope they do, it’s impossible to have any guarantee that the current benign conditions will endure. Our Arts Council has some important decisions to make over the next few months. These are focused around the kinds of assumptions we should be making about the future, with respect to our programme deliverables and the next phase of our response to COVID-19.

Talking to ‘the centre’

The full reckoning of COVID here is yet to be assessed, in no small part because we’re ‘not there yet’ (as recent COVID concerns in Northland have reminded us). Broadly though, there’s been a general invitation from Government to departments – and to Crown entities like us – to help ‘build back better’.

That makes good sense. Our Arts Council has and will continue to adapt our offering to the external circumstances. It does invite the bigger question though of building back better to ‘what ends?’.

A number of the Briefings to Incoming Ministers – including Creative New Zealand’s Incoming Ministers Briefing – point to the urgency of having much more intention around the value that public investment is creating via ‘cultural wellbeing’.

To me there’s a sense that a national arts and culture policy (or strategy) could shine a bright light on the huge contribution the cultural sector and creative workers make – in how we express ourselves, as well as to some of the pressing and enduring challenges in health, education and justice. At a practical level, a national policy would provide a map and a clear plan to guide the arts during times of crisis.

Of course, this would require both an enthusiastic commitment to the kaupapa from the top, which we’re fortunate to have, and a shared appetite to do the necessary ‘deep and wide’ thinking mahi. As the Prime Minister said pre-COVID times in this The Spinoff article, ‘We may have different views about what art is, what it means and why it’s important, but if there’s one thing I think we can all agree on, it’s this: our arts and our artists are vital in helping us to imagine and build a better Aotearoa.’

A strong arts and cultural policy would also create an effective platform for targeted investment. This would enable the whole cultural system to rebuild with a clearer sense of purpose, direction and urgency.

Our colleagues in Ireland have recently completed their own version of work. Having turned the cultural policy stone over and looked underneath, they’ve seen the public benefits and have committed to a much more ambitious agenda. Have a look at Culture 2025: A National Cultural Policy Framework to 2025 if you’re interested in the kind of ground a national policy might cover.

The shifting sands of resourcing the arts

As mentioned in our Annual Report 2019/20 (pdf 5.8MB), the year ended 30 June 2020 was a record year of investment for Creative New Zealand.

This was a year in which the Arts Council chose to make an operating loss of $15 million; maximising our investment in the arts during the greatest national crisis we can recall. It’s a truism that financial reserves are there to be used for a ‘rainy day’, and these vital reserves were put to work to weather an unheralded storm at very short notice.

Of course, you can only use the reserves you have once. So, our future ability to call on our rainy-day pot is modest, as we’re now close to the minimum level under our equity policy. Ideally, we’d be working towards rebuilding those depleted reserves; as sure as eggs, there’ll be another storm at some point in the future.

In the current financial year, to 30 June 2021, we’re pleased to be investing a range of new one-off money from the Crown. You can see this in the chart below as ‘COVID funds’. The Government has itself, via Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture & Heritage, opened some significant COVID-oriented funds directly.

As is the norm for us, the Arts Council will settle on our budget over April and June this year as our funding picture gets clearer.

Navigating the COVID waters

We’re currently in the second phase of our COVID response, following the emergency-oriented first phase.

Over the course of 2020 we’ve altered our funding opportunities to be more responsive (eg, two-monthly Arts Grants rounds and the new Annual Arts Grants programme). As mentioned earlier, the context the arts are operating in now includes an increased focus on health and safety, additional risks around staging work and expectations that practitioners should receive fairer compensation.

These extra costs, and the fact that other avenues of support are generally shrinking, are all contributing to heightened levels of demand for Creative New Zealand support. As a result, our funding rounds are becoming increasingly competitive.

To illustrate this, we received 792 Arts Grants proposals over the July–December 2019 period. Over the same period in 2020, we got 1395. Need is certainly growing.

Of course, it’s great that creativity is thriving and, with public money, we want to be supporting the most compelling proposals. Even with the much-welcomed COVID-specific resources we’ve received, for that final six-month period of 2020 we were only able to fund one in every five proposals. We understand the frustration this creates for those who miss out, as it does too for our external assessors who are seeing the growing number of very good proposals coming in that just can’t be supported within the pūtea we have.

Given the increase in quality and volume, in the short-term it’s difficult to see how we can arrest or even reverse this unwelcome trend. This is a very inconvenient truth and an issue the Arts Council will look at very hard in coming months as the budget for 2021/22 is arrived at.

Of course, the Arts Council, and many in the arts community too, think that the volatility and level of Creative New Zealand’s resourcing mix is not the soundest basis on which to grow a thriving arts ecology. The solution is in the hands of many and whilst that presents its challenges, we will play our important role to influence the best possible support we know our sector needs ... all of us working together.

Eyes to the horizon

While the hard mahi of planning and budgeting lies ahead, the Arts Council is resolutely committed to following through on its published intentions. These include the Statement of Intent, the Investment Strategy, Te Hā o ngā Toi—Māori Arts Strategy and the Pacific Arts Strategy.

Within the next couple of months, we’ll also be publishing fresh insights into New Zealanders attitudes towards, and engagement with, the arts. These look to be showing largely positive trends since we last carried out the research in 2017, which is heartening and a testament to the amazing mahi our arts community does every day. See the 2017 New Zealanders and the Arts research

In addition to any updates on our programmes that we’ll keep proactively communicating, I’ll send out a blog update at least once a quarter, or if there’s fresh news from our end.

All the best for a creative and arts-filled 2021.

E huri tō aroaro ki te rā, tukuna tō ataarangi ki muri i a koe
Turn and face the sun and let your shadow fall behind you

Reflections and aspirations from outgoing Arts Council Chair Michael Moynahan

Mon, 21 Dec 2020 10:14:04 +1300

As I reflect on my time as Chair of the Arts Council, it’s evident that the immense value of the arts to our lives is never clearer than in times of crisis.

Many people felt and saw the transformative effect of the arts in their lives with new salience during the nationwide lockdown. We turned to the arts to keep us connected, and to find hope and inspiration. In the months following, the absence of live theatre, gigs and festivals made us understand their value all the more.

As live arts experiences return, we’re among the most fortunate in the world to be able to gather and share in the magic of these communal experiences. Many festivals have adapted, presenting strong programmes of New Zealand-only acts, galleries are full of New Zealand work, development is underway for new work to be presented next year. Audiences are trying things they might not have before, and more eyes are being opened to the exceptional talent that is accessible right here at home.

New Zealanders are seeing the power and impact of the arts with new clarity, and it’s time to shout it from the rooftops. We have to share with one another, and with our leaders and decision makers, the impact the arts have had on our lives. The arts community are ready to see their value better recognised and increase the essential contribution they make to the lives of New Zealanders. We need to take a joined up approach to investment and vision.

Creative New Zealand and the Arts Foundation recently travelled around the country with the All in For Arts He Waka e Eke Noa Nei Tātou regional roadshow. The stories we heard make it resoundingly clear that the arts have a transformational impact on New Zealanders of every age and every walk of life, everywhere.

In every town we visited, people told us that the arts create community, connect us, and inspire us. A writer in Invercargill reminded us that those who spent 30 minutes or more on a creative activity daily during COVID reported lower rates of depression and anxiety. An editor in Arrowtown told us there were more stories in their paper about arts and culture than about anything else that week. A former policeman in Ashburton told us about the benefits the arts bring to the wellbeing of rangatahi. A local government leader in Taranaki told us toi Māori was her salvation and the recreation of her identity. A dairy farmer in Whangarei told us the arts have given her courage and the skills to help her community.

The evidence of the value of the arts is all around us. It’s in our daily lives, our whānau and our communities. Now is the time for us to embed this value in our collective future.

In recognition of the immense challenges the arts community faced this year, Creative New Zealand has made unprecedented investment into the sector. Additional support from the Government has been crucial to help the arts community to rise strong.

Without access to the usual ways of presenting work this year, the arts community pivoted to delivering work to audiences in new ways. Artists and creatives found ways to choreograph, rehearse, fundraise, and perform and deliver online, and Creative New Zealand has supported this significant adaptation.

To ensure we maintain momentum, we need to ensure increased investment can be sustained in the long term. Last week, in an opinion piece for the Dominion Post, Peter Biggs called for a National Cultural Summit to agree on a sustainable way to fund a resilient arts and culture sector well in the future. Rosabel Tan wrote in the summer issue of Metro about the need to ensure lasting change and unlock the power of permanence.

There is an opportunity to reset the way we approach investment in the arts – an opportunity to establish a new baseline, to reframe our rationale and to collectively determine for what and how we invest, so that we can maximise the transformative value the arts can offer to our future in Aotearoa.

Creating a new baseline will ensure the value the arts create for all New Zealanders can be sustained. The arts and creative sector contributes almost $11 billion a year to our GDP and employs 90,000 people. When we invest in arts, we invest in our hauora, in tūrangawaewae, in education, in our communities and in our economy. We invest in our people.

As an ex-publisher, I ought to know better than anyone that when one chapter ends, it’s an opportunity for a new one to be written. I’m confident that the future leadership of the Arts Council is in very able hands, and I’m optimistic that the value of the arts – now better recognised – can illuminate a path to a stronger and more resilient Aotearoa.

Poipoia te kakano kia puawai.
Nurture the seed and it will blossom.

Writing from the Edge

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 12:36:15 +1300

We’re collaborating with Pantograph Punch to bring you the groundbreaking Pacific Arts Legacy Project. Curated by Lana Lopesi as project Editor-in-Chief, it’s a foundational history of Pacific arts in Aotearoa as told from the perspective of the artists who were there.

This paper was originally delivered on the opening night of the 2016 Going West Writers Festival.

The term ‘edge’ is multi-edged. Edge is the cutting side of a blade, the line where an object or area begins or ends, the brink, the verge. So for me edge suggests risk, toppling over into a chasm, you having to take care. The phrase ‘from the edge’ suggests moving from that position, from the brink, the outer, towards a less risky position and becoming part of a more acceptable position, a centre. It can also mean toppling over into another edge, another challenging unknown, into new dangerous inspiring territory. The final edge along which we tread every breathing moment of our lives is of course that tightrope. That line between breathing and not breathing, between being and not-being, between consciousness and unconsciousness. When we’re young and healthy, that edge seems far away because we’re busy being and discovering and creating: we feel youth-proofed against death, with a future that stretches forever.

One day, according to the Sāmoan Tupuaga, the Genesis, Tagaloaalagi, our Supreme Atua, asked his messenger to go into the forest and cut a branch off the Fue Tagata, the Peopling Vine, and spread it out in the sun in a place on the island of Savaiʻi. After a while, he asked his messenger to go and see how the Fue was. The messenger returned and told Tagaloaalagi the Fue had turned into ilo, maggots. Tagaloa took the ilo and shaped them into the first human beings and into them he placed the gifts of atamai (intelligence), loto (courage), poto (wit and cunning), masalo (the ability to doubt and question), finagalo (will) and agaga (soul). By the way, the place where the messenger laid the Fue is now known as Malae-la, the Malae-of-the-Sun.

Those marvellous gifts make for contradiction: they make us capable not only of enormous love and creativity, healing and invention, but also of arrogance, cruelty and violence. That contradiction is at the heart of all our cultures, philosophies and literatures. Tagaloa’s gifts have also made us the most destructive and violent creatures on our beautiful but sad planet. The other basic contradiction is: we can imagine ourselves immortal yet know we have to die. I grew up in the second half of the 20th century, a time of unprecedented invention in technology, science and the arts, yet also a time of horrific violence and suffering, brutality and injustice. Everywhere today we see a tragic continuation of that.

I and other writers emerged out of that terrible contradiction, context and mix, reflecting and contemplating it. We’d just suffered two world wars and throughout the world smaller but violent conflicts continued. The development of the atomic bomb and nuclear weapons intensified and threatened a holocaust that would obliterate us. Well over half the planet was colonised by Europe, when I came on the scene, with Great Britain possessing the largest colonial empire ever seen. And during my lifetime, the anti-colonial struggle erupted and reached its fiercest stage. Whole populations were turned into refugees and created such settler-colonial countries as America. That whole mix produced an almost overwhelming dread and pessimism in our artists. All the consoling universals were gone, shattered. Now the individual self – the ‘I’ – and the search for that took centre stage. Each artist was seen, or saw herself, as an outsider, at the edge, subverting her society, and in doing that created an individual vocabulary, style and imagery.

I was born and raised in Sāmoa, then known as Western Sāmoa, a colony of New Zealand, into a poor family with a hardworking grandmother and parents who believed that having a good Western education would get us out of poverty. And because we were afakasi (half-caste) we were classified as European so we could enrol in Leifiifi School (also called Ifi Ifi Government School), which was reserved for the children of the Papālagi administrators and other Europeans.

One day during my third year in Leifiifi School, our Papālagi teacher (Miss Bristol, who we all loved) told us during a social studies lesson that Jacob Roggeveen, a Dutch explorer, had discovered Sāmoa in 1722. My imagination immediately conjured forth a vision of his magnificent masted ship breaking through the horizon in a blaze of sun and cloud. I considered this a radical addition to my understanding of our country, knowledge that made me look afresh at everything. And I wanted our grandmother, Mele – at that time the most influential person in my life – to know about it. So I rushed home after school and asked her:

“Did you know that a Dutch man by the name of Jacob Roggeveen discovered our country?”

Patiently, she asked, “Who told you that?”

“Our teacher,” I proudly divulged.

“Were we Sāmoans here before the Papālagi came?” she replied, slow smile on her face.

“Yes.”

“Was this man Roggeveen a Papālagi?” Her scrutiny was now focused on my face fully, patiently, expectantly. “Where do Dutch people come from?” She helped me.

“Holland,” I replied, with the truth of the matter sliding into my vision and occupying it. “So he was a Papālagi,” I admitted.

“So when you go to school tomorrow, tell your teacher that we discovered our country. Tell her we’ve been here for at least 3,000 years,” she said.

Now I was on fire with pride in my ancestors’ achievements, prouder than I’d been about Roggeveen.

I was very fortunate to have had that lesson about decolonising ourselves when I was so young. That set me off on a journey that continues today: of challenging colonial perceptions of us, our histories and our ways of life; of trying to understand how our ancestors viewed themselves, their environment and the cosmos; of trying to comprehend what has happened to us in our intermingling and fusing over the last few centuries. Much of my writing, and the writing of other Pasefika writers, has been about that. Pasefika artists, academics, intellectuals, writers have been at the front lines, the edge of our anti-colonial struggles throughout the Pacific and within Aotearoa since World War 2.

At the age of 13, I sat and won a New Zealand Government scholarship to boarding school in New Plymouth. That changed my life for ever. I had never been outside Sāmoa, never been on a ship, never experienced winter or snow, never worn a tie or a long-sleeved shirt or suit or socks, and had put shoes on only once. I didn’t know how to eat with a knife and fork or dress myself the Papālagi way. Most of what I knew about New Zealand came from the movies, books and teachers – and my grandmother who’d lived in New Zealand in the 1920s.

I was with six other scholarship students, travelling on the Matua. For the six days at sea I was seasick and wanted to suicide. We were distributed to our schools, and on my way to mine I saw Mount Taranaki – a white-topped symmetrical cone, which my travelling companion said was Mount Egmont. And as we moved along, the Mountain watched me, steadying my homesickness, wrapping me up in Its presence. During my whole time in school there it was present in my vision as a healing, wise, consoling elder. Taranaki has remained one of my ancestral mountains to this day.

For me writing was and is a very demanding – and mostly enjoyable – activity. Because language is a substitute for experience, trying to tame, explore and use it is like trying to discipline water: it keeps running out of your grasp. Practising your writing teaches you how to see, focus and work, and never being satisfied with what you write and make. Through the practice of writing I’ve learned to see through the surface faces of reality into its complex depths. That behind all that was, is, and becoming are profound contradictions and ‘truths’ about ourselves and reality itself. And if we’re fortunate, we catch those fleetingly in the process of writing and trying to see and understand.

My passion for writing and reading really intensified in New Plymouth. My first winter was a mainly miserable one. It was my first winter ever and for a long time I simply couldn’t get used to the cold. It settled into my bones and didn’t want to leave. Mr Alan Gardiner, our house master, must have sensed that many of us were not settling easily into the cold months. One evening, with the fire blazing in our sitting room, Mr Gardiner came in unexpectedly and told us he wanted to read Animal Farm, our prescribed novel, to us. We gathered in front of the fireplace in a semi-circle, with Mr Gardiner in an armchair, and many of us sitting or lying on the carpeted floor and on cushions. He opened the novel and without preliminary remarks, he read out the title, Animal Farm by George Orwell. I immediately began to feel I was back in Sāmoa in my grandmother’s fale, gathered round her listening to her fāgogo. Then he began to read.

And for the whole of that winter, every Sunday night sang to Mr Gardiner’s mesmerising voice as he unfolded the spellbinding satirical and allegorical tale of pigs and other animals and people competing for power, and what that does to them. The rise and establishment of the totalitarian state, the loss of individual freedom and rights, the struggle to restore justice, equality and freedom of expression – they were themes that I would later find myself exploring in my writing. I have never forgotten that winter and how we loved both that tale and its teller – and how we came to our first understanding of power and how it corrupts us.

Since that time (1953) I have watched and experienced and written about the whole migrant experience of our Pasefika people in Aotearoa, and witnessed the transformation of our home islands from being colonies into independent countries and what they are now. In that time I’ve observed and participated in the development of our arts and artists both here and in the Pacific. For me that development has been a vital force in the growth, shaping and survival of our Pasefika communities, in my own development as a writer and thinker, and in how we have influenced and changed the nature of the culture of Aotearoa. Our most obvious contribution to Aotearoa culture is being made through sports. I love sports and our magnificent sports people but I’m not going to talk about them. Except to say that our struggle for acceptance even in sports has been an extremely painful one against racism and sexism.

I belong to that group of Pasefika writers and artists who were born in our home countries but who have grown up and lived most of our lives here. Most of our artists are Aotearoa-born. But we all share one thing: we did not come out of a cultureless void. Our parents and grandparents who migrated to Aotearoa brought with them the diversity and complex depths of our ancient island cultures. So we were all born into families and Pasefika communities rich in history, spirituality, art, music, dance, and other cultural traditions. And despite the fact that the dominant colonial culture here denigrated our cultures and languages and tried to make us feel ashamed of them, our ways have survived in us and, by shaping who and what we are, have contributed enormously to the ways we make and practice art.

For many of us, our rejection of colonialism, racism and sexism, and our refusal to be colonised, Pākehā-fied and reject our ways of being, believing and dreaming is at the heart of the art that we do. Our art is our attempt to understand who and what we are, and the marvellous cultures, histories and situations we have come out of. Our art is the search for that and to map and shape the present. All artists everywhere are influenced throughout their lives by everything around them. And our artists, because they have grown up in a society and national culture and tertiary educational institutions that are largely Pākehā are conversant with Western art and practices and have indigenised those in their work and, over the last 50 or so years, have produced art that we can call Pasefika, a fusion that is unique to Aotearoa.

Arriving at this fusion has not been an easy or deliberate process. I want to illustrate that by talking about writing and literature because it is the form I know a little about. For me the Tāngata Māori Renaissance, which began to gain momentum after World War 2 and is now the most successful anti-colonial Indigenous arts movement in the world, was and still is the movement we have learned much from in our political and artistic struggle as a minority group in Aotearoa. So for me the start of what would later be called Pasefika literature and writing by Polynesians (fiction, poetry and drama) in English began in the 1950s and 60s with the writing of Hone Tuwhare, Jacquie Sturm, Rolly Hapipi, Harry Dansey, Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, Johnny Frisbie Hebenstreit, John Kneubuhl and Tom Davis, a remarkable pioneer generation who wrote as part of the anti-colonial struggle. (Incidentally, most of the literature about us was, and still is, not by us.)

In 1948 Johnny Frisbee and her father published Miss Ulysses of Puka Puka an autobiography. And in 1960, Tom Davis published Makutu perhaps the first novel by a Pacific novelist. This group all went on to publish large bodies of work – poetry, fiction and plays. For me and my generation of Pasefika writers, who began to publish in the late 60s, they became our models, our mentors, our inspiration. Sadly, Hone Tuwhare died in 2006, and Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, Jacquie Sturm and others died a few years ago. Those writers had to struggle against the prevailing racism and condescension that plagued even the literati of our country.

As you all know, for any artist, the search for your own voice is difficult enough and takes a lifetime, but it is even more difficult if you’re of a minority group trying to do it within a national culture and an international literary culture that enforces monocultural, colonial frameworks on everything. For instance because that first generation of our writers wrote in English, their work was always judged and evaluated according to rigid standards and criteria determined in England and by the Pākehā literati and academia. But they persisted because they wanted to find their own voices, visions, styles that suited our cultures and subject matter. And they succeeded, and my generation learned from them. And now I can proudly say that in our home countries we’ve indigenised the novel, drama, and so forth, and in Aotearoa we’ve made them Pasefika and Māori. I take this opportunity to thank that pioneer generation for the rich literature they have bequeathed to us, for the courageous stand they took against racism and colonialism, and for the pathways they forged for us to follow. I will always be grateful to them.

My generation of writers began in the late 60s, and since then other generations of writers, poets, dramatists, novelists and so forth have followed. Our literature continues to invent and define itself, clearing a space for itself in relation to other literature in Aotearoa. It puts us at centre stage, with our accents, dress, good and evil, dreams and visions. Much of it is angry and protesting but it also celebrates what all literatures celebrate: love, sorrow, joy, death, birth, happiness, and through it, language and the gift of speaking, saying. Now the work of our leading writers is influencing the writing of our younger ones. It is also shaping how we see ourselves and our cultures and how we are seen by others, and destroying some of the stereotypes and myths created about us by others.

The development of our other arts (such as the visual and performing arts) has followed a similar pattern and paths, which have been difficult and painful. Now we are flourishing in all the arts, in all the genres, from writing and publishing to music and dance, to tatau and weaving, to film-making and computer art, to sculpture, design and fashion, you name it and we’re into it. Perhaps per head of population we now have more artists and people in the arts than any other ethnic group in Aotearoa. Yet I am left in a beautiful bewilderment: how have we done this despite the fact that we continue to be the poorest community, suffering the worst statistics in employment, health, housing, education, life expectancy and so forth? And how have we done it despite the fact that making art is one of the most difficult ways of making a living?

Pasefika literature and writing is no longer at the edge. It is a dynamic strand of our country’s literature which in turn is a vital part of the very alive, edgy, varied, vigorous arts of Aotearoa that I am very proud to be part of.

This article was first published on The Pantograph Punch. Read more in the Pacific Arts Legacy Project series here

Using the arts and creativity to reimagine wellbeing

Fri, 25 Sep 2020 10:09:49 +1200

Others amongst us – our artists and creative visionaries – have an exceptional ability to harness uncertainty and imagine new ways of being. By delighting, inspiring and challenging us through their work, they help us reflect on and reimagine our culture, our country and our world in a way that unites and strengthens us.

The theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is Reimagine Wellbeing Together, He Tirohanga Anamata. The arts and creativity make a powerful contribution to the wellbeing of individuals, communities and our society – something that benefits us all. During Mental Health Awareness Week, we can explore how the arts might help us reimagine our wellbeing and the way we live our lives.

In support of this kaupapa, lets reimagine wellbeing with those around us. How could you build creative activities into your everyday life? Who could you invite to join you? If you find yourself in need of some inspiration, try your local gallery or library as a starting point, or give yourself 30 minutes to re-connect to a creative activity you enjoy at home.

Creativity can open our minds, relax us, lift our wairua (spirit) and give us hope. If we look abroad just briefly, in the UK 20-30 percent of doctors’ visits are related to nonmedical problems, such as isolation and loneliness. Some of these patients are referred to Arts on Prescription programmes, which yield a wide range of benefits.

The World Health Organisation found that taking part in some form of arts activity helped to overcome social isolation and chronic pain; experience decreases in anxiety and depression; and improve their joint mobility, cardiovascular fitness, confidence and self-esteem. In these cases, those therapeutic qualities have a meaningful and often long-lasting impact on people’s wellbeing.

Beyond the profound benefits for individuals, the arts can make our communities better places to live. Despite usually being some of the hardest hit, our artists respond with creativity to emergencies and challenges. We’ve witnessed outpourings of everyday creativity too in times of crisis, with people turning to the arts to help them reflect, process and express. Now, during COVID-19, the arts are consoling us, bringing us together, and helping us both make sense of the world and get back up again. Why? Ka tipu te whaihanga (creativity will strengthen).

When people are empowered to use their creativity, we see transformative outcomes – making our whānau and communities stronger. Men from Christchurch Men’s Prison who took part in a programme run by Christchurch Symphony Orchestra reported greater confidence, perseverance and happiness. And in Taranaki, farmers are having a go at creating music with farm equipment as part of a new project which recognises the need “for men to come together to do something joyful, fun and creative together.”

To make a lasting change to the wellbeing of our society as a whole, we must focus on our young people. A recent report found poor mental health in our rangatahi has doubled in the past 10 years. Professor Peter O’Connor is well aware of this, and he has developed Te Rito Toi, an arts-based teaching resource that equips tamariki with the tools they need to adapt in the face of traumatic or life-changing events. The resource has been enthusiastically embraced by schools as a way to support student’s wellbeing following lockdown.

The launch of Te Rito Toi also prompted school principals to call for a return of the arts to the classroom to help students develop critical thinking, creativity, empathy and problem-solving – skills vital to our future success.

At Te Uru in Tāmaki Makaurau, Fresh One Collective’s exhibition Where You From? saw a group of young Pasifika artists reflecting on their identities and communities and creating deeply personal works – breaking down barriers around where and how they communicate their truth. Feeling connected, especially to our identities, is a key way to wellbeing.

Behind these and many examples stand innovative leaders who have used their creative skills to improve wellbeing. How do we use art to equip New Zealanders to thrive in the good times and the bad? As I said in 2019, “Just imagine: what more could we do if we put our collective minds together ... to help us better navigate these rapidly changing times; to truly make the most of what the arts and creativity have to offer us, across so many different domains.” Reimagining wellbeing together.

It is time to use the transformative power of creativity to help build a better future. Over the course of Mental Health Awareness Week, Creative New Zealand will highlight just a few of the many creative projects out there that create positive wellbeing.

The arts help us feel connected, see things from new perspectives, make sense of the world, feel good about where we live and find new inspiration.

They define who we are and how we are.

Whiria te tangata, whiria ngā toi, whiria ngā hapori
Weave the people, weave the arts, weave the community

Starting a national conversation about arts and creativity

Fri, 01 Nov 2019 17:41:57 +1300

The Arts Foundation led the campaign in September to help build public understanding about arts and creativity, and open up a nationwide kōrero (conversation) about what art means to all of us.

As a part of Arts Month, the Arts Foundation welcomed everyone around the country to respond to the prompt ‘Art is:’.

To me, the arts mean many things. As I was reading through some of the Arts Month submissions, I was heartened by the breadth and depth of contributions – illustrating the impact arts and creativity have on people’s lives and wellbeing. Many people created beautiful or humorous artworks to define what art means for them, while others chose to share insightful words. One said art is ‘our nation’s greatest taonga’, another ‘vital to the individual, vitality to the community’. Someone simply wrote art is ‘something spectacular’.

I tautoko (support) each of these definitions. To me, arts and creativity are precious taonga (treasures) because they contain the essence of who we are as a nation. In Te Ao Māori (Māori world view), people, art and culture are inseparable. Many creatives put this into practice through their work.

Arts and creativity are our nation’s greatest taonga, not only because they’re beautiful or because they contain our culture and history, but also because they improve the lives of our people. We are healthier and happier because of those things.

Our communities are also more connected, prosperous and safer because of the arts. A great example can be found in Gisborne, where Te Kuwatawata is leading the way in improving health and wellbeing through arts and creativity. At the clinic, Māori artists work alongside Māori mental health patients as part of an integrated approach that is supported by the local District Health Board. It’s projects like this that show why the arts and creativity are so very vital – because they improve our wellbeing.

Arts and creativity are also making us into a stronger and more prosperous nation that’s prepared for the future. In 2017, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research calculated that the creative sector contributed a massive $17.5 billion to New Zealand’s GDP. For our people this means over 130,000 jobs. That’s more than 6 percent of our workforce involved in creative activity. Of course, our economic growth is important. But what good is a higher GDP and additional jobs if we remain divided or can’t take care of our people? This is the true value of arts and creativity: to help weave all of us together.

When I think about the future, a few examples spring to mind. The 312 Hub in Onehunga is a social enterprise that brings together artists, community groups and organisations to provide a space for rangatahi (young people) to become rangatira (leaders) through arts education and creative projects. Over in the Hawke’s Bay, Project Prima Volta works with teenagers to give them the opportunity to find their own voice, through a year-long programme of coaching and mentoring in classical opera. Projects like these give me confidence that the future of New Zealand’s arts and creativity is in very capable and talented hands.

All around the nation New Zealanders are creating amazing things. There’s a number who have become artistic trailblazers off shore, too. New Zealanders are choreographing some of the top music videos, among the finalists for international art prizes, presenting theatre productions on Broadway, and performing in some of the world’s premier concert halls and stadiums.

Just imagine: what more could we do if we put our collective minds together, not just for a month – although the spotlight has been welcome – but all year round? We applaud The Arts Foundation for getting the ball rolling on this nationwide kōrero but how do we take it to the next level? Perhaps some kind of more structured national dialogue, action plan or strategy is in order? Something that brings all the strands together, to help us better navigate these rapidly changing times; to truly make the most of what the arts and creativity have to offer us, across so many different domains.

I’ll finish with one response to the Arts Month call that stood out to me: ‘Art is: the thing that saved me’. New Zealand faces many challenges, but this month has been a celebration of the ability of the arts and creativity to bring us together, help inspire and heal us, and to begin finding creative solutions for the future of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Te whakanui i te rua tekau mā rima tau – Celebrating 25 years

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 17:09:33 +1200

We farewell the past with its many learnings and we welcome the future and the potential that it brings.

It’s hard to believe but it’s now 25 years since, as a result of new legislation in 1994, we morphed from the QE II Arts Council to the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa or Creative New Zealand, which is our best known name.

We had some cake and got together on 1 July to mark the occasion and share some stories from the past quarter-century.

Someone once said that three key roles of the arts are to:

acknowledge the past
present the present, and
audition the future.

I guess it’s broadly similar with significant birthdays too; this reflection amplified by the resonance of Matariki time.

Acknowledging the past

So, in looking back across the last 25 years we should acknowledge the many staff, assessors, board members, practitioners and supporters who’ve helped shape us.

Some important people are no longer with us but whose deep contributions I want to acknowledge – people like Cliff Whiting, Ngapo Wehi, Chris Doig and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki for example, with their work on our boards and lives in the arts.

The late Waana Davis, Foundation Chair of Toi Māori Aotearoa, is another who’s been in our thoughts these past few weeks.

Presenting the present

In recent years we’ve been fortunate to have relatively more public resources to invest than we have before, to address a bigger sector, and a more diverse and larger population.

Consistent with the greater focus on public sector accountability and direction-setting, we are clear on our intentions. We’re beginning to re-invest our resources in alignment with our key strategies: the Pacific Arts Strategy; Te Hā o Ngā Toi, our Māori arts strategy; our Investment Strategy Te Ara Whakamua; and our new 10-year Statement of Intent, coming this month.

Our statutory purpose has remained remarkably consistent over time: to encourage, promote, and support the arts in New Zealand for the benefit of all New Zealanders. This is what we do every day.

Auditioning the future

I’m imagining now that it’s our 50th birthday – the Golden Jubilee if you will. The long-term impact of our mahi now, in 2019, is paying a future social, economic and cultural dividend.

Some wise folk, knowledgeable about our work and context, have gathered in 2044. They’re doing the tough job of looking back and identifying the three questions they thought were most important for Creative New Zealand between years 25 and 50.

How well did Creative New Zealand, with the sector and government, materially improve the circumstances and prospects of creative practitioners over that time?
How well did Creative New Zealand, with the sector and government, open the door for creatives to make a much bigger contribution to the wellbeing agenda?
How well did Creative New Zealand, with the sector, government and the public, develop an arts ecology that is so relevant to New Zealanders that our arts engagement rates are the envy of the world?

It’d be great to hear from you about what you think those three ‘how well’ questions might be. As always, my inbox is open: askthece@creativenz.govt.nz

Mā pango mā whero, ka oti te mahi
With black and with red the work is completed

Creativity is the human spark that can ignite progress across the board

Tue, 18 Jun 2019 10:56:31 +1200

The recent survey of creative professionals we commissioned with our NZ On Air colleagues, through Colmar Brunton, has done what research is intended to do – shine a light on an area that was hard to see in detail and reveal some hard facts.

Those hard facts reflect a struggling sector and surely do not reflect the apex of our aspirations – Government, Crown agencies (like Creative New Zealand), employers and creatives alike.

What the research doesn’t tell us is how we might change some of the uncomfortable realities it reveals, around remuneration, work opportunities and the structure of creative professionals’ work (which for most contemporary creatives is now the portfolio career or gig economy, aka juggling jobs).

Of course, if the issue of career sustainability was easy to answer, it would have been sorted already. We welcome the Government’s interest in this area, and its useful first step of additional investment announced in the budget.

Here at Creative New Zealand we will take some fresh action to support practitioners – in terms of fairer remuneration and programmes that support sustainability. We will also shortly engage with creative practitioners via a discussion document to get more insights and suggestions on priorities for improvement.

In time, we expect our efforts will be joined by the levers of Government and by the arts sector, who do much of the employment of creative practitioners.

More broadly, I see the research results in the context of the following three points, intentionally framed as questions. Together, these questions point to the importance of setting a wider agenda for a three-pronged approach – Government, agency and sector – in the work of advancing creative career sustainability.

1. Creative Professionals are already modelling the future of work - how can we tilt to that future?

The Creative Professionals research reminds us that most creatives are already leading the aforementioned ‘portfolio careers’, although perhaps not intentionally. A key reason for this is that the structure of many aspects of the creative industries is event-based or project-based, so compel this ‘gig economy’ approach.

Recognising the saliency of this way of working, improving its sustainability would be a good start and needs to be coupled with arming creatives with the technical and professional skills needed to manage a career as a fairly paid contract worker. As urbanist Richard Florida has said, explicitly supporting creative entrepreneurialism and the creative class is a net win for society, bringing tolerance and curiosity, and improving quality of life.

It’s not just the portfolio structure that lends itself to that ‘future of work’ model; it’s also the nature of the work. It’s increasingly recognised that, in a world that will soon have driverless trucks, machine learning and increased automation, the things that are human will be key to successful economies, communities and people. Creativity is the human spark that can ignite progress across the board.

This has been recognised by the World Economic Forum, elevating ‘creativity’ to 3rd place in its list of the most important skills workers will need by 2020 (behind critical thinking and complex problem-solving skills, and up from 10th place in 2015).

2. How can we reframe the way we see the contribution of creatives, using a 'wellbeing investment' lens?

The orthodoxy of pigeonholing artists solely into making an ‘arts and cultural’ contribution is unfortunate as it narrows the actual contribution artists make to society. A reframing is happening in spots but has a long way to go. For example, the contribution of creatives and creative thinkers to society traverses all four of the recently re-established local authority well-beings: economic, social, environmental and, of course, cultural.

There are many examples of ‘creatives’ delivering to well-being outcomes that are absolutely socially topical and important. A recent SPINOFF article focused on the play YES YES YES, created by Eleanor Bishop and supported by Creative New Zealand, which teaches teens about ‘consent’ and is a good example of the creative sector delivering in the education realm. The point is, if we’re to really embrace wellbeing we should open our doors, minds and wallets to what creatives could do to help.

I have a good friend who is a General Practitioner. Lonely, older folk who come mostly for a chat are a big part of his day. Drugs are not really the answer for them, rather company and purpose. Little wonder then that ‘Arts on Prescription’ has worked well in the UK from a client and financial perspective. Results in one area, after six months of a patient working with an artist, included significant reduction in demand for GP visits and the need for hospital admissions, and an estimated social return on investment of at least £4 for every £1 invested in arts on prescription.

3. How can we develop a more systemic approach to supporting creative practitioners and their sustainability

The ‘systemic approach’ here is a chronological path for many – pre-school, primary school, secondary school, tertiary, workforce.

There is a tautology here – teachers and whānau are more likely to support creative young people if they believe there is the prospect of a successful professional career. Many don’t (and you can see why) and steer people away from their creative passions – although the Creative Professionals research reflected more support today for our emerging creatives, from friends and family in particular, than older creatives experienced, perhaps reflecting a change in perceptions of creative careers.

At tertiary level, it makes perfect sense that some people will want to study the arts for a rounded education. For those who want to earn a living as a creative professional, on entering the workforce they soon come to see that the creative and arts sector is not organised like other professions – and arguably suffers from the absence of a system view and voice common to other professions.

For example, established doctors, accountants and lawyers have a deep role in training those who aspire to join their profession so they are ‘industry’ and ‘work’ ready once they have finished their professional qualifications. Consequently, there is generally a reasonable match between graduates and placements. After all, it only seems fair that, when you choose and pursue a profession, you can work as a professional.

Moreover, there is a recognised professional voice that can be presented to the world, to uplift the reputation of members and to regulate or engage with those who want to regulate it.

In essence, we know what the stanchions are that support other professions to be sustainable. If we’re serious about improving the career sustainability of creative practitioners, we should be interested in the same for them.

A model for the future, now

We’re living in a time when the future of work isn’t clear, yet in some ways the arts sector is ahead of the game, with increasingly sought after skills and flexible working practice the norm. We need to work together to fill the gaps that will help our creative professionals embrace their entrepreneurial bent and give them the skills and support to expect and receive fairer reward and a sustainable creative career. A strong arts sector will benefit us all.

Creative New Zealand welcomes Government’s new investment in career sustainability for artists

Research reflects significant challenges of making a living as a creative professional in Aotearoa

Arts have an essential role to play in supporting better health and well-being outcomes

He waka eke noa – we are all in this together

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 10:23:24 +1300

Kia ora tātou katoa

As – Salaam – Alaikum

The hate, gun violence and crimes directed against the faithful at the Masjid al Noor and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch have left us bewildered, feeling vulnerable, struck to the core. We have had to accept that an act of terrorism has been inflicted on our people and our national innocence has been lost. We are hurt; we are grieving.

Our thoughts are with the affected Muslim families, and their communities in Christchurch, in Aotearoa and around the world. We hold dear the people of Christchurch, who have already endured so much but have responded with warmth and love, and acknowledge that our country is in mourning. In time, this tragedy will be marked by formal commemorations.

Right now though, we are feeling raw or numb. It’s not a situation we are familiar with or could prepare for, and people are thinking about how to respond. Some are finding a way.

You may have seen some beautiful examples of creative expression in the past few days, including Wellington artist Ruby Jones’ image "This is your home and you should have been safe here", Māori artist Akoni Pakinga’s tribute to the Muslim community "Kotahitanga", a beautiful collection of poems "I keep walking", and the many other examples outside mosques and in public spaces. Just this morning we heard renowned novelist Witi Ihimaera’s heartfelt karakia for Christchurch.

These are reminders of the power of the arts and the impact creative expression can have on our individual and collective wellbeing. Turn to your creative skills. Take comfort from them. Share them if you think it would help others.

We invite you to share words, images, videos of your creative expression and related events using the hashtag #CreateAroha. We, in turn, will share them on our social media platforms. Nothing is too small or too big. I see each creative expression as a thread denoting dignity and mana, woven into a digital korowai to nourish and protect us, and demonstrate our unity, in solidarity against hatred.

While discussion and debate continue about the roles these platforms play in spreading hate, let’s fill them with positivity.

In time, our country’s artists and creatives will express their response to this tragedy through major works. These too will help us reflect and grapple with this difficult kaupapa. To grieve. To make sense of our fractured world. To come to terms with what has happened. To challenge. To push for a better future.

Professor Peter O’Connor put it beautifully when talking about the role of the arts in healing traumatised communities, and particularly children, on Radio NZ: “I would hope in the coming days that we make beautiful things in defiance of the acts of ugliness that were created on Friday. Every time we make something beautiful, either as individuals or as communities, we act in defiance. We reject the hate of Friday.”

The deeper extremist agenda is to divide and conquer, and pull us apart so that we lose faith in our shared humanity. Let’s instead embrace what unifies us. Let’s embrace this necessary work together. We need to make every effort to be part of a community that stands up for diversity and tolerance, where unity and peace are the norm.

Mā te kotahitanga e whai kaha ai tātau
In unity, there is strength

How to share your image or video with #CreateAroha

If you have an image or video to share, when you post it on your own Facebook or Instagram account include the hashtag #CreateAroha so we can locate it and share it. If you don’t have a social media account, email us your image or video to website@creativenz.govt.nz (include #CreateAroha in the subject line). If the file is large, email us and we can work out the best way for you to send it.

Support is available – do reach out

If you or someone you know is having a hard time, remember to reach out. This could be to friends, family members, colleagues or your GP.

You may have seen in the media that you can call or text 1737 anytime day or night to talk to a trained counsellor. The “Need to talk, 1737” service, staffed by paid counsellors 24 hours a day 7 days a week, is part of the National Telehealth Service.

If you have children and want some advice about how to discuss this with them, NZ College of Clinical Psychologists have sent out this link on how to talk with children about this difficult subject. The Children’s Commissioner has also shared some useful links for how to talk to children about trauma.

If you’re wondering what else you can do to help the victims and families, crowdfunding campaigns include:

Victim Support’s crowdfunding campaign on Givealittle
New Zealand Islamic Information Centre (NZIIC)’s crowdfunding campaign

A national Book of Condolences for people to sign is in the National Library on Molesworth Street, Wellington. I’m sure others around the country will pop up, if they haven’t already.

Policy recognition needed for proven link between participation in the arts and enhanced well-being.

Wed, 03 Apr 2019 10:51:51 +1300

In early 2018 the Government acknowledged that something needs to be done to improve New Zealanders’ mental health and well-being, initiating the Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction: Oranga Tāngata, Oranga Whānau. In March the Government intends to release its formal response to the inquiry’s 40 recommendations.

While we welcomed the inquiry and subsequent report, He Ara Oranga, we felt there was a missed opportunity in that none of the report’s 40 recommendations specifically acknowledged that involvement in the arts improves personal health and well-being.

We believe the arts have an essential role to play, along with other treatments, in supporting better health outcomes for New Zealanders, particularly in the mental health space.

In our submission to the inquiry we advocated for specific funding to support:

the introduction of arts prescription schemes
creative spaces, directly and consistently to a level that allows them to both sustain and grow their services for people all around Aotearoa.

An ‘arts prescription’ is written advice from a health professional to get involved in some form of the arts as a means of improving a patient’s health and well-being. This could involve many forms of self-expression including visual arts, music, dance and theatre. Similar schemes are already in place in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada. New Zealand is no stranger to this prescription concept, having introduced the ‘green prescription’ in 2004 to increase patients’ exercise and improve their diet.

Community arts spaces throughout our country provide communities with access to different artforms in environments that encourage and support self-expression. Many of them provide for those who use mental health services, people with disabilities, the elderly, young people and different cultures. And they do this with very little funding and resourcing.

Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni has requested more research and information about the contribution New Zealand’s creative spaces make towards better well-being, and we’re assisting with this work alongside the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, the Ministry of Social Development, Office for Disability Issues and Arts Access Aotearoa. We hope this work will help inform future policy and decisions about acknowledging and supporting these vital contributors to our society.

There’s a growing body of research that shows the arts contribute to both the well-being of individuals and the social cohesion of communities.

In the United Kingdom, and other countries with similar challenges to ours, research has provided evidence that participating in the arts improves quality of life and assists in recovery from mental and physical illness. Broadly, shared activities and experiences across the arts promote unified communities and enhance human interactions. This is particularly important as our population ages and we continue to see an increase in our people experiencing mental illness and suffering.

Our own research tells us that many New Zealanders understand the benefits the arts bring to their personal health and well-being, as well as to the wider community. The results of Creative New Zealand’s 2017 longitudinal research into New Zealanders’ attitudes to, attendance at and participation in the arts – New Zealanders and the arts – support this:

Four in ten (41 percent) New Zealanders agree with the statement ‘the arts improve how I feel about life in general’
Just over half (55 percent) of Māori agree that ‘ngā toi Māori [Māori arts] improve how I feel about life in general’
Nearly six in ten (57 percent) New Zealanders agree with the statement ‘the arts help improve New Zealand society’
Half (50 percent) of New Zealanders agree with the statement ‘my community would be poorer without the arts’.

He Ara Oranga did acknowledge that many of the solutions lie with families, whānau, communities and social services, and also in new ways of thinking about the problems affecting us.

We are calling on policy and decision-makers to formally recognise the contribution the arts make to well-being and a better functioning community. This approach will serve us well as we all take the first steps towards a more fitting and sustainable approach to mental health in Aotearoa.

Arts Insiders: Winning arts and minds, Michael Moynahan interviewed by The Big Idea (2 April 2019)

Arts have an essential role to play in supporting better health and well-being outcomes

Fri, 08 Mar 2019 10:25:45 +1300

Kia ora koutou

Many New Year’s resolutions are centred on living healthier and happier lives. To some that might mean exercising more, or eating better; to others it might mean finally learning the guitar, taking that pottery class, or to simply do things that make you happy and being kinder to yourself. An arts-related activity is often included in this mix. Why? It’s proven that participation in the arts helps us to be happy and healthy.

The Government released the report, He Ara Oranga, from its Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction: Oranga Tāngata, Oranga Whānau in December last year. This short video about the report is a good summary of the mahi (the video is also available in te reo).

He Ara Oranga had 40 recommendations, which will be a big step forward for all New Zealanders if they’re accepted. But what was missing was a specific reference to the benefit participation in the arts has towards better mental health and well-being.

In our submission to the inquiry we advocated for specific funding to support:

the introduction of arts prescription schemes
creative spaces, directly and consistently to a level that allows them to both sustain and grow their services for people all around Aotearoa.

No-one can doubt the scale and scope of the issues we face as a country in the mental health space. We’re concerned though that not covering the powerful benefits of arts may lead to a lack of policy recognition, and potentially funding, for this important contribution to a more sustainable and healthy community for all New Zealanders.

The Government has said it will respond to the inquiry’s recommendations in March. Before that time we’re calling on policy and decision-makers to seriously consider including our funding considerations in their response.

You can read more about our position. We believe that if we don’t include funding for participation in the arts as part of wider, community-based treatment options for those suffering from mental health issues, wider solutions and treatments won’t be as effective.

We would love to hear from you if you agree with our position. Please email us or make a comment below.

As Banksy said “art should comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable.”

Noho ora mai
Stephen

What matters for New Zealanders’ well-being

Mon, 30 Jul 2018 11:24:59 +1200

So you are aware the Government is in the process of introducing new legislation which will give local authorities a legislative mandate to support arts and culture in their areas. The Treasury is also working on a new framework to measure the well-being of New Zealanders.

What should matter most for those of us working in the public realm is whether our efforts are improving the quality of life of the public.

Broadly speaking, cultural investment in New Zealand is shared between local and central government. So when local government decision and policy makers gathered for their annual conference in Christchurch, Creative New Zealand was on hand to acknowledge the excellent work happening across New Zealand with our annual sponsorship of the Creative Places Award.

It was terrific that the independent panel awarded the 2018 award to Palmerston North. Their winning proposal Framing the Big Picture has enabled public art to contribute to the quality of life in Palmerston North. It has resulted in widespread accolades, with the city now promoting its status for contemporary and public art as one of its key distinctions.

A recent story on the Stuff website describes how urban art is adding vibrancy to previously dull and unwelcoming spaces while also engaging local communities.

The terrific-ness wasn’t only that Palmerston North won the prize, but from understanding that winning was the result of previous hard work and a winning formula from the Council.

A formula with three elements:

1. Political leadership and clear sense of direction (the arts and culture strategy is notably terrific).

2. Realising that although a great plan is a good start, a plan that has budget and resources to back actions is way better.

3. If public investment in arts and culture yields experiences that improves the lives of citizens, and helps them feel good about their community, they will support that public investment.

This is true wherever you live, small, medium or large. We salute the other finalists for Best Creative Place. They are part of a regional creative cluster of Palmerston North, Horowhenua and Kapiti!

Creativity will boost career prospects in the fourth industrial revolution

Tue, 23 Jan 2018 13:28:52 +1300

After enjoying some time recharging, and reconnecting with family and friends, my thoughts have turned to the year ahead and the new skills that Kiwi workers will need to thrive in the future.

And while the future is notoriously difficult to predict, one thing seems certain: technology will increasingly challenge traditional business models, and require many of us to learn new skills.

As we enter what has been termed the fourth industrial revolution – a period of rapid and fundamental change brought about by the convergence of the internet and technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics – there is one workplace skill becoming rapidly more valuable.

This skill is creativity, and it is fast ascending the World Economic Forum’s list of the ten most important skills workers need to thrive in the fourth industrial revolution. Up from tenth place in 2015, it will be in third by 2020, behind only critical thinking and complex problem-solving skills.

Workers will need to become more creative to get the most out of new technologies, and to ensure their skills remain relevant in an increasingly competitive, shrinking global labour market. In light of the findings of a study showing robots are now replacing human workers at a rate of five to one in the US, it’s clear the challenges of this brave new world will soon confront workers across the globe.

So how do we become more creative in the workplace? The good news is everyone can be creative. Like most skills, creativity needs to be practiced and findings from a study of science and technology graduates in the US suggests the earlier we start, the better. This found those involved in creative pursuits as children were more likely to start companies and file patents during their careers.

With this in mind it’s great to see young New Zealanders from around the country igniting their creative spark with the help of Wellington-based not-for-profit Capital E. Through initiatives like the Roxy5 Short Film Competition, where the winning team gets to remake its entry alongside film industry professionals, CapitalE inspires young people to pursue careers in the creative industries.

This is the sort of initiative that will be applauded I’m sure by WeCreate, the industry group that supports our diverse array of creative industries, which from publishers to computer game developers, employ 41,000 and have a $3.8 billion economic impact. WeCreate says a joint public-private sector economic development plan will help our creative industries realise their potential.

The views of WeCreate are echoed in the UK by the Warwick Commission in its report into culture, creativity and growth. It describes a cultural and creative ecosystem inhabited by public good cultural and creative organisations like art galleries and museums alongside creative industries. Just like a biological ecosystem, its parts sustain each other as well as a healthy and vigorous whole. The commission’s finding that more value is created when private and public sectors collaborate suggests WeCreate could be right in advocating a joint approach to planning for industry growth.

But the value of a vibrant cultural and creative ecosystem goes far beyond the economic sphere. And as we strive to adapt to life in this rapidly unfolding and somewhat uncertain new industrial age, we should not ignore the growing body of evidence showing the many ways in which the arts add value.

As Arts Council of New Zealand Chair, and a former creative industry employee, I am reminded of this every day. From stimulating creativity in the minds of future entrepreneurs and innovators, to art therapies that reduce anxiety and depression and raise the quality of life for suffers of dementia (a growing crisis that could cost US$ 1 trillion or more than 1 per cent of global GDP in 2018), engagement in the arts brings significant and varied benefits to the lives of so many people.

Research carried out by Creative New Zealand shows the vast majority of us understand the value of the arts. It’s my hope in 2018 and beyond that government policy makers will recognise this value by considering social, cultural, economic, and environmental well-being equally. This will help creative and talented Kiwis adapt to the changing demands of the modern workplace, and perhaps more importantly, it will mean the country we call home is far richer – in every sense of the word.

An arts challenge for Christmas

Tue, 12 Dec 2017 12:58:30 +1300

Beyond eager anticipation of a holiday, this hectic time of year evokes a range of responses. Here is one I wish to share with you as it goes to the heart of our work in the arts.

A very short story. My wife and I have two offspring, young-ish men now, but once young boys. As you will know young folk get pretty excited about Christmas day and tend to wake up early. Parents hope that something in their Christmas stockings will distract them until at least 7am.

Hope is not a plan

In a Christmas past there was a great disturbance in our household when that hope was shattered, well before 6 am on 25 December, by loud sobbing from our youngest child.

Once he was calmed to the point where he could speak, his response to the age old parental question “What’s the matter?” was: “It’s not snowing!”

Our son, and I guess very many other kids, during December, had been bombarded with Christmas images and narratives. These were almost exclusively from the Northern hemisphere. So for him it was logical to expect snow on Christmas day, just like in all the movies he had seen – reindeer of course live in the snow, Santa has a snow sleigh…and so on.

Our son felt that what he had awoken to was inferior to the winter wonderland promised by popular culture. This cultural capital deficit is irksome.

Bringing it home

Arts people, my invitation to you is to consider how we can ‘bring it on home’ this year and reduce that deficit. The good news is, it’s absolutely possible.

If gifting is on the cards, we can buy awesome New Zealand craft, design and artworks from many commercial galleries. Subscriptions are available from most performing arts companies and are a great gift.

In the Wellington environs we are fortunate to have excellent stores at our public art institutions such as City Gallery, Te Papa, Pataka and The Dowse Art Museum. Festival tickets to New Zealand work are an option, or you can, in this the digital era, help point people in a particular direction.

Suggestions for your gifting

Instead of, or in addition to, the tried and true Christmas tunes we can listen to our terrific New Zealand musicians.

If popular New Zealand music is your thing, or a thing for friends or whanau, you can point people to New Zealand music on Spotify or if New Zealand music of a more classical bent appeals SOUNZ Resound Audio is a great destination.
For readers the longlist for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for 2018 offers an excellent list of possibilities and for young people you can also check reviews of the latest books for children and young adults by school librarians and teachers on the New Zealand Book Council website.
For those keen on Maori writing in English and te reo, specialists include: Oratia books, Huia and Anahera Press.
Finally there is now a Kiwi Christmas movie (YouTube, 2 mins) – the first I can recall – that puts Santa in our southern Summer, rather than the northern Winter.

This is not intended to be exhaustive list, rather to promote the idea that over Christmas arts people have a great opportunity to ensure that our arts and our cultural expression has pride of place.

Trees at the Meteor (Vimeo, 3 mins), in Hamilton, is back in 2017. It’s an excellent example of community building, New Zealand style with arts participation at its core. Or if you fancy doing this at home, making decorations and indeed presents with the family is another possibility.

It seems that personal gifts and experiences that speak of our place and identity, fit extremely well with the Christmas season, proximity of whanau and memory making. In fact, as so often with the arts, it helps make people feel special and connected.

Wherever you are, whomever you are with:

Kua tae ki te mutunga mai o tēnei tau, a kua uru nei tātou ki te wāhanga harikoa o Hineraumati me te whakaaro nui ki o tātou whanau me te aroha ki te tangata. Meri Kirihimete me ngā mihi o te tau hou

The year has ended upon us as we enter the realm of Hineraumati (summer) and focus on our whānau and goodwill to all. Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

Creativity an even more essential skill for the future

Thu, 02 Nov 2017 17:18:31 +1300

This is a famous line, and fully alert to the fact that BF was a genius, I feel this quotation would have been even more famous if he had said “…death and taxes and change”. Salient to this is the fact that in 1789 the French revolution was underway so change was a big topic of conversation.

In 2017 the social and workforce impacts resulting from the convergence of robotics, artificial intelligence and the Internet are much in focus. Change is happening quickly and deeply. As a consequence it is fair to suggest that the working lives of people born in 2000 will be profoundly different from people born only 30 years earlier.

We generally have a sense of this change, as it has begun.

Asking the right question

A constructive question we might ask is: What skills should we be encouraging in our citizens and in our nation so we can succeed?

Luckily, curious people are already looking closely at this question and have some pointers. The World Economic Forum published the ten skills you need to thrive in the fourth industrial revolution which investigates employment, skills and workforce strategy for the future.

The consistent news is that complex problem solving remains the most important skill between the 2015 and 2020 surveys. This biggest mover in the survey, from tenth to third place is creativity.

As the forum explains, creativity will become one of the top three skills workers need to benefit from the avalanche of new products, new technologies and new ways of working.

Creativity was the tenth on the highest rank skill in 2015, in only five years it has leapt to number three.

So the acknowledgement that creative skills are central to a prosperous future is already a fact, being socialised by authoritative commentators internationally.

Closer to home

In New Zealand we welcome the efforts of organisations such as WeCreate who are advocating for the creative sector, and its social, cultural, educative and economic benefits.

At Creative New Zealand we are grateful that we have the mandate to support creative people and creative enterprises with public money to unfurl their imaginations and creative practices for broad benefit.

It has not always been easy to get systemic and significant attention to creativity which some may view as a ‘nice to have’. So it is reassuring that increasingly it looks like fostering creativity should less be seen as ‘peripheral’ and more as ‘central’ to two fundamental areas of interest to central and local government, communities, whanau and individuals everywhere:

our national prosperity
the skill set we equip our citizens with to prosper in the modern world

Creativity means the world to us, and this was similarly the view of Benjamin Franklin who said “to cease to think creatively is to cease to live”.

All just fun and games?

Fri, 15 Sep 2017 13:58:29 +1200

The arts are at the heart of all creative endeavours. This was brought home to me in a very real way at this year’s New Zealand Game Developers Conference, which was held last week in Auckland.

Creative New Zealand was pleased to sponsor the NZGDC Art stream for the first time this year. While that might seem a bit left-field, it fits in well with our five-year advocacy strategy, through which we’re building up relationships with the wider creative sector. We see our friends in the creative industries as allies in helping to show the value of the arts to New Zealanders.

The New Zealand games sector itself is big business. The New Zealand Game Developers Association has just put out the results of its annual survey, which show the sector reaching $100 million in export earnings for the first time. The Association reckons it could be a billion dollar industry within a decade. Of the sector’s 500 hi-tech creative export jobs, 28 percent of these are artists. Artists are also one of the highest in-demand roles, second only to programmers in terms of desired skills.

These figures are impressive. But of course, the numbers mean nothing without an amazing product; great visuals, music and stories are all vital to create games that people want to engage with.

There was a real generosity of spirit on display at the conference where around 500 eager attendees headed along to hear from more than 100 speakers. It was great to see such collegiality and genuine willingness to share knowledge, impart wisdom and seek inspiration amongst these undoubtedly talented and creative New Zealanders.

The Art stream in particular had a wonderfully diverse line up. Emma Johansson from Runaway spoke about building a successful art team from the ground up, including managing her brother! Sam Batty from Aurora 44 had a line I really liked, which linked to the conference theme ‘Luck by Design’. “Being lucky is about making the effort to put yourself into opportunities.”

In a fascinating session, Inge and Jack from S1T2 (Story 1st, Technology 2nd) explained some of the intricacies of Baroque and Romantic art theory and how those movements influence the look and feel of a lot of games. Craig Warne from Scarlet City Studios gave some brilliant insights into how music and sound shape emotional experiences, often without players even knowing it, making them ‘more real’.

The Narrative & Storytelling stream speakers were also fascinating. Maru Nihoniho from Metia Interactive spoke about her journey with Guardian, originally an adventure game concept with a strong Māori heroine that has taken a new direction as an interactive fiction piece.

I also enjoyed Amie Mills from TVNZ whose talk on interactive storytelling and how narratives now move from screen to other platforms and back again, help keep audiences engaged. Her references to classics like the Viewmaster, Choose Your Own Adventure books and Myst brought back a lot of fond memories for this Gen X-er! Fun (and/or potentially scary) fact: 85 percent of New Zealanders now have devices in their hands as they’re watching TV.

As part of our conference sponsorship, we were also able to support a few creative types to attend. They’ve since told me about how the gathering helped reaffirm their passion for making cool things, how gaming is now more than just entertainment, and how people love immersing themselves into new worlds and cultures that engage their imagination beyond what the real world can.

The impression I was left with was the huge opportunity that exists for artists to get involved in the field – one which will grow massively in the next few years – and the amazing, supportive, creative environment that they’ll head into. Game on!

Is art the antidote to a divided world?

Fri, 28 Jul 2017 09:35:15 +1200

New Arts Council Chairman Michael Moynahan says in today’s divided world the arts can help us overcome fear and intolerance by sharing stories that inspire understanding, tolerance and connections across our communities.

In New Zealand we have observed, from a distance, deepening divisions involving race, religion, gender, age and sexuality in the United States (US), Europe and the United Kingdom (UK).

Under pressure to save money some governments have cut or are planning to cut funding for the arts. In doing so they are undermining their ability to foster the understanding that will make their communities stronger and more prosperous.

After a 30 per cent cut in funding in 2010, Arts Council England is now facing the further impact of reduced arts spending by local authorities and in the US a proposal to eliminate public funding for the arts is before Congress.

In reality, I believe investing in the arts delivers social and economic dividends that improve the health, wealth, cohesion and well-being of our society. One federal estimate put the contribution of America’s creative industries at US$504 billion annually. This equates to 3.2 per cent of GDP – well ahead of tourism at 2.8 per cent.

Studies here have shown similar results. According to lobby group WeCreate, our creative industries generate billions in GDP and employ more than 100,000 people. This is backed up by the likes of economic consultants BERL, which estimated the 2016 New Zealand Festival and Edinburgh Military Tattoo generated more than $100 million for the Wellington economy.

Economic benefits are just part of the story.

As part of its advocacy work Creative New Zealand has collated research – mostly international– which supports what many of us already know. Engagement in the arts improves quality of life, and leads to better educational and vocational outcomes, improved health and wellbeing, and stronger, more resilient communities. But that’s not all – by encouraging freedom of expression, the arts help to support a healthy, vibrant democracy.

Various clinical studies have found engagement in the arts has wide-ranging health and wellbeing benefits including improved patient recovery, and a reduction in anxiety and depression. Art therapy is a recognised and widely used counselling technique for treating a range of mental health issues.

All this was borne out with tangible examples at the recent (4 July) Arts Access Aotearoa Awards which celebrate initiatives that provide arts opportunities for people who might normally have none, eg due to physical disability, mental health issues or because they are in prison.

Christchurch Men’s Prison is using art as a therapeutic and rehabilitative tool. The men involved are learning skills, such as problem solving, team work, adaptability, all of which supports their reintegration to the community.

The prison says the response from young men (17-20 years-old) has been outstanding with a marked improvement in their motivation and engagement, a greater respect for themselves and others, and pride in the success of their projects.

The arts build social cohesion and community resilience. The likes of interactive public art project Gap Filler has been hugely successful in giving Christchurch residents a sense of community while providing welcome diversion from the day-to-day difficulties of living in the earthquake damaged city.

In the UK, Arts Council England is making a strong case for the value of the arts. In a recent address to Creative New Zealand’s annual hui Nui te Kōrero, its Director of Diversity Abid Hussain outlined a vision for the arts as a forum which valued and celebrated difference as much as what is held in common.

The arts give people a voice. An opportunity to talk about the things they fear as well as an opportunity to challenge, provoke and question. In a polarised society it is one of the few platforms where people can genuinely get access to a different point-of-view.

In New Zealand we have a great deal to be positive about. As a country we value the arts and recognise their power.

Creative New Zealand’s most recent New Zealanders and the Arts survey found nearly 90 percent of Kiwis think the arts are good for us, 86 percent learn about different cultures through the arts, and more than 80 percent think the arts help improve society.

We have an opportunity to collectively use the arts to promote understanding and tolerance as an antidote for division.

This article first appeared as an opinion piece by Michael Moynahan in the New Zealand Herald. The Arts Council is the governance body of the Creative New Zealand.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

Thu, 01 Dec 2016 14:21:57 +1300

They also gave me an example, once again, of the power of art to distract and uplift. I was part of a Wellington audience at Silo Theatre’s Hudson and Halls. No doubt we had all been made anxious by myriad aftershocks and were concerned about what the future might bring. For 105 minutes we forgot. We simply delighted in our night at the theatre. We went home uplifted, reflective and pleased to have our attention directed to the stage.

Events from the past

We have just published our Annual Report 2015/16. An eagle eyed colleague (thank you David) drew my attention to what had been reported 50 years ago.

In 1966 urgent appeals were made to the Lottery Board of Control for an increase in its allocation for the arts. The appeal was unsuccessful so the then council, halfway through its financial year, revised its budget with significant implications for the arts organisations it funded. Happily our 2015/16 year had a much happier ending as the Lotto balls, in June, began falling favourably for us.

Before Lotto I recall, as a youth, making a regular trip with my mother to buy the ‘art union’ ticket. For mum it was mostly about supporting things, especially the arts, that she believed were important. Notwithstanding the branding changes, no doubt we all know people who play Lotto because they think of it, at least in part, as a donation towards making their communities better.

Our Annual Report 2015/16 describes how we support the arts for the benefit of New Zealanders. A glance at page one will give you a snapshot for those who like summaries, or of course you can go deeper and read the whole thing.

There are some notable achievements that should be celebrated.

A growing appetite for the arts

We have evidence that points to a growing appetite for the arts that public investment via Creative New Zealand has enabled. Community engagement is up. Attendances via the organisations we support through our investment programmes – Toi Uru Kahikatea and Toi Tōtara Haemata – now total more than 1.25 million.

Investment of $24.9 million in the organisations supported by these programmes is stretching a long way. For each dollar invested by Creative New Zealand in the 2015 calendar year, a further $2.80 or thereabouts was invested by patrons, local authorities, regional funding authorities, community trusts and the public.

We have also been thrilled by the way arts community has embraced our online application process - saving them and us money and time.

Reach into every single local authority – from the far north to the deep south and over to the Chatham Islands – via the Creative Communities Scheme is ensuring New Zealanders are engaging with the arts in their communities.

In acknowledging these successes I am of course recognising the terrific work done by those who deliver the arts to the many peoples in the many places of our nation.

What we know is that this work has made our lives better and improved our standard of living through arts and culture. More personally, we can all identify individual and community experiences where the arts have had a significant impact.

And for the future

We are well into the 2016/17 year. The future will be the focus of my next trip to the blogosphere where I will traverse our plan for 2016-2021.

Written plans are important, but do not have the powers of prophecy. Whether it is the randomness of lotto balls or that of seismic activity, there are often events that demand our attention that don’t feature in the formal planning and 2016/17 looks like being another of those years.

Creative New Zealand: All news feed

A season of change

Post-COVID transition

Wellbeing transition

Transition from the periphery to the core

Investment transition

Hidden jewels

Navigating life at Red

Reflecting on the year that’s been 2021

Still standing…and anticipating a lie down

Traffic Lights

We've pulled together some information that might be useful

Creative New Zealand's COVID-19 Policy

New normal?

The $ picture

It seems Delta's sticking around for now. What’s next for the arts?

Living with a global pandemic

What can we do now?

Looking to 2022

Connecting, reflecting and comforting - what arts and culture can do for wellbeing

Good news from the centre – COVID-19 Delta Relief Funding

COVID assumptions

Progress continues, congregation is key to success

Wayfaring through this Delta COVID uncertainty

The different context now

The trend looks like it’s our friend

Stephen Wainwright responds to level 4 lockdown

Creativity as a driver for wellbeing

Watch Caren's speech at LGNZ 2021

Delving into New Zealanders’ attitudes towards the arts

Why do we do this research?

The arts in COVID times

Research, like culture, is always on the move

Finding value, and lead indicators

Looking to the year ahead in a COVID world – reflections, lessons, key funding opportunities for 2021/22

Where we were this time last year

Let’s stay cautiously optimistic

Looking to the year ahead

Overview of our core opportunities for 2021/22

2019/20 (the previous financial year)

2020/2021 (the current financial year)

2021/2022 (next financial year)

Our focus for 2021/22

What’s happening next

A word from the Arts Council Acting Chair, Caren Rangi

Peering over the parapet

Outside our borders and within

Talking to ‘the centre’

The shifting sands of resourcing the arts

Navigating the COVID waters

Eyes to the horizon

Reflections and aspirations from outgoing Arts Council Chair Michael Moynahan

Writing from the Edge

Using the arts and creativity to reimagine wellbeing

Starting a national conversation about arts and creativity

Te whakanui i te rua tekau mā rima tau – Celebrating 25 years

Acknowledging the past

Presenting the present

Auditioning the future

Creativity is the human spark that can ignite progress across the board

1. Creative Professionals are already modelling the future of work - how can we tilt to that future?

2. How can we reframe the way we see the contribution of creatives, using a 'wellbeing investment' lens?

3. How can we develop a more systemic approach to supporting creative practitioners and their sustainability

A model for the future, now

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What matters for New Zealanders’ well-being

Creativity will boost career prospects in the fourth industrial revolution

An arts challenge for Christmas

Creativity an even more essential skill for the future

All just fun and games?

Is art the antidote to a divided world?

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose