Who can apply

Artists and practitioners who are New Zealand citizens or Permanent Residents.

Permanent, full-time staff members of Toi Tōtara Haemata or Toi Uru Kahikatea investment organisations cannot apply. However, part time, permanent employees (up to and including 20 hours per week) can apply for development activities that benefit their artistic work outside of their employment with your organisation.

What can be funded

You can request up to $8,000 towards fees and costs associated with professional and creative development activities.

These activities might include:

• research, training, coaching, or mentoring, or
• attending workshops, conferences, wānanga or talanoa nationally or internationally

You can apply for the cost of capital items only if they’re directly related to your development activities and provide long-term benefits to your professional or creative development.

Additional access payment

You can apply for an additional access payment on top of your grant if:

• you identify as Deaf or disabled, or experience disability or an impairment, and
• are awarded a grant through the Early Career Fund

The payment is to help with the costs of meeting your access needs, such as NZSL interpreters, support people, or accessible travel. We will send instructions to successful applicants about how to claim the additional access payment.

What to include in your application

Your application needs to include your response to the following four questions.

• What do you want to do?
• Why is it important that you do this now?
• What do you think the benefits will be for your practice and for your community?
• What do you hope this may lead to?

You do not need to provide a budget with your application. If your application is successful, we will ask you to provide a budget at that stage.

How to apply

Apply using the online application form which is available in the CNZ portal when the funding round is open.If our systems are not accessible to you, speak to one of our advisers to find the best way for you to apply.

Your application is assessed by different people, depending on which funding pool you apply to. There are three funding pools for this fund:

• General arts funding pool – an external peer assessor assesses your application and Creative New Zealand staff make the funding decisions
• Ngā toi Māori funding pool – Ngā toi Māori peer assessors assess your application and Creative New Zealand’s Ngā toi Māori staff make the funding decisions
• Pacific arts funding pool – Pacific arts peer assessors assess your application and Creative New Zealand’s Pacific arts staff make the funding decisions

When assessing your application, our assessors consider whether your proposed activities:

• help expand your skills and knowledge
• are well-planned
• are important for you to do at this stage in your development
• benefit your practice, both creatively and professionally
• have an impact on your career

Creative New Zealand staff also look at how your proposal delivers to our Interim Investment Intentions 2023-2025. When making decisions, we aim to fund a broad and diverse range of Aotearoa artists and practitioners.

Applications close 4 April 2024 at 1pm.

Read the full application guidelines here.