Creative New Zealand is the national arts development agency developing, investing in and advocating for the arts. It is funded by the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board and by the New Zealand Government through the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

Its vision is to help develop strong and dynamic New Zealand arts which are valued in Aotearoa and internationally. As Creative New Zealand works towards this vision, it is encouraged by the knowledge that New Zealanders are strong supporters of the arts.

Creative New Zealand’s Strategic Plan for 2013-2016 has identified four outcomes that are key features of a strong and dynamic arts environment:

1. New Zealanders participate in the arts


2. High-quality New Zealand art is developed


3. New Zealanders experience high-quality art


4. New Zealand arts gain international success

Creative New Zealand is committed to achieving these outcomes by:

• Funding

Creative New Zealand operates a number of complementary funding programmes, ranging from investment funding for significant arts organisations, project-based grants to individuals and organisations, through to funding devolved to local councils for smaller community arts projects. In many cases, Creative New Zealand is just one of a number of funders and its funding helps to leverage additional revenue from other sources.

• Capability building

Creative New Zealand assists arts organisations and individual artists and practitioners to deliver their work in the best possible way, by building their skills and capability, in areas such as community engagement, applying audience research, and market development.

• Advocacy

Creative New Zealand advocates on behalf of the arts to central and local government and to other interested parties. Its advocacy work includes carrying out research for the benefit of the arts sector, delivering other resources to the sector, making submissions on issues affecting the sector (such as the Christchurch earthquakes).

• Project delivery

In addition to its investment work, Creative New Zealand lead several significant initiatives stemming from invitations to the New Zealand Government, including events such as the Venice Biennale and four-yearly Festival of Pacific Arts.