Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni announced today that the Government is providing a targeted support package of reprioritised funding to help the arts and culture sector respond to the challenges of the Delta variant.

The Government has brought forward $37.5 million which will span across protecting jobs and supporting at-risk organisations, key infrastructure, artists, sole-traders, creatives and projects, as well as a future-focused fund aimed at providing certainty for performances and events.

The package includes both emergency funds offering short-term relief, as well as medium-term support. Part of the package to provide short-term relief includes a $10 million funding boost to cultural agencies to enable them to support at-risk organisations, key infrastructure, artists and projects.

Through this package, Creative New Zealand has been allocated $5 million (of the $10 million being distributed to agencies) to provide short-term support to the arts sector. Other agencies receiving support include the New Zealand Music Commission ($3 million), Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa/Museums Aotearoa ($1 million) and the New Zealand Film Commission ($1 million).

“Last year we emptied our financial reserves as part of our Phase 1 Emergency COVID-19 response, so we welcome and appreciate this additional funding to support a heavily-impacted arts community, ” says Cath Cardiff, Creative New Zealand’s Senior Manager for Arts Development Services.

“In support of this further phase of the Government’s emergency response, our priority with this additional $5 million is to get it out to artists and arts organisations as quickly and efficiently as possible. The best way we can do this is by distributing it through our existing funding and investment programmes.

“We’ve based our planning on the assumption that alert level restrictions – that prevent the arts community from operating business as usual – will be around until at least the end of the year and so this timeframe is our first priority. If this proves inaccurate, we’ll revise our plan accordingly.”

Creative New Zealand will distribute the $5 million by:

• increasing the budget for its Arts Grants programme (with decisions on upcoming rounds to be notified on 22 October and 4 December 2021)
• increasing the budget for its Annual Arts Grants programme (with decisions to be notified on 1 October 2021)
• increasing the amount of resilience funding for at-risk organisations in its investment programmes (with the fund to open from mid-October 2021)
• increasing funding for the Creative Communities Scheme (by distributing additional funds to territorial authorities by the end of 2021 to support local arts activities).

Manatū Taonga will administer a $5 million Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund to support organisations at clear risk of no longer trading viably – applications open Friday 1 October.

Information about the Government’s package to support the arts and culture sector can be found on Manatū Taonga’s website. Manatū Taonga is continuing to look at the wider programme to ensure funding is optimised and delivered in a way that is most suitable for the sector. Details will be updated on its website as soon as possible.