26 August 2022

Kia ora koutou,  

It has been a busy week here – with announcements on the Artist Resale Royalty Scheme, results from the eagerly awaited State of the Arts Survey, a surge in Expressions of Interest in the Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund, and over 80 organisations hearing whether they will be receiving funding from the Cultural Sector Innovation Fund. 

The Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund is the primary focus of my team at the moment, with dozens of conversations going on every day with people that have submitted one of the 140 Expressions of Interest we have received so far (remember the deadline is 7 September!). Our online Q&A sessions on the Fund remain popular so we will keep adding new dates as long as people want to jump online and chat with us. 

In this week’s newsletter, we are providing a bit more detail on two of the Fund’s five Outcomes: wellbeing, and access and participation, which we have had quite a few questions on. 

Government provided a definition of wellbeing in the 2019 ‘Wellbeing Budget’, “Wellbeing is when people are able to lead fulfilling lives with purpose, balance and meaning to them.” 

We know that arts, culture and heritage can make a significant contribution to our individual and collective wellbeing. This is not a contested point – it is evidenced by countless research projects, a few of which are highlighted by Creative NZ on their website.  

With the Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund, we are looking for initiatives that improve wellbeing – and we have seen some good ideas already. For example, an initiative might be aiming to measurably improve the wellbeing of groups of young people by supporting them to get involved in significant creative projects for the first time. We know that when groups of people come together to pursue a shared creative interest, this can create a major and sustained boost to wellbeing – particularly if people have not had the opportunity to work with others on a creative project before. We have included some further guidance below. 

Note the interaction in this example between activities that improve wellbeing and one of our other outcome areas: ‘Access and Participation’. We are really interested in initiatives that remove barriers to people benefiting from the wellbeing boost that arts, culture and heritage can provide. If you are set on an idea that spans ‘wellbeing’ and ‘access’, and you are confident you can deliver it, please do send us an Expression of Interest. 

I should add that we are seeing some optimism in relation to our wellbeing outcome area. Whilst we do not doubt that people will get a wellbeing boost from attending a great performance, you can expect us to question whether attendance at that performance will have significant (life-changing) impact on the wellbeing of everyone that attends! 

The latest State of the Arts survey came out recently and provides some data that supports our sense that things are looking a bit brighter for people in the arts and cultural sector. Whilst we’re a long way from emerging from these turbulent times, it’s great that we are seeing signs of recovery.  

One interesting result was that 40 percent of respondents said they’d like to discuss changes to arts funding, if they had a chance to have a coffee with the Minister. We will be continuing to have conversations to explore this finding in more detail. We will also be learning from the new approaches we are taking with the Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund 

Ngā mihi,    

Joe Fowler
Deputy Chief Executive Te Aka Tūhono Investment & Outcomes   

Regeneration Fund: The wellbeing and access and participation outcomes

The Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund is outcome-focused, meaning successful initiatives will need to demonstrate strong contributions to some of the Fund’s five outcomes. In last week’s newsletter we highlighted the Mātuaranga Māori outcome, this week’s newsletter focuses on the Wellbeing and Access and Participation outcomes.  

Increased the use of arts, culture and heritage as a tool to improve wellbeing.
We want to support initiatives that use arts, culture, and heritage to provide wellbeing outcomes for New Zealanders, and strengthen the arts culture and heritage sector’s ability to deliver wellbeing initiatives in the future. 

A strong initiative may use arts, culture, and heritage activities in what would typically be considered a health or social sector setting, to make a long-lasting improvement to the wellbeing of those involved. A proposal like this would include appropriate partnerships and relationships so that activities could be delivered safely and effectively, may provide support and training to the practitioners involved and would include a plan to measure how the wellbeing was improved. 

Another strong initiative might strengthen the arts, culture and heritage sector’s ability to deliver wellbeing initiatives in the future, taking insights from successful arts, culture and heritage wellbeing initiatives and developing evidence-based tools to help the sector measure the wellbeing outcomes of their activities.  

Improved access and participation in arts, culture and heritage sectors.
We want to support initiatives that address barriers to access and participation, represent and engage more New Zealanders in arts, culture and heritage, and grow audiences. 

A strong application improving access to arts, culture and heritage will address barriers that are preventing New Zealanders from experiencing these activities. For example, development of a new tool which supports audiences with a disability to have easier access to events or venues across New Zealand.  

A strong application improving participation will address barriers that are preventing people from participating in arts, culture and heritage activities. For example, the proposal provides ongoing, fit for purpose opportunities for practitioners who experience barriers, to practice their artform.  

In both instances, the barriers would be validated by research, the proposal will be led by those who have lived experience of the barriers and will be supported by the community who will benefit from the initiative. 

The team at Manatū Taonga are more than happy to discuss your specific initiatives with you to ensure the best possible chances your initiative will have to meet these outcomes. 

Regeneration Fund – what you need to know 

High numbers of Expressions of Interest into the $28 million Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund continue to show strong interest across the arts, culture and heritage sectors.  

By Wednesday this week 140 Expressions have been received, requesting $66 million to support initiatives that aim to deliver lasting benefits for arts, culture, and heritage in Aotearoa New Zealand.  

Key dates 

• Expressions of Interest for ALL decision rounds must be submitted by 7 September. 

• If you would like your proposal to be considered in the first evaluation round, you must have submitted your Full Proposal by 7 September 

• If you need more time to develop your Full Proposal, there will be two further opportunities to submit. You can submit by 18 October 2022 to be considered from the second evaluation round, or by 24 February 2023 to be considered from the third evaluation round onwards. 

Online information sessions 

There are two remaining online information sessions, which anyone can register for via the link below:  

• Monday 29 August, 10-10.45am.   

• Tuesday 30 August, 10am-10.45am 

We may add more sessions as required, which we’ll notify through this newsletter.   

Artist Resale Royalty Scheme

Last week, Cabinet agreed to establish an Artist Resale Royalty Scheme. The Scheme will ensure the creators of visual arts are recognised and rewarded when their work is resold on the secondary art market, and is an important step to ensure visual artists’ contribution to the cultural and creative sector in Aotearoa is valued. 

You can read more about the Artist Resale Royalty Scheme in Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni’s announcement of the Scheme, on our website, in The Big Idea’s feature and Stuff’s coverage.  

Latest State of the Arts survey shows increased optimism

A new State of the Arts research report was released Wednesday, revealing an uplift in positive sentiment and expectations around financial position, hiring expectations, creative goals, and audience appetite for creative work.  

The survey, conducted between June/July 2022, gathered more than 600 responses from people in the creative sectors across Aotearoa New Zealand. Two thirds of respondents reported feeling optimistic in achieving their creative goals, and a third expected to increase their current staff or contractor numbers.  

Forty percent of survey respondents said they would advocate for changes to arts funding. The Manatū Taonga Cultural Regeneration Fund was informed by ongoing engagement with the cultural sector, designed in response to what we’ve heard over recent years delivering the COVID Recovery Programme, to find and fund projects that will have a lasting impact on the arts, culture and heritage sectors.

Manatū Taonga provided funding support for the State of the Arts research which was run by a collective of regional arts organisations. 

Spotlight: Creatives in Schools supports Gisborne Boys' choir score global recognition

The Tūranga Tāne Choral Group from Gisborne Boys’ High School made a recent viral splash, receiving thousands of great comments to this TikTok post.  

Supported by Creatives in Schools, delivered by the Ministry of Education in partnership with Manatū Taonga and Creative NZ, the choir is preparing for a public concert later this year called the Tūranga Tāne Choral Group Showcase.  

For a bit of joy in your day, please click on the video below for their stunning rendition of the Ben E King classic, Stand By Me. 

Contact us

If you have any questions about any of our funding opportunities, please email us at Support.Culture@mch.govt.nz   

More information

• For the latest information on other initiatives in the Arts and Culture COVID Recovery Programme, see the Manatū Taonga website
• If you have specific questions, email us at support.culture@mch.govt.nz
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