Development Fund for Artists and Practitioners

Before you apply

This does not fund new work, and that catches people out. It is for professional and creative development that benefits your career. If you want to make new work, Creative New Zealand point you at the Creative Fellowship Fund or the Early Career Fund instead.

Individuals and groups of collaborators only — arts organisations and groups cannot apply. And if you have had a Development Fund grant before, you must have completed the activities and filed your project completion report before you can apply again.

If you are Deaf or disabled, or experience disability or an impairment, you can claim an additional payment on top of your grant to cover accessibility costs during the grant period. It does not come out of the grant and it is not means tested against your budget. Creative New Zealand publish how to claim it. Very few funders anywhere do this and almost nobody knows it exists.

Creative New Zealand have published guidance on using AI in funding applications and creative mahi, including intellectual property, data privacy and cultural considerations specifically in relation to Ngā Toi Māori and Pacific arts. Read it before using AI on either the application or the work.

Apply through the Creative New Zealand portal. One application per funding round. Submissions close at 1.00pm New Zealand time on the closing date — not midnight, which catches people out. Assessed by peer assessors on quality, relevance, planning and expected career impact. Results due 28 October.

The pool you choose decides who reads your application. Creative New Zealand runs three funding pools across most of its funds — Ngā toi Māori, Pacific arts, and General arts. You may be eligible for more than one but you can only pick one per application.

Choose Ngā toi Māori and your application is assessed by Māori artists and practitioners with experience in ngā toi Māori, and the funding decisions are made by Creative New Zealand’s Ngā Toi Māori kaimahi. Choose General arts and it goes to a general panel. Same fund, same money, different people reading it.

To use the Ngā toi Māori pool as an individual you must be tangata whenua Māori, or the project must be managed or directed by Māori. An organisation, group or collective must be Māori-led, and where it applies on behalf of an individual, that person must also be Māori.

Ngā toi Māori is defined broadly. Creative New Zealand include taonga puoro, tarai waka, kaupapa waka, whakairo, raranga, tāniko, kākahu, tukutuku, kōwhaiwhai, tā moko, kapa haka, mōteatea, waiata ā-ringa, waiata tawhito, poi, waiata haka, pao, mau rākau, whaikōrero, karanga, whakapapa recitation, te reo me ōna tikanga, kōrero paki, pakiwaitara, karetao and whare tapere — and the work of Māori artists across all forms of contemporary practice. You do not have to be doing customary arts to use this pool.