Funding | Overview | The assessment process
How we assess your application
How your application is assessed depends on which funding body you apply to.
Arts Board
Applications are read and assessed by the relevant peer assessment committee, made up of five arts practitioners. The practitioners are selected for their experience and expertise in the relevant artform.
There are seven peer assessment committees, each committee representing a different artform grouping. The committees are Craft/Object Art; Dance; Festivals; Literature; Music; Theatre; Visual Arts.
Committee members consider the applications and make recommendations to the Arts Board based on the project's artistic merit; funding programme criteria; sector development priorities; and strategic priorities. The Arts Board then meets to make the final decisions. Because there is a limited amount of money available, the Arts Board is not always able to support all the assessors' recommendations and some recommended projects may miss out.
There is a rotating membership on the assessment committees with approximately half of the membership changing each year.
Te Waka Toi
Applications to Te Waka Toi are assessed by a committee made up of five Māori arts practitioners, with specialist knowledge and experience in a particular artform, and two Te Waka Toi members.
There are three assessment committees: one for applications under the Heritage Arts and Te Reo funding programmes; one for the New Work and Indigenous Links funding programmes; and one for the Experiencing Māori Arts funding programme. These committees make recommendations to Te Waka Toi, which makes the final decisions. Because there is a limited amount of money available, Te Waka Toi is not always able to support all the assessors' recommendations and some recommended projects may miss out.
Pacific Arts Committee
The Pacific Arts Committee makes recommendations, based on reports from external assessors and informed by their own cultural and artistic knowledge, to the Arts Board for ratification. Not all high quality applications can be funded.
Screen Innovation Production Fund
Applications are assessed by a panel of up to five practitioners, plus an Arts Board member who chairs the meeting. This panel makes recommendations to the Arts Board and the Board of the New Zealand Film Commission, which make the final decisions.
How are the assessors selected?
Creative New Zealand invites nominations from arts practitioners interested in contributing as a member of an assessment committee or assisting as an independent assessor. We maintain a register of people nominated for these positions. You can be included on this register by nominating yourself, or by being nominated by a peer or Creative New Zealand staff.
Nomination forms are available on this website. There is no guarantee that the nominated person will become a committee member but the names will go forward as the vacancies arise.
