Creative New Zealand is the national agency for the development of the arts in New Zealand. We invest resources in New Zealand arts for the long-term benefit of New Zealanders. Our statutory purpose is to encourage, promote and support the arts in New Zealand for the benefit of all New Zealanders. (Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Act 1994)
Our mandate is to support community and professional arts. In doing so, we uphold the following principles:
- participation, by supporting initiatives that encourage participation in the arts
- access, by supporting the availability of projects of merit to communities or sections of the population that would otherwise not have access to them
- excellence and innovation, by supporting activities of artistic and cultural significance that develop the creative potential of artists and artforms
- professionalism, by maintaining and developing a professional arts infrastructure, both at national and community levels
- advocacy, by promoting New Zealand’s arts and artists locally, nationally and internationally.
We also:
- recognise the cultural diversity of the people of New Zealand
- recognise in the arts the role of Māori as tāngata whenua
- recognise the arts of the Pacific Islands' peoples of New Zealand.