Olds Fired up About Creative NZ Defunding Arts on Tour
November 29, 2022
PHOTO: Arts on Tour Facebook page
The Arts on Tour trust has been dispatching artists around the motu for 27 years to play in small halls from the deep south to the Far North.
The agency run from Christchurch by long-term director Steve Thomas has been supported by Creative NZ since 2005 at a cost of about $230,000 a year, employing two people on salaries of $60,000 each.
The trust applied this year for $700,000 for the next three years.
But in its latest funding round, Creative NZ dropped Arts on Tour from its investment programme, Toi Uru Kahikatea, gave it “transition” funding of $88,000 and invited it to apply in future for one-off grants.
Thomas says that’s enough to keep the tours going for a few months next year.
“The problem is there are no guarantees and we’re in a pool with 250 others just for an allocation of $75,000.”
(Their petition if you’re interested)[https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/immediate-reinstatement-of-arts-on-tour-funding]
But sadly, despite all of this, it doesn’t seem anyone is even starting to question if funding “the arts” through Creative New Zealand was ever the right way to go.