INFO
| Name | The Asian Artists’ Fund is created |
| Year | 2022 |
ABOUT
In 2022, the Asian Artists’ Fund was created in response to a report identifying the under-representation of Asian artists in Creative New Zealand’s funding streams. “We found that those applying for Creative New Zealand funding who identify as Asian have a high success rate but the number applying is low,” said CNZ’s then Senior Manager Cath Cardiff.
To address this, Creative New Zealand partnered with Foundation North, who created and administered the fund for artists residing in Tāmaki Makaurau and Northland (the remit of the Trust). In its first year, $430,000 was invested to support Asian artists, with priority given to emerging artists. In its second year, this was increased to $650,000, with the fund also being redesigned under the advisory of a group of Asian arts practitioners, who offered guidance on focus areas, assessment processes, and the structure of the fund itself.
Projects funded through this fund have spanned many art forms and include the Happy Kids Archive, Asian in Aotearoa, All My Friends’ Niu Gold Mountain, Nuanzhi Zheng’s Chick Habit, Jennifer Cheuk’s Mixed, Nathan Joe’s Losing Face, Louise Jiang’s Actor Android, and exhibition In Place.
In 2024, the fund was further evolved to reflect the recommendations made in the report Enter the Multiverse: Building a Stronger Sector For Our Asian Arts Practitioners. This included a free to access Te Tiriti workshops for anybody who identifies as an Asian art practitioner, along with grants for critical discourse, risk-taking, professional development and one-off artistic projects.
