Satellites
Asian Artists’ Fund
2026

Artists, practitioners, and collectives based in Tāmaki Makaurau and Te Tai Tokerau (or whose project benefits those within this geographical region) who identify as Asian can apply.

You or a project partner must also be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident.

Please note: only one application per person or group can be made to the Asian Artists’ Fund.

Your work may draw on traditional Asian art forms and ancestral practices, but this is not necessary: the fund is for artists who identify as having Asian whakapapa, and the way this manifests in your creative work is for you to determine.

This fund places a special priority on practitioners seeking to build a professional creative career, in recognition of the resourcing difficulties being experienced across the arts, culture, and creative sector.

The Asian Artists’ Fund believes in fully funding a project or not at all — we believe that partially funding projects contributes to unsustainability in the arts and cultural sector.

When putting together your budget, we encourage you to present costings that ensure everybody is paid fairly according to Creative New Zealand’s remuneration policy, in which they outline, “Our minimum pay rate is $30 per hour, and we expect people with more skills and experience to be paid above this rate.” We also encourage you to consider this provocation from practitioner Jo Randerson: “I refuse to be on any more projects where we pay a projector more to be in the room than a live person.”

We support an expansive range of art forms, including performance (theatre, movement, dance, live art), music, visual arts, community arts and literature.

We cannot fund:

• International travel.
• Academic research or tertiary study.
• Game design, fashion design and commercial design.
• Feature films, short films and film/screen development activities.
• The same phase of activity which has already been funded by a Creative New Zealand Grant or an Asian Artists’ Fund grant. i.e. if you have been funded for a development phase of a project via these funds, you cannot apply for more development costs for the same project. You are able to apply for a different phase, i.e. presentation of the project.
• Activities that are the responsibility of other government agencies.
• Core education resources and activities that are part of the curriculum and course of study in New Zealand, including early learning, school and further education.
• Purchase of capital items (the purchase or improvement of long-term assets — IRD defines this as $1,000 or higher), renovating or buying buildings, or restoring marae.
• Activities that are part of the core business of a Tertiary Education Organisation (TEO), Territorial Local Authority (TLA) or Council Controlled Organisation (CCO).

For more details, see Foundation North’s exclusions list and Creative New Zealand’s exclusions list.

We recognise that these distinctions are subjective and can differ across art forms as well as within marginalised communities.

We are making this distinction to manage artists’ expectations when applying: the Creative Fellowship fund will prioritise more senior practitioners, and — in response — we will make special considerations for early-career practitioners within the Creative Project stream. This aligns with our aspirations to support mid-career practitioners in becoming leaders in their fields or within their communities, and to ensure early-career practitioners have culturally meaningful opportunities to develop their practice.

For the purposes of this fund, we are defining mid-career as outlined below. This encompasses anyone who is mid-career or beyond. Anyone who feels they are not at this stage in their career would be considered early-career.

A mid-career artist relates to somebody who:

• Identifies as a mid-career artist.
• Has consistently achieved the successful public presentation of critically acclaimed work, events or development programmes (e.g. a workshop series, mentoring programme) in an area (or areas) of arts practice across their career.
• Has endorsement and support from at least two peers or experts in their area of arts practice, who acknowledge their contribution to their area of arts practice as impactful or influential within Aotearoa; and/or
• Has achieved recognition or awards for their contribution to their arts practice; this could include, but is not limited to, an arts laureate, a New Year’s Honour, or domestic or international prizes. This is not necessary, however, as we recognise the lack of Asian representation across many of these awards in Aotearoa.

Foundation North is a Community Trust for the benefit of communities in Auckland and Northland. Please see its operating boundaries if you are unsure whether you are eligible. Projects from applicants outside these boundaries are ineligible for funding unless the project is directly delivered or directly impacts the Auckland and Northland regions.

Although the community aspiration has always been for this fund to extend nationally, without additional partners, we are not able to offer this in 2026.

Organisations supported by the Creative New Zealand Toi Uru Kahikatea or Toi Tōtara Haemata Investment programmes or Creative New Zealand’s Arts Organisations and Groups Fund Tiers 3 and 4 (over $125,000 per year) are ineligible to apply. However, an artist may apply for a project that might be hosted or presented by one of these organisations.

Please note that if you received a CNZ or Asian Artists’ Fund Creative Fellowship in 2025 or 2026, you are ineligible to apply for the Asian Artists’ Fund Creative Fellowship in 2026.

Make sure you use this template and include all projected income and revenue for your project — including revenue that is not yet confirmed. This includes your Asian Artists’ Fund request as an income line.

Please make sure there is not a significant surplus or deficit in your budget. If you need support with your budget, book in for our budgeting workshop, speak with one of the Advisors or attend one of our Funding Bees.

If your project has strong potential to generate significant revenue over and above that required to remunerate arts practitioners fairly and cover project costs for the period of the project, it is unlikely to be a strong fit with Foundation North’s status as a Community Trust, and as such, it will be ineligible.

Examples of a project that would be assessed as being mainly focused on commercial gain:

• Any project where the income projections far exceed the costs of creating and presenting the project, and the budget includes fair remuneration for all artists involved for the duration of the project.
• A start-up venture that needs establishment costs to create a platform to sell commercial artworks internationally, with clear potential to be a profit-making business.

We acknowledge that the arts face challenges across all levels of sustainability, including financial sustainability. We also recognise that artistic projects have the potential to generate a range of revenue levels.

If you are unsure whether your project has strong potential to be focused on commercial gain, please contact the Foundation North funding support team on 0800 272 878 or asianartistfund@foundationnorth.org.nz.

We recognise that some people may use AI to support them in writing their applications. We encourage applicants to consider the following when using AI in their application:

• Be transparent: Clearly indicate where AI has been used in your application (e.g. for drafting text, generating images, or summarising data).
• Lead with your own voice: Ensure that all submitted content reflects your own creative vision, values, and intentions. AI should support, not replace, your voice.
• Be responsible for what you submit: Review all AI-generated content carefully. You are responsible for the factual and ethical integrity of your submission.
• Respect intellectual property: Be mindful of whether your AI-generated content replicates or infringes on the work of others. This includes text, images, audio, or video.
• Cultural integrity: Engage with appropriate cultural advisors or community leaders if your project involves content relating to specific communities. AI tools are not culturally neutral and cannot replicate lived experiences. They are shaped by global datasets that may not accurately reflect cultural knowledge systems, protocols, or values.
• Data and privacy: Understand how your personal and project data may be stored or used by AI platforms. Avoid inputting sensitive or confidential information into public tools.