Three decades of arts funding celebrated

“There is a real sense of pride here in the Invercargill and Bluff arts space, as there should be! The committee sees a lot of dedicated, passionate, and talented creatives who love reaching out to the community and encouraging others to get involved,” she said.

“Creatives help shape the atmosphere of a place, and breathe life into the city. Here’s to another 30 years of creative development here in the beautiful city of Invercargill.”

Shakespeare in the Park Charitable Trust president Angela Newell said the scheme was a critical funding lifeline for arts and cultural projects: whether that was for large extravaganzas or smaller projects that simply needed to cover venue hire.

“It makes an enormous difference to artists. The speciality of the arts and cultural funding in one scheme is really important, as it’s not often an area that gets the support it deserves,” she said.

Many other funds required artists to be part of a formal legal entity, while the Creative Communities Scheme – which operated with a local panel of assessors - allowed for more flexibility, and enabled support for a wider range of applicants, she said.

“The arts bring joy and curiosity, they bring people together, they build a tangible sense of connection and camaraderie. I always think of that wonderful quote from Hamlet above the stage at Invercargill’s Civic Theatre – ‘To hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature’. The arts show us who we are, where we’ve come from, where we might be going and what our aspirations are.”

Danny Owen – more commonly known as Deow, the founder and creative director of South Sea Spray, an exhibition of New Zealand’s finest mural and street artists – successfully applied to the fund for the South Sea Spray Wāhine event, which celebrated 15 female artists from around the motu as they painted large murals across the city.

The event aimed to increase visibility for women artists, and the response from the community was overwhelmingly positive because it felt real and inclusive, he said.

“All of the murals the artists created are public, so anyone can enjoy them anytime. We also ran free workshops, giving people – especially young people – a chance to learn and get involved. It built pride and connection in the community, and as an artist, seeing that connection means everything,” Owen said.

“Funding like this is essential – it supports artists, and brings more creativity into regions like Southland. Without it, there would be fewer creative opportunities and less public art. The scheme was a big part of making South Sea Spray Wāhine happen.”

The funding scheme was also integral in bringing the joint artistic vision of local creatives – art historian Bridget Duncan, photographer and videographer Jenna-Lee Shave, ceramists and sisters Angela Railton and Nicola McGilvray, and Natalie Jarvis, who created bespoke neon artworks – to life.

Shave said their collaborative exhibition The Potluck highlighted the cost of living and how simple gathering used to be, in a maximalist 1970s dinner party concept.

The creatives had worked for months researching, filming, photographing, designing, building, painting, glazing, and firing ceramics, while during the installation they curated 85 artworks, promoted the exhibition, and opened it to a huge crowd. The exhibition’s run then saw them gallery-sitting and taking over their venue’s social media channels.

“All of it was an unpaid labour of love,” she said.

Duncan said without the scheme, The Potluck simply would not have been viable. The creatives involved in the exhibition still had to manage businesses, jobs, and their families, with nine young children among them.

Jarvis said the cost of materials and manufacturing – the true cost of making art – was often misunderstood.

“Along with hanging mechanisms and the time spent editing photos, firing ceramics, and designing compositions, The Potluck represented years of experience. Alleviating many of these costs allowed us to push the limits of traditional exhibition design, which meant we could fully realise the show’s intended ‘house’ set-up within the gallery,” she said.

To find out more about eligibility requirements or to apply for funding, click here