Auckland’s thriving arts and culture sector received a significant funding boost with $430,895 of grants approved at the October meeting of the Community Development and Safety Committee.
Councillor Cathy Casey, chair of the Community Development and Safety Committee, believes the passion and talent of Auckland’s arts practitioners is vital to the vision of making Auckland a world-class city.
“The outstanding organisations and artists we have supported through the Regional Arts and Culture Grant Allocation strengthen our goal to integrate arts and culture into everyday lives,” says Councillor Casey.
“They are contributing to building a culturally rich and creative city that is accessible to all Aucklanders.”
Some of the exciting projects to receive funding in the latest round are:
WORD - The Front Line
WORD - The Front Line is a poetry slam that engages and grows the potential of our future leaders. It is the only creative battlefield of its kind, equipping young people with poetry prowess and leadership principles and an opportunity to battle for themselves and the challenges that their generation face.
Each year young people from across Auckland rise up, discover their voices and perform for their peers and communities. Visit Word’s Facebook page to be inspired as artists courageously confront their truth and share their journey in the creative expression of spoken word poetry.
Auckland Fringe
No show is too strange for this festival! Auckland Fringe is a feistily independent open-access arts festival which runs in Auckland for two weeks starting in late February. Open to anyone who wants to be involved, Auckland Fringe is all about inclusivity and exploring where art can go next.
Fringe showcases the best of Auckland’s incredible arts scene. Each year at least 35 per cent of the events have been free or entry by koha – making it a truly accessible arts experience.
Audio Foundation
Sound art, experimental music, drone music, noise, outsider music – the Audio Foundation supports the diversity of local and national practitioners exploring practices relating to sound.
With regular events, residencies, exhibitions and the biannual Nowhere Festival, the Audio Foundation presents marginal music, adventures in sound outside the mainstream, extreme sonic experiences and buzz, hum, crackle, splurge 'n splat!
Found in the sub-basement of the Parisian Tie Factory in central Auckland, there’s a performance space, online radio station, zine and sound libraries, a gallery space and a shop for underground NZ artists to sell their products to the wider public.
A full list of the regional arts organisations and artists who received funding through round one of the 2018/2019 Regional Arts and Culture Grant Programme is available here.
Applications open now
The Regional Arts and Culture Grants Programme helps organisations, communities and artists to deliver arts and culture projects and activities across the Auckland region.
Applications for the next 2018/2019 Regional Arts and Culture grants funding round are open from 9 November 2018 to 8 February 2019.
Visit the council’s website to learn more about the programme and to see if your project aligns with the Regional Arts and Culture Grant Programme priorities.
