Black Grace Offered Annual Funding

Black Grace Offered Annual Funding From Creative New Zealand

Black Grace Dance Company, highly regarded for its distinctive new work since it was formed in 1995, has been offered annual funding for the first time by Creative New Zealand.

The contemporary dance company, based in Auckland but committed to touring its work to other centres, joins the 37 other professional arts organisations receiving recurrent funding (ie annual or three-year funding) from Creative New Zealand.

Previously supported through Creative New Zealand’s project funding, Black Grace was offered a grant of $321,000 for the 2002 calendar year from the Arts Board. This supports a programme of activity to develop and present three new works in Auckland, and a tour to Wellington in 2002.

Arts Board Chair Murray Shaw said the Board was delighted to be able to support Black Grace with annual funding, given the company’s important contribution to contemporary dance in New Zealand and its unique Pacific voice.

Artistic Director of Black Grace, Neil Ieremia, said the company felt “honoured and excited” to be offered annual funding from Creative New Zealand.

“This funding will help us fully realise our long-term artistic goals and vision,” Ieremia said. “We are committed to the ongoing development of our artform, our audiences and our employees.
One of the most rewarding things that this funding brings is greater job security for our dancers, who have helped build this company from the ground up.”

Announcing the annual funding decisions of its two arts boards - the Arts Board and Te Waka Toi - Creative New Zealand Chief Executive Elizabeth Kerr said the boards worked hard to maintain the funding levels of their existing 26 annually funded organisations but were also pleased the Arts Board was able to add a new voice, Black Grace, to its portfolio of recurrently funded organisations.

“Last year, the Arts Board was able to offer substantial increases to its recurrently funded organisations and provide annual funding to six emerging organisations for the first time,” she said. “This year, aware that the Cultural Recovery Package funding needs to be spread over three years, we were unable to offer any significant increases.”

Organisations funded by Creative New Zealand on an annual or three-year basis include regional orchestras and theatres, opera companies, experimental galleries, Maori arts organisations, and national advocacy and service organisations such as the New Zealand Book Council, Artists’ Alliance and Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust. Three-year funding was not considered in this funding round.

All recurrently funded organisations are supported to deliver a specific annual programme of activity for the calendar year. In this funding round, a diverse range of activities and services were supported. For instance: a national tour of a play in te reo Maori; two new orchestral overtures to be commissioned and premiered in Christchurch; a showcase of New Zealand literature at the London Book Fair; orchestral performances in Southland and Otago; a national tour of new New Zealand theatre for children; a Future of Auckland symposium at Artspace; experimental theatre; and the Adam Chamber Music Summer School.

In May 2000, Creative New Zealand received one-off funding of $20 million (inc. GST) as a result of the Government’s Cultural Recovery Package. With this additional funding, Creative New Zealand developed several strategies. One of these, Future Strengths, aims to stabilise and strengthen the professional arts infrastructure in New Zealand.

Elizabeth Kerr said Creative New Zealand’s 38 recurrently funded organisations represented the backbone of the country’s professional arts infrastructure.

“By supporting the infrastructure, we’re also supporting opportunities for individual artists to create new work, gain professional development, present and tour work, and build new audiences,” she said.

Creative New Zealand also has two project funding rounds a year to which artists and arts organisations apply for grants for clearly defined, one-off projects. Funding decisions for the next project round will be announced in October.

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Annual grants for 2002
Creative New Zealand offered annual grants to 27 professional arts organisations for their annual programme of activity over the 2002 calendar year. This is a complete list of the grants, which totalled $5,404,125.

Artists’ Alliance $90,000
Arts on Tour NZ $127,000
Artspace Aotearoa Trust $265,000
BATS Theatre $195,000
* Black Grace Dance Company $321,000
Booksellers New Zealand $167,500
Capital E: National Theatre for Children $187,000
Centre for New Zealand Music Trust (SOUNZ) $140,000
Christchurch Symphony Orchestra $411,000
Dance Aotearoa New Zealand (DANZ) $200,425
Downstage Theatre $466,500
Footnote Dance Company $204,000
Fortune Theatre $372,500
Kahurangi New Zealand Maori Dance Trust $133,700
Moving Image Centre $125,000
Museums Aotearoa $160,000
New Zealand Book Council $133,000
New Zealand Choral Federation $110,000
New Zealand String Quartet $152,500
Playmarket $248,000
Southern Sinfonia $250,000
*** Taki Rua Productions $295,000
Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust $80,000
*** Te Whanau Paneke $98,000
** Te Whare Tu Taua o Aotearoa $100,000
The Physics Room Trust $137,000
Wellington Sinfonia $235,000

* Funded for the first time in 2001/2002
** Wholly funded by Te Waka Toi
*** Co-funded by the Arts Board and Te Waka Toi
The remaining organisations are funded wholly by the Arts Board

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