Artists’ Advice Ōtepoti: Navigating local funding

Navigating your local funding landscape

Arts, cultural, and creative activities grow from people – artists, audiences, volunteers, businesses – and pūtea. 

Whether your project is supported through sales, public funding, private sponsorship, or donated mahi and time, ensuring that you have the resources to achieve what you want can be hard work. 

We have some Ōtepoti-specific information here, but we think that our advice could apply to a range of funding situations.

Local arts grants usually fund creative activities that benefit local communities, i.e., the projects use public money to provide a public good. So, if you want to use your art practice to give back to the community, but need funding assistance, read on.

Remember, this type of public funding is about sharing your creative talents and skills with our wider community; engaging people in meaningful, creative ways; encouraging new ways of looking at the world and encouraging participation in the arts.  

It is not primarily intended to help you build your creative practice, showcase your talents or improve your opportunities (but these can certainly be an outcome!).  There are avenues to support  the development of your own art practice: Creative New Zealand is the first organisation that springs to mind.

Yuko explaining “Hello Stranger” to attendee as part of Spectacle, a locally funded Ōtepoti event., Amanda Konijn

Funding FAQs

Where does grant money come from?

• Rates or taxes
• Certain forms of gambling are legally required to return a percentage of their profit back to the community; this can be done as grants
• Charitable or philanthropic trusts

I have a great plan for an art project, can I get a Dunedin City Council grant?

• Your project could be a good candidate for a grant if it involves working closely with members of the Ōtepoti Dunedin community, especially with those who have limited opportunities to take part in arts activities. 
• Community-based projects need to have meaningful community involvement: If the only involvement of the community is as an audience, you need to show clearly how this benefits them. 

Will a grant cover all my costs?

• Probably not 
• You will often have to show that you have other sources of income for the project
• But - donations of materials, services, or time count as income

Applying for a grant

• What’s the difference between a successful and unsuccessful funding application?
• How do I work out if my project meets the criteria?
• What do I have to do once I’ve received a grant?

Where do I start?

• Talk to your funder!
• Keep our funding cheat sheets handy and refer to them often

Dunedin CIty Council - Applying for a grant

Funding tips cheatsheet

Creative Partnerships at the Dunedin City Council

The small Creative Partnerships team works to ensure that Ōtepoti’s arts, cultural, and creative life is as vibrant and engaging as its inhabitants and that all those who call Ōtepoti home have a place in the city’s creative landscape.

At the core of what Creative Partnerships does is building relationships and supporting projects that help realise Ara Toi Ōtepoti – Dunedin’s Arts and Culture Strategy.

We are here to support Ōtepoti creative practitioners with advice, resources, and advocacy so that they can do what they do best, whether it’s public sculpture, improvised theatre, or a spontaneous trombone concert. We’re delighted to share our resources with you.