We had a bee in our bonnet. After the first round of results from the AOG fund, we kept hearing “constrained funding environment” but this didn’t really answer our questions. The buzzing was particularly loud for Samuel Walsh. And so he began a long and complicated process. An OIA request. A series of questions to CNZ’s media team. Making heads and tails of half blacked-out documents. Realising the documents opened up more questions than answers. Reading bits aloud to colleagues to see what they made of it. A first draft. Calls to trusted peers. A second tranche of documents released under the OIA request. Discussions at walking meetings. More questions sent to CNZ. Analysing the additional documents. Checking in with others in the sector to see what they made of it. Wondering if there’s something missing. A completely different second draft. Further clarifying questions to CNZ. A third draft, not so far from the second. Sense checking. Being caught in a grip of fear about getting something wrong. Rounds of editing. A bit of coercion from me that everything was going to be ok. And finally, a significant piece of writing and research for the sector.
This kind of work – investigating, spending days trying to decipher documents, distilling complex information, asking more and more specific questions – is the kind of work that is increasingly not viable in the media landscape. In short, it takes too long. It's not a great time to be a journalist. As more and more advertising money is directed to the social media giants instead of media outlets, they are squeezed. They have to be able to cover many different beats, and there’s less time and resources to spend on stories. As that happens, the lofty principles of journalism are lost. Aims like shining a light on injustices, acting as the fourth estate, and holding powerful people and institutions to account can be swept aside in favour of easy, fast, fun, and popular stories. Opinion and personality win out over finding facts and looking deeper. What’s lost is exactly what drove Sam into the investigation – a desire to hold institutions to a high level of accountability, to ensure that the resources they distribute (hundreds of millions of dollars!!) are well and equitably utilised.
Much of the article was written at night on Sam’s phone, because we don’t always have the resources or timeframes to commission this kind of work. Even if we had been able to pay a journalist fairly, by the time they understood the intricacies of the funding systems and inner workings of CNZ, it would be 2075. Yet this is exactly the kind of robust story that I think The Big Idea needs to be producing consistently. We have done other such stories this year looking into: the devolution of CNZ into regional partnerships; analysing CNZ’s strategy for ngā toi Māori, Toi Ora; and crunching the numbers on who gets published in Aotearoa. But there’s more big issues to cover. Making that a priority affects the shape of our editorial content. It means asking more of ourselves and our freelance writers, and so adjusting how our editorial budget and time is used. We’re really grateful that the Gow Family Foundation also sees the value in this time-consuming work. With their support, we will soon be launching a pilot for a long-form journalism fund – more to come on this in coming months.
There’s something else that’s lost when journalists are so squeezed – opportunities to learn how to do this kind of work, and even the ability to envision it. I’ve been extremely lucky to have begun my career through a cadetship that focused on feature writing, rather than news, where I learned the skills for this slower kind of journalism from some of the best in the country. This is extremely rare – the programme only happened once, and there were just three cadets. I’ve also been lucky to have had a number of generous editors and colleagues since then. While I still have a lot to learn, and many skills to develop and hone, one of my aims in this job is to pass on what I have learned so far to a cohort of fresh journalists who want to cover the arts. I hope that they will feel supported enough, and have the tenacity to tackle big, tricky stories.
The point of this kind of coverage isn’t to point fingers, kick up fusses, or be adversarial for no reason. It's not about catching people out or kicking people down or making the arts sector look bad. The most important thing is that the scrutiny is constructive. Our institutions should be taken seriously, the systems of power underneath the arts are important, and should hold up to and respond to criticism.
I don’t believe that stories about the arts should be positive all the time. To cover the arts like that would be disrespectful. If you’ve ever been part of a critique, or asked for feedback on something you’ve worked on, you will know that constructive criticism is the most generous thing someone can respond with. It means they’ve taken the time to properly consider your work, to think about it, and then made the effort to try to help you make it better. There’s nothing worse than silence, and a vague, positive comment shows disinterest, and disengagement too. The structures that underlie the arts deserve the same rigour that's applied to other parts of society.
If you’re thinking this all sounds very serious, don’t worry. I don’t want the shape of our editorial content to be a total square! There’s plenty of things to celebrate, and plenty of short, sharp and funny stories in the arts too. Like salt and caramel, opposites bring out the best in each other.
💥News on the wire
Duncan Webb questions if CNZ following proper process
Last week, the Labour MP for Christchurch Central posted his own OIA request into CNZ processes on Facebook. He stated that The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Act 2014 says that the Arts Council must set guidelines for the allocation of funding. “Those guidelines should provide the principles and framework for decisions. They should help ensure consistency, fairness, transparency and accountability,” he wrote. His OIA request asked for those guidelines, but there was no single document which could be identified. He went on to write, “That should alarm anyone who believes in transparent and accountable government.”
I asked CNZ for comment on Webb’s post. A statement from Gretchen La Roche, Chief Executive, says that she has confidence that the funding frameworks and processes are “operating appropriately and consistently with our statutory obligations.” CNZ’s position is that the “eligibility requirements, assessment criteria, funding objectives, outcomes sought and decision-making frameworks that apply to each funding programme collectively constitute the guidelines for the allocation of funding in relation to section 7(2)(a) of the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Act 2014.” There has never been a single overarching guidelines, and CNZ is not looking to create any.
Nelson Arts Festival programme out
This year the programme is built around the theme of Joy, which we love here at TBI. The festival, which is our longest-running annual regional arts fest, will run from 22 October – 1 November with more than 50 events spanning theatre, music, comedy, circus, literature, visual arts and large-scale community celebrations. “We're telling local stories, commissioning new work, creating opportunities for artists to grow, and opening spaces where our community can come together, participate and belong. We hope people leave feeling uplifted, connected and reminded that joy is something we create together," says Artistic Director Janelle Bish.
A major part of this year's programme are experiences everyone can be part of – free events will be taking over some of Whakatū’s public spaces. The Big Swing Street Party will transform Upper Trafalgar Street with free music, dance, art and participation, and the Gathering Tide, by choreographer Chloe Loftus, will be performed at sunset on Tāhunanui Beach. Full programme here.
Artsenta celebrates 40 years of making space for creativity
Artsenta began as the Creative Expression Unit at Cherry Farm Mental Hospital in 1986. It was a ground breaking initiative for New Zealand, inspired by an Australian mental health facility. When Cherry Farm closed as part of sweeping changes to mental health services, an independent not-for-profit trust was established to guide the programme’s survival. After much searching, a site in Dunedin was found at 50 Filleul Street with the opening held in February 1992. A competition was run for the naming of the new space. Artsenta offered a simple but clear guide to the organisation’s kaupapa: an art studio for people experiencing mental illness or addiction, where creative expression is central. Artsenta has occupied a number of sites since, until in late 2015, Artsenta moved to its current accessible Princes St location. Today, Artsenta supports artists and communities across Ōtepoti and wider Otago. To celebrate four decades, a new retrospective exhibition tells that story through artwork, poetry, music, film and the experiences of Artsenta artists. It also looks ahead, asking what the next chapter could hold.
The Kaipātiki Public Arts Trust wraps up
The trust (fondly known as KPAT) was established as a charitable trust in 2013. The main objective was to incorporate public artworks in the natural and built environment. Alongside this art-related community events and activities encouraged interest in public art. Most notably the organisation initiated, developed and led public art projects including: Soft Focus … Summer’s Day at Oruamo Domain, Glenfield; Journey Home at Chelsea Sugar Estate, Birkenhead; Art Underfoot; Short Shorts Student Film Competition; an Art Speaker Series and support for visual arts at Kaipātiki secondary schools. But the trust says times have changed. Volunteers with time, energy and appropriate skills are not as easily found as when it started. The team has reluctantly accepted that age and health issues have crept up on some of them. The decision was reluctantly taken to wind up knowing that KPAT had made an impact on Kaipātiki.
Auckland Arts Festival attendance up 87% from 2025
It isn’t my favourite thing to qualify arts existence with finances, but, this week The Auckland Festival Trust released its 2026 impact report, and a few numbers are staggering. The report says that the festival generated $24.8 million for Auckland’s economy, with more than 188,000 attendances in 2026. The report highlights a significant increase in impact from 2025. Overall attendance increased 87%! A key driver of that growth was the festival's expanded free programme, supported through funding from Auckland Council Events. This included Whānau Day at Aotea Square, which saw a record 4,000 attendances in one day.
Chair Sarah Judkins says “While attendance remains an important measure of success, the Festival's impact can also be seen in the way it supports Auckland's identity, creates opportunities for communities to participate in cultural life, contributes to city centre activity and helps make Auckland a place where people want to live, work and visit.”
Karangahape Road continues a hot streak with a new Art Weekend
The inaugural Mushroom Festival, a bevy of new artist spaces, busy FAM markets and CRL station open days, are now being followed with an Art Weekend. From Friday 18 – Sunday 20 September (the first full weekend that the CRL trains will be running), galleries, artist-run spaces, studios and creative organisations across Karangahape Road are joining forces for the inaugural Karangahape Art Weekend. It's all free, and there will be late-night openings, exclusive exhibitions, artist talks, guided tours, workshops, studio visits and live music.
🎉 Due applause
Inaugural Speculative Fiction Awards announced
The Inaugural Te Pae Tawhiti Speculative Fiction Awards were announced on Sunday at Hamilton’s Te Whare Taapere Iti, Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts. The Outstanding Achievement for Adult Novel went to The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey, Outstanding Achievement for a Short Story went to The Cold Burns by Anne Wilkins, Outstanding Achievement for a Collection or Anthology went to Blood Protectors by Sue Carpenter, Outstanding Achievement for a Novella went to Dear Diary by Marie Cardno, Outstanding Achievement for Middle Grade Fiction went to Draconic Search and Rescue by Robinne L Weiss, and Outstanding Achievement for Young Adult Fiction to Truth Needs No Colour by Heather McQuillan.
There were two awards for services to Speculative Fiction that went to Kirsten McGavin and Lee Murray. Kirsten McGavin is a Pākehā and Indigenous Papua New Guinean anthropologist and writer who has published anthologies of science fiction and fantasy written by Indigenous Papua New Guineans, and founded Kokomo Ink, a boutique publishing house for speculative fiction written by Indigenous Pasifika authors. Lee Murray is a huge advocate for Aotearoa NZ speculative writing. She is known for more than two decades of service as a mentor and teacher, generously sharing her skills and insights with emerging writers and youth – she established Young NZ Writers which ran for 10 years. She advocated for speculative fiction to have judged awards. And here we are, with her as a winner in the inaugural awards!
👀 Further reading
The big story of the week is our very own Sam Walsh’s deep dive into documents released about the AOG fund decision-making process under the Official Information Act. For weeks he sloughed through to bring you the steps and shortcomings behind the allocation of the arts biggest fund.
The month’s National Grid is a real feast for the eyes. It includes high-quality scans of a rare early example of New Zealand graphic design history – a book called Well Made New Zealand: A Century of New Zealand Trademarks. Luke Wood investigates the book, and his own relationship with it, to consider what the symbols that businesses, corporations, and institutions use reveal about us.
A new critic, Arihia Virtue, considers a double bill, Memory of a Honey Bee. She posits that solo theatre is something that Aotearoa does bloody well.
📧 Say hi!
I'm always open to scoops at editor@thebigidea.co.nz
