Creative Communities Funding Helps a Wide Range of Events

Events as diverse as putting a 2008 spin on Shakespeare’s classics and helping students sample Rarotongan culture or flax weavers to pool their knowledge have all benefited from the latest round of Creative Communities grants in Kaipara.

Creative Communities New Zealand funds local arts and cultural activities in Kaipara through two half-yearly allocations of about $8,000 each and these are administered by a local committee of iwi, community and Kaipara District Council representatives.

The latest round of funding sees a total of $7,905 allocated to seven applicants who received grants ranging from $775 to $1,530. An extra $1,000 has been retained by the committee to allow “in-between funding” for urgent applications received before the next funding round in October.

Successful applicants were:

* Jen Calthrop and Maura Flower to run a ‘”learn to sing” course covering a wide range of singing and performance techniques.
* The Centennial Committee to assist with staging a celebration concert in Dargaville featuring local talent.
* Dargaville High School, where the Maori Department is working toward sending students to the Te Maeva Festival in Rarotonga.
* Dargaville Public Library which showed Shakespeare in a different guise by bringing the Ugly Shakespeare Company to town.
* Marie Flavell – Mangawhai Flax Weavers received help to bring local weavers, plus others from around the North Island, together to share their skills.
* Otamatea Repertory Theatre to assist staging the musical “Into The Woods”, described as one of the most ambitious productions it has attempted.
* Te Kopuru Primary School towards its popular annual Multicultural Performing Arts Festival on October 18.

The Creative Communities Local Assessment Committee includes Colleen Urlich and Manos Nathan (Iwi Representatives), Wendy Salter, Jan Grover, Maura Flower and Debbie Evans (Community Representatives), Julie Geange (Kaipara District Council) and Charlane White (Committee Administrator).

The next round of funding applications will be advertised in October.