Creative communities scheme | Hamilton City Council

Fund snapshot

Why is Council behind this?

Creative Waikato administer Hamilton’s Creative Communities Scheme funding on behalf of Hamilton City Council. Each year Creative New Zealand provides funding to city and district councils for distribution in their area. The Creative Communities Scheme aims to increase participation in the arts, broaden the range and diversity of the arts available to communities and enhance and strengthen the local arts sector.

What does this fund look like?

The Creative New Zealand Creative Communities Scheme (CCS) is available nationwide to support and encourage local communities to create and present diverse opportunities for accessing and participating in arts activities. The Creative Communities Scheme and Creative NZ contestable grants are one of the few funding sources that will fund individual applicants and non-registered groups.

Each of the 10 districts in the Waikato region administers its own Creative Communities Scheme funds (CCS) for art projects that take place within their specific geographical area. Hamilton’s Creative Communities Scheme is delivered by Creative Waikato on behalf of Hamilton City Council.

Funding can cover costs for short-term projects, such as materials for arts activities or programmes, venue or equipment hire, personnel or workshop facilitators, and marketing and promotion of arts activities. It can be applied across a wide range of art forms — everything from murals and music workshops to film festivals and pottery exhibitions.

There is no limit to how much you can apply for. The average Hamilton CCS grant is around $2000, and a larger grant is around $5000. There are two funding rounds per year, in February and August:

Application criteria

Who can apply

Individuals
Groups
Must be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident

What will be funded?

Projects which have creative outcomes and/or in which communities can directly participate in or experience
- New creative projects.
- New arts development and implementation.
- New installation and/or performance costs.
A wide range of art forms — everything from murals and music workshops to film festivals and pottery exhibitions.

The application

1. Application processes, guidelines and help.

Please get in touch with our fund administrator before using this application form – see contact info below.

Once you’re ready to apply, you’ll need to register on Smartygrants, then follow the guidelines to complete your application. This will set out what you need to get together before you apply.

There are many help options available through online guides and video tutorials when you are logged into the Smartygrants platform.

Also, here’s how we can help you with the online application process:

You can ask for assistance from one of our funding administrators, if you need it.
You can attend an information session (held in February each year).
You can attend one of our regular funding workshops held throughout the year.

2. When and how you can expect to hear back from us

Once submitted, we’ll review your application. However, it will be at least 12 weeks before you can expect to hear the outcome of your application. Please take this into account when you plan your project dates as we can’t fund retrospective requests.

Apply for it