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The latest round of Creative NZ Arts Board Grants has some surprises. Going through the 65 grants (totalling $1,598,359) we found the visual arts ended up with 12 percent compared to performing arts with 45 percent. The visual arts numbers look better (up to around 20 percent) if you add relevant media art funding. It’s very odd of CNZ funding media art separately to the visual arts. Followed to it’s logical conclusion CNZ would also have categories for painting, sculpture and photography etc.

The big difference this time though is that most of the visual arts money (a whopping 60 percent) goes to what you’d call specific individual artist based projects. Residencies, art school study, new work - that sort of thing.

Publishing is still getting a lot of attention grabbing $66,000 of the $190,970 the visual arts end up with. Over half of it ($36,000) goes to Robert Leonard to finish off Rock on, his history of contemporary NZ art post 1956 that he started when he was a Stout Fellow back a while.

Another interesting feature of the visual arts funding is that a big chunk ($87,490, that’s 45 percent) goes off-shore to international projects. This time it includes $16,420 to 2009 Venice artist Judy Millar to show at Museum Otterndorf in Germany and $28,810 to send three artists to the Sydney Biennale.