Today's the day.

For hundreds of Aotearoa-based creatives, this morning signals an opportunity that could alter their creative career trajectory.

But it's also one of the most nerve-racking and emotionally-sapping days many will experience in their careers.

Creative New Zealand's latest Arts Grants funding round opens at 9am, offering project funding for individual artists, arts practitioners, arts groups and arts organisations between $5,000 and $75,000.

It's set to have a bigger pot of money for creatives to tap into - the last round saw $3.7 million distributed to 81 initiatives, this time around there will be an extra $3m thanks to the one-off funding top-up from Manatū Taonga Ministry of Culture and Heritage.

The other big change for this round is the grossly unpopular cut-off for applications has been lifted to 450 - after the previous mark of 250 was reached in an unwanted record of 24 hours in February, leaving many devastated. There will be no cap beyond this round of funding.

There are many still wearing the scars of that experience. These are not trivial matters - jumping through the hoops required for funding from Creative New Zealand (CNZ) and others can be immensely time-consuming, and to go through it and not even get seen has proven wildly demoralising for some.

Old wounds

One mid-career artist told The Big Idea "having missed out last time, I didn't want to take any risks this time. It's such a stressful situation with no guarantees, and after so much hard work has gone into it. 

"I have spent months putting my application together. Not sure I will ever bother again. And now the cut off has been extended to 450 I have even less chance, and I doubt it will change much if there were 150 applicants like me that were logged in but unable to submit as they had already reached the 250 cut off after 24 hours.

"It's an incredibly stressful lottery that feels as though it rewards the regulars and not the emerging struggling artists that are new to funding applications."

That story is sadly not unique - and these are not artists who are pessimistic by nature. The services that CNZ provide are crucial to the creative community and have done so much good over many years. But the Hunger Games approach to getting a slice of the pie has taken its toll. 

Credit where it's due, the cap is going after this round and moves have been made to listen to the cacophonous chorus of discontent from the sector by nearly doubling the cap for this round as a transition.

But the simple fact remains that there's a still a high percentage chance of the same thing happening. 250 went in 24 hours, and everyone who is applying knows that. 450 most likely won't last too long either.

First-timers

Documentary and portrait photographer Sara (Hera) Tautuku Orme is one of many who will be applying for CNZ funding for the first time this morning.

Orme (Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Tarāwhai, Te Arawa, Pakeha) told The Big Idea the cut-off is already causing anxious times. 

"That does stress me out. A lot of energy and time goes into this application and I'd be so gutted if I was 451. I am actually treating it like a sports event - the race starts at this time and you have to go as fast as you possibly can and be the best that you can possibly be. That's my approach - I'm gonna be at my laptop at quarter to nine, ready to go."

And that's not a given for many - school drop-offs or work commitments can make it nearly impossible.

 Orme (above) acknowledges "if I was doing this (application) a month ago - or even in a month's time - there's no way I would have had the time to have pre-written this application and, on a weekday at 9am during work hours to actually be able to do it. It's a total privilege. So I think for people where they're trying to juggle work and kids and other responsibilities, I think it's really difficult."

"I feel I'm as ready as I can be. I have spent the last week really intensely going through the website and actually figuring out what I have to do - that in itself actually took me a few days to understand and comprehend, making lots of phone calls, speaking to as many people as I could. 

"There's so much to take in - actually just getting a grip of the format of the application form itself has taken me a while. You have to support material, it has to be filed a certain way, you can't use Google Doc links, all that sort of stuff. I've put a lot of time and effort into writing about the idea, the purpose, what my strategic outcomes are going to be how Mātauranga Māori is evident in my mahi and in my practice."

CNZ have been vocal in encouraging people to contact them to check their eligibility if they're unsure where they stand. Like so many before her - Orme has long been put off the process before deciding to take the plunge. 

"I've always had this block in my mind that I might not have been eligible, not good enough or had the right experience. I was lucky enough to speak to a community arts advisor who knows my work - they said 'you are absolutely all of the above and you should absolutely be applying'. 

"I think one of the things that actually was difficult back from the start was my eligibility - they (CNZ) state they will not fund a project you've already worked on - but I've just got off the phone from CNZ who basically said I am eligible and I just have to explain that this is a different part of the project. 

"It took me about a week to actually get to speak to someone from Creative NZ to find that out but I was lucky I met someone from the Toipoto community to helped me understand I was eligible. It's very confusing. I think it could put a lot of people off - it almost put me off."

Another Toipoto member - abstract artist Kirsty Black - is also a first time applicant. She told The Big Idea "I am attending the Affordable Art Fair Melbourne at the end of August beginning of September. I am requesting funding for marketing materials to promote myself, my art and to showcase NZ artists on an international stage. My goal is to expand my reach to an international audience, and I aim to distribute the catalogue to potential Australian galleries that align with my style and vision.

"Initially, I was hesitant to apply due to the previous round's quick closure after reaching the 250-cap limit. I am delighted to learn that the limit has been increased to 450 and that it will soon be eliminated, making the funding process more equitable."

Good ridance to the cap

The cap - while improved - is still causing consternation in the creative community.

One experienced arts practitioner told The Big Idea "I'm not quite sure what I think of the increase in the cap. Potentially it's just an arbitrary number and whether you have 250 people competing for $3m or 500 competing for $6m - doesn't make much of a difference in terms of success rate. 

" it's great of course that the cap is going away. The damage done by the cap system has been quite significant in my opinion, mainly for people's mental health. I've been helping two other artists getting their stuff ready and I know that they will be ready to submit by 9am so I wouldn't be surprised if this round hits the cap quickly. I guess it'll be an interesting experiment to actually be able to quantify how much interest there is in the arts grants at present."

The refreshing boost of both applicants and money available has led to some questions being raised among artists regarding some of the rules.

This Arts Grants round is the fourth and last in the 2022/23 cycle (with the 2023/24 cycle beginning in August) - and applicants have a limit on how often they can apply in each cycle. But that was made when the 250 cap and less money were available.  

A CNZ Spokesperson confirmed to The Big Idea that the existing protocol will remain in place. 

"In fairness to all applicants, the number of times a person can apply to an Arts Grants funding round for 2022/2023 has not changed - being two applications across the four rounds - as we are aware there is still significant demand and people who have been unable to apply due to the cap previously. Being unsuccessful in a previous round counts as an application. 

We encourage people to check their eligibility with Creative New Zealand if they are unsure, and we also encourage people to consider whether applying to a later round (where there will be no cap), may work for them better.  We will be reviewing these rules for future funding rounds."

A leading industry insider argues that it could be viewed the other way - "being in a less budgeted round with a greater time pressure to submit to beat lower cap was unfair to those people that have now used up their quota (of applications in the cycle)."

One regular applicant expressed "my main annoyance is really around the external CNZ assessor system which I feel in practice equates to CNZ outsourcing key decision making and taking no responsibility for outcomes. No model is ideal but I feel they should have it all done all internally by CNZ staff assessors."

When asked by The Big Idea if there are any changes being made to the assessment process, a CNZ spokesperson outlined "with the support of our peer assessors, and with some tweaks to timeframes and internal processes, the assessment process will remain largely the same. We continue to use peer assessors, but to ensure they can assess more, there will be changes to the amount of feedback/commentary that they will be asked to provide."

So the race to 450 is on - if you want to apply - the link is here.