Key music sector takeaways from the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni‘s February 2 announcement include a $70M boost to the existing Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme.

This will enable coverage to be extended through to January 31, 2023 for events that were being planned before the move to Red on January 23, 2022. Key eligibility criteria have also been extended.

• The Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund has been provided an additional $35.5 million to fund more direct support for individuals and organisations most affected by the restrictions introduced in January 2022 to slow the spread of Covid-19.
• The limit on Emergency Relief Funding for individual organisations has been increased from $100,000 to $300,000.
• A new one-off grant of $5,000 will be available to eligible self-employed individuals/sole traders in the arts and cultural sector who have lost income or opportunities to work. ‘We expect to provide further information on the criteria for the $5,000 grant for self-employed individuals/sole traders by mid-February and open for applications by the end of February.’

Further notes to the above:

• Practitioners are encouraged to view the information available on Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s website, and for further guidance, email support.culture@mch.govt.nz to ensure they can receive the support on offer.
• The Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme is already operational and payments are being made to events that have been cancelled due to the recent move to ‘Red’. Events that will be newly eligible for the scheme as a result of the extension will be able to register within a week.
• The government is working at pace to extend the Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund to sole traders and individuals. The next steps are to engage quickly with sector representatives to finalise the scheme details, and then design and test the application and payment management system needed to process the applications. We expect to provide detailed information to potential applicants next week, and then open the Fund in three weeks’ time.