Creative New Zealand and British Council forge new links

Creative New Zealand and the British Council have created a new partnership, MOMENTUM New Zealand, to support greater artistic collaboration and exchange. In August, MOMENTUM New Zealand supported a delegation of 18 arts professionals to attend this year’s Edinburgh Festivals.

MOMENTUM NZ delegates was introduced to Scottish, UK and international producers, festival directors and venue managers and supported by Creative Scotland and Festivals Edinburgh to develop their own professional networks via hosted events and individual meetings.

The Edinburgh Festivals are the largest and most acclaimed in the world and Creative New Zealand welcomes the opportunity to boost New Zealand’s involvement, says Creative New Zealand’s Senior Manager, Arts Policy, Capability and International, Cath Cardiff.

“Our arts professionals will experience first-hand how this huge multi-layered event is put together and plan how their work might fit within that. We look forward to working with the sector and the British Council on this initiative and exploring on-going relationships together,” she says.

As a result of this new partnership, it is anticipated that more New Zealand companies and artists will feature in the Edinburgh Festivals in 2014. “With the Commonwealth Games being staged in Glasgow in 2014 at the same time as the Edinburgh Festival, the timing of this new initiative just couldn’t be better,” says Director of Arts, British Council, Graham Sheffield. “We look forward to the development of exciting new work and to greater artistic collaboration between our two countries.”