By Louis Houlbrooke

In light of Budget 2022 throwing even more money at arts grants, we decided to take another one of our regular looks at where this money ends up.

This time our researcher examined the “Creative Communities” grants funded by Creative NZ and doled out by local councils.

Here is a small sample, in this case all projects in Wellington:

I wish we were making this up: taxpayers are forking out for sex worker exhibitions, ‘dismantling e-waste for fun’, pictionary, queer and trans drawing classes, interpretive dance, music courses for womxn and femmes, a ballet called ‘The Sl*tcracker’, and a literal clown show.

Click here to view the full list, adding up to more than $400,000 in Wellington alone.