Carolyn Wait - Maker

Our Early Career Fund is open now for artists and practitioners who want to develop new work, build new skills and share their mahi with their communities. Applicants can receive up to $10,000 and the fund is open across all artforms.

Last year, emerging actor, writer and theatre maker Sugar Rea-Bruce received support through the Early Career Fund to develop her new theatre work Mangrove Eaters. In it, crocodiles begin appearing in the town of Kororāreka as children start to go missing. Sugar says, "We find out along the way where they come from and meet people called Mangrove Eaters who eat mangroves to stop bad things happening." The work includes live music and puppetry and is still in development. Sugar says the support meant a lot, with the funding allowing her to "be bigger with my work, be more ambitious, bolder and exciting. It gives me confidence and fuels the process."

Applications close at 1.00 PM (NZ time) on Thursday, 5 March 2026.

Find out more on our website and read about all our other funds here: https://creativenz.govt.nz/funding-and-support/early-career-artists

Image Description: Sugar Rea-Bruce is smiling

Oh I do love spring. I can endure the wind because of Springs beauty and generosity. C # # #

Tickets available now! Rural Art, Kimbolton. New Zealand Rural Sculpture Awards, Rural Arts Festival. Celebrating creativity in rural New Zealand.

This morning a couple of damp beauties

Two more buds should open tomorrow

The wild deer wandering here and there
Keeps the human soul from care.
William Blake.