The Karamea Community Arts Council (KCAC) was originally established in 1992 to assist the Buller District Council in distributing funding from Creative New Zealand’s Creative Communities fund. Many grants were given out until there was a change in the nature of the funding distribution. Currently Creative Communities funding is now applied to directly from Creative Communities Buller via the Buller District Council, and the Karamea area has a representative at these meetings.
Members of the Karamea community can apply for funding themselves and the Arts Council can assist with accessing and filling out forms. It is important to note that the KCAC itself does not hold funds or decide what funding applications are accepted. The Buller District Council has established an Assessment Committee made up of two Councillors, one person from local Iwi, one person from each of the Community Arts Councils, of which there are three (Karamea, Buller that covers the Westport area, and Inangahua), plus two community members.
Please check out these useful links here if you are interested in finding out more:
http://bullerdc.govt.nz/funding/creative-communities-scheme
If you have a good idea for an artistic community endeavour and need some help to get started, please feel free to get in touch at the email below.
Arts Council events in recent years have included Winter School; a month of knowledge sharing workshops held in June (since 2014), and the annual Arts and Crafts Exhibition. In 2017, KCAC won the Arts & Culture section of the Trustpower Buller Community Awards in recognition of the volunteer efforts that made these two events happen.
Past events include Photography and Poetry competitions, and performances from a wide range of artists including Arts On Tour NZ performers. In 2018) the Arts Council assisted Karamea's Variety Show organisers to bring this exciting new event to the community.
There have been many dedicated volunteers on the Arts Council since it formed, all helping to make sure that no matter how isolated, Karamea doesn't miss out on the wonderful world of the arts.
Are you interested in helping? If you would like to join the Arts Council, please don't be shy! We welcome new members to help with our current projects, or to bring ideas for new ones.
If you wish to contact us please email karameaartscouncil@yahoo.com
Karamea Photography Competition
Updated July 2024