Creatively funding creativity
Published on 4 February, 2026
Originally published in the Waikato Business News, Tuesday 3 February 2026.
By David Christiansen, Executive Officer, Momentum Waikato.
The opening of the new BNZ Theatre was a momentous moment for Momentum Waikato and the region, we are proud to have convened and led such a significant community project.
David Christiansen.
The essential ethos of Momentum and all other community foundations is in the name – to build and sustain community.
Behind the various ways we enable and grow generosity in the Waikato is our underlying belief in the value of active communities, as the bedrock of sustainable local wellbeing in all its forms.
This is why the theatre project fitted into Momentum’s agenda – because community is created and nurtured when people gather together. Our ‘Share the Stage’ slogan for the Theatre campaign spoke to both performers and audiences, because it is Kapunipuni, a place where we gather as a community.
Creative Waikato has done ground-breaking research on the links between creativity, wellbeing and community across the region. Their 2022 project ‘Wellbeing and Arts, Culture and Creativity in the Waikato’, produced with Huber Social, surveyed the experiences and perceptions of a range of local people.
It found nearly everyone values creativity, most are regularly exposed to some form of art and culture, sometimes without realising it, and they recognise that those experiences have mental health and wellbeing benefits for themselves and others, which ultimately benefits the whole of society.
We asked ourselves – how to boost the cultural momentum created by the Theatre coming online? How to dovetail that ‘creativity = wellbeing = community’ agenda into our primary activity of philanthropic endowments? What would propagate participation in everyday creativity, or springboard artistic talent into professional careers, right across the region?
Day two of the three-day showcase – To The Stars / Ki Ngā Whetū at the Waikato Regional Theatre.
At the moment, practitioners and groups have limited support options. There is some small art-specific funding available locally and nationally from government entities and community funders, and those sources also offer larger sums but with creative activities competing with other community needs. Or sponsorship from businesses or ‘angel investors’ or crowd funding can be pursued.
What there hasn’t been to date is a public-facing Waikato-based philanthropic investment fund covering all art, culture and creativity, wherein anyone can donate or bequest to support local creativity, knowing their contribution will provide ongoing funding that will be perpetually and expertly allocated to creative activity.
Happily, an anonymous donor shared our vision to more creatively fund creativity, who also wanted to celebrate the Theatre’s opening by bolstering the local cultural ecosystem.
With their serious opening donation, we have together established the ‘Momentum Waikato Arts, Culture and Creativity Fund’.
Further donations to this new fund will more quickly grow what it can offer, and its distributions to region-wide artistic and cultural endeavours will start in a couple of years.
This exciting initiative will ensure the new BNZ Theatre is only the beginning of the Waikato becoming a major cultural hub, with a rejuvenated sense of community.
Day two of the three-day showcase – To The Stars / Ki Ngā Whetū at the Waikato Regional Theatre.
PHOTOS by Caroline Gill / GOOD LOCAL MEDIA.
