Creative New Zealand has today announced the launch of www.fuel4arts.co.nz, a local portal to an international online arts community – the result of the first formal partnership between Creative New Zealand and the Australia Council for the Arts. www.fuel4arts.co.nz will provide practical, high-quality, targeted and free information often unaffordable to artists and arts organisations. Based on the Australian model, it will include arts marketing case studies, online discussion forums, articles, reports on trends, research and an up-to-date database of industry contacts, with a New Zealand focus. The original www.fuel4arts.com was set up by the Australia Council for the Arts in 1998 to build arts marketing and audience development capability in Australia . It now has more than 13,500 members from 124 countries. Creative New Zealand Chief Executive Elizabeth Kerr says that www.fuel4arts.co.nz will serve as an entry point for the New Zealand arts sector into the worldwide www.fuel4arts.com community, connecting them to colleagues, ideas and international examples of effective arts marketing. It will also provide opportunities to showcase home-grown best practice in arts marketing. ‘It’s vital that New Zealand artists and arts organisations meet the challenges of attracting new audiences for their work,’ said Miss Kerr. Tapping into the experiences and insights of international colleagues facing similar challenges will inspire new ways of marketing their work and building audiences.’ Sally Markham, Community Arts Development Manager at The Edge in Auckland uses resources available from www.fuel4arts.com in her everyday work. ‘I find this resource extremely valuable,’ she said. ‘It’s easy to feel isolated working in arts marketing and this website links me into an active international network. It is reassuring to discover that your colleagues throughout the world have similar concerns.’ Kirsten Dennis, Marketing and Development Manager at the Royal New Zealand Ballet, has been a member of www.fuel4arts.com for years. ‘In arts marketing, it’s easy to feel that every challenge you face is something you have to navigate on your own,’ said Ms Dennis. ‘But seeing how other organisations have dealt with similar issues helps me make more informed decisions.’ ‘With fuel4arts.co.nz, overseas artists and arts organisations will be able to learn from our experiences just as we can learn from theirs.’ Findings from research undertaken by Creative New Zealand revealed that most New Zealand artists felt they needed help with marketing and audience development. The organisation’s partnership with the Australia Council for the Arts to establish www.fuel4arts.co.nz is one of the ways it’s responding to this need. ‘Acquiring knowledge and skills in marketing and audience development can make a huge difference,’ said Miss Kerr. ‘The launch of www.fuel4arts.co.nz is an important and exciting step towards building the capability of the New Zealand arts sector.’ To view the new portal, visit www.fuel4arts.co.nz