Creative New Zealand has awarded funding grants of up to NZ$12,000 each to the Auckland Philharmonia, Capital E’s National Theatre for Children and Downstage Theatre to assist with audience development. The audience development projects initiated by the three organisations were developed through the Creative New Zealand Future Strengths strategy, which aims to strengthen the country’s professional arts infrastructure. Auckland Philharmonia’s project aims to encourage Asian audience attendance, while the Capital E’s National Theatre for Children’s project is aimed at developing audiences for touring shows in South Auckland. Meanwhile, Downstairs Theatre in Wellington will enhance an electronic marketing tool and research the tool's effectiveness. Creative New Zealand Chief Executive, Elizabeth Kerr, said the three projects were selected because they each worked to target important audience development issues, had the potential to lever additional resources and build new partnerships, and could provide information to the rest of the sector. ‘Developing audiences is vital for the long-term health of any professional arts organisation,’ Kerr said. ‘This new initiative is about developing new audiences and learning more about existing audiences. Ultimately, this will lead to increased audience attendance figures and box-office revenue.’ For more information, visit the Creative New Zealand website.