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# Face of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/face-of-the-day-653/
- Published: 2022-10-17T17:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2022-10-17T02:52:29.000Z
- Author: Good Oil Staff
- Tags: Culture, Education, NZ, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-16 22:48

For the first time in 10 years, Creative NZ declined a funding proposal for $31,000 to go towards an annual School Shakespeare festival. It was defunded for the following reasons:

> the Creative NZ board raised worries the festival “did not demonstrate the relevance to the **contemporary art context of Aotearoa** in this time and place and landscape”.  
>  
> It also said Shakespeare was “located within a **canon of imperialism** and missed the opportunity to create a living curriculum and show relevance”.  
>  
> \[…\] the application forced them to “question whether a singular focus on an Elizabethan playwright is most relevant for a **decolonising Aotearoa** in the 2020s and beyond”.  
>  
> NZ Herald

The decision has sparked controversy in New Zealand and overseas:

> A top Auckland University English Professor has written a highly-critical letter to the chief executive of a government agency that cut funding

> The decision by Creative NZ made headlines in major metropolitan English newspapers the Guardian and Daily Telegraph, along with the Irish Times.  
>  
> NZ Herald

> Dawn Sanders, CEO of Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand, said Creative NZ was trying to “cancel” Shakespeare and said the funding assessment comments couldn’t be “further from the truth.”  
>  
> One News

[Read more here.](https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/10/16/creative-nz-accused-of-cancelling-shakespeare-in-funding-cut/?ref=goodoil.news) Discuss it on *The BFD.*

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