Arts Access Aotearoa was established as a charitable trust in 1995 with funding from Creative New Zealand.
It was created primarily to meet a key objective of the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Act 1994:[1] that is, to support "the availability of projects of merit to communities or sections of the population that would otherwise not have access to them".
Networks have been established in Wellington,[10] Auckland,[11] Canterbury, Otago and Taranaki and bring together representatives from the disability sector, arts and cultural organisations, and venues to share resources and ideas about building new audiences by improving access for disabled people.
[13][14][15] A recognised part of the social services in New Zealand, creative spaces provide a space, a sense of community, resources and support for people to produce art or participate in artistic activities such as theatre, dance, visual arts, creative writing and music.
These include Vincents Art Workshop in Wellington, the first such space established in 1985, as well as Artsenta, which opened in Dunedin in 1986.