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The Arts and Heritage Minister believes a restructured Arts Council will mean greater prominence for the Maori arts.
Legislation passed this week does away with Creative New Zealand and its Te Waka Toi and Pacific Island Arts committees and replaces them with a single 13-member Arts Council.
Minister Chris Finlayson says at least four members of the council will have knowledge of Maori Arts, te ao Maori and tikanga Maori, and it will also form a Maori advisory committee.
He says as a former chair of the Creative New Zealand Arts Board, he saw the layers of red tape and expense created by splitting the funder from the provider.
"I would be dealing with a whole lot of funding applications which would raise big policy matters. The council were totally divorced from reality because they were sitting on their thrones dealing with theoretical matters. I was dealing with the practical matters, What we are trying to do is bring the theory and the practical back together again, which will make for a more efficient body,"
Mr Finlayson says.
New members of the Arts Council have been selected and will be announced in the next few weeks.
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