30 Sep 2009

Wealthy encouraged to donate to arts

6:46 am on 30 September 2009

The Government has put together a taskforce of wealthy philanthropists who will look at whether incentives such as tax breaks might encourage rich donors to give more to the arts.

The group, headed by former Creative New Zealand chair Peter Biggs, met for the first time last week in Auckland.

Arts and Culture Minister Chris Finlayson says the taskforce hopes to encourage a culture of philanthropy and is not part of any sort of secret agenda to minimise Government expenditure on the arts.

Mr Finlayson says this is part of the National Party's election pledge to turbo charge community groups and will not replace any Government funding.