The sector was given more than $130,000 from the Dunedin City Council, the Ake Ake Theatre Company receiving almost $40,000 for two projects.
Ake Ake Theatre Company co-director Jessica Latton said $19,000 would support the production of a 2021 season of A Midsummer Nights Dream at Woodhaugh Gardens.
"We had a very successful first season of Dunedin Summer Shakespeare at Woodhaugh last summer and this will mean we can do it again."
Four professional actors would be hired for the production, and the remainder of the cast would comprise emerging young actors from the community, she said.
Another $18,000 would help to fund the national Maori Theatre Hui in Dunedin next March, which had been postponed due to Covid-19.
"Part of that will be at Huriawa pa in Karitane and the idea of the siege there."
Ms Latton said the company was delighted to receive the funding for two important projects.
"The arts are essential in any society or community — it gets people thinking."
While Covid-19 had put the arts sector on hold, the community was driven and would survive as it always did, she said.
"We’re resilient."
They were among more than 100 arts, creative communities, environmental groups and community events groups given council grants totalling more than $480,000.
