Creative NZ recently declined a $31,000 funding proposal for the Shakespeare Globe Centre NZ (SGCNZ), the organisation responsible for the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival.
However, yesterday the Government announced it was working with the Ministry of Education to support the centre.
More than 100,000 pupils have been involved with the centre since it started in 1991.
In the funding document, the assessors said the proposal did not demonstrate relevance to New Zealand’s contemporary art landscape and the Shakespeare genre was "located within a canon of imperialism".
Among local actors who benefited from the centre was
Daniel Honey, who this year travelled to London to perform as part of the Young Shakespeare Company, an experience he called "life changing".
The King’s High School pupil said SGCNZ was his first acting experience and it was unlikely he would have tried the art without it.
He had been auditioning for acting schools in Wellington and would next year move to the capital to help at the centre.
"It basically nurtured my love of acting."
The argument that Shakespeare’s work were imperialist "could not be further from the point," he said.
Pupils had the freedom to approach the works however they wanted in a space that welcomed creativity.
Almost every school in the region had pupils that benefited from SGCNZ, he said.
Logan Park High School pupil Laura Cowles (17) joined with some of her fellow actors to write a letter to Creative NZ asking them to review the decision.
She was also one of the 24 pupils that travelled to London earlier this year as part of the programme.
She said the SGCNZ was predominantly run by volunteers and without support it would be more difficult for young people to get into acting.
The performances were not imperialist, but welcomed all cultures and actively decolonised theatre, she said.
