Arts Festival Ambassadors are a voice for youth in Hawke's Bay

Thirteen Hawke's Bay youths have been given a rare chance to speak their minds to a captive audience at the Harcourts Hawke's Bay Arts Festival.

The Furnware Ambassadors for the Hawke's Bay Arts Festival devised their own piece Manawa Whenua – Spring of Fragrant Water to rapturous applause.

"It is an exploratory story about how they fit in," festival education coordinator Daniel Betty said.

"Puti Lancaster and I worked together to invite them all to come to a workshop over a weekend and then we selected a group of them to participate in the devising process."

Original music was an integral part of the performance, which featured one of last year's ambassadors, Isobelle Walker.

Betty said the performance was just one part of the ambassador programme, which helped students decide whether a career in the arts was for them.

"In some ways I guess the ambassador programme is a little bit like an opportunity for an ambassador to really make a decision about whether this industry is for them.

"We have had students going off to Toi Whakaari, we have students that are musicians that are going off to Victoria University's Jazz School, we have had students go off to Unitec into the acting courses there.

"A beautiful thing is every year they come back and they always give me a call and they always tell me about what they're up to and we share."

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