2024 Hastings City Art Gallery Youth Art Ambassadors Programme youth leaders. Photo / Max Bull-Crossman
OPINION
I began my involvement with the Hastings Art Gallery in 2017 when the Youth Art Ambassadors Programme (YAAP) launched its first year.
The Youth Art Ambassadors Programme is a free, peer-led programme for rangatahi (young people) aged 15-19 years with a keen interest in art. They meet like-minded people and gain insight into what goes on behind the scenes at the gallery and the career opportunities available in the GLAM (Gallery, Library, Art, and Museum) sector.
Through workshops and studio visits, the rangatahi also learn what it means to be a gallery ambassador and meet local Hawke’s Bay artists.
My experience in the programme fostered my love for art and gallery spaces, and I returned to YAAP as a youth leader in the two years following my first year.
Seven years later, I have returned to Heretaunga after studying and now work as a gallery assistant at the Hastings Art Gallery. I have the pleasure of leading the re-launch of YAAP this year with the gallery’s manager of learning and audience, Elham Salari. This is the first year YAAP has returned after Covid-19.
The youth leaders selected for YAAP this year are Alisca Gray (Karamu High School), Sita FitzGerald (Taikura Rudolph Steiner School), Cushla Lambert (Havelock North High School), Stephanie Palmer (Havelock North High School), Ellamae Van Seventer (Hastings Christian School), Jemima Van Seventer (Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu Correspondence School) and Maggie Taylor-Matthews (Karamu High School).
We met and started our first session just last week.
If you’re a 15-19-year-old who loves art and is keen to participate in the programme, the applications for YAAP 2025 will open this November.
YAAP runs fortnightly over 10 sessions. Our first session kicked off with the rangatahi sharing kai, playing icebreaker games, and creating personalised name badges with a collection of art materials.
Their passion and excitement for art were palpable, and I am looking forward to seeing what they will contribute to the gallery and to the wider art world.
As we move into our second session, the rangatahi will tour the gallery’s behind-the-scenes areas and begin to consider the local artists they want to meet and work with during the programme.
My own YAAP group worked with local artist Ema Scott. Ema toured us through her beautiful art studio. This experience opened my eyes to the range of creative career pathways and influenced my own desire to work within the art world and continue creating art.
YAAP enabled me to see how turning my passion for creativity into a career was possible. I am excited for this year’s YAAP participants to experience all the programme offers.
The programme concludes its 10 sessions with a final event, organised and run by the rangatahi. This event can be anything from organising and running a community art workshop to setting up their own art exhibition to an art day in the gallery with their peers.
I am excited to watch the rangatahi continue to foster their passion for art, perhaps even sparking a pathway toward a future in the creative world for some, as it did for me.
If you want to keep up with YAAP this year, you can find updates on YAAP and other gallery events and programmes at https://www.hastingscityartgallery.co.nz/.
