Expanding beneficiaries of the Carnival economy

If you are receiving benefits from a particular situation it is important to ensure those around you get similar opportunities.

That was the idea behind the Carnival Art Exhibition 2024 by Freetown Collective featuring The Lost Tribe artists which is being held at The Brix Hotel, Port of Spain, until February 26.

Freetown Collective manager Keron Niles said Carnival was Trinidad and Tobago’s largest cultural export and one of the largest national exports after the oil and gas, and manufacturing sectors. It was also one of the country’s largest foreign exchange earners.

“It's really important to ensure that we expand the base of beneficiaries of the festival economy. It's really, really important that a lot of people benefit, not just financially, but in experiences from the Carnival every year.

“The reason why we did this (exhibition) is because the theme for this year was all hands on deck. It was actually paying tribute to the sailors of our traditional mas. But one of the things that we thought about from the start was ‘a rising tide lifts every boats in the harbour.’ So we thought about how we could increase the base of people that benefit from this?”

The idea started with an exhibition during Freetown Collective’s concert at Sound Forge, Port of Spain, on February 4.

He said the environment created at Freetown Collective concerts allowed for the art exhibition there so the group used it as a platform to create opportunities for others, to allow others to gain exposure and earn an income from its event.

At the concert, the band partnered with the entrepreneur platform Nudge Caribbean, showcasing the wares of small business owners. But it was also used as a way to open people’s eyes to the multidimensionality of local artists.

After the success of the concert exhibition, the group decided to extend it for a few weeks.

Niles said, this time, the group collaborated with The Lost Tribe. The mas band was contacted because the group wanted to partner with an entity that was actively involved in Carnival, their audiences intersected, and they both valued the contribution of creativity to TT culture.

“There is a misconception about the persons involved in the mas, that they only design these bikinis with sequins and beads, and there's not much creativity. One of the things the art exhibition was able to show is we are actually dealing with artists. It's important to remember that regardless of what people think about the costumes themselves.

“And so we wanted to pull the experience back into art. I think that's important because Carnival economy itself is fed by musical, visual and performing arts. We have to remember that the thing that is commercially exploited comes from something that is real.”

The curator of the event explained the exhibition had 20 paintings and mixed media pieces from eight artists as well as limited prints signed by the artists.

The artists included the Freetown family of lead singer Muhammad Muwakil, back-up singer Malene Joseph, set designer Nadya Shah, and pierrot grenade Keomi Serrette. On the Lost Tribe side were mas designers Valmiki Maharaj, Jean-Paul Richardson, Atiba Borde and Lindon JD Mitchel.

She said some of the artists created pieces for the exhibition while others contributed previously created work, and several of the pieces had Carnival themes. She said Borde created pieces based on devil mas while Maharaj did his piece during the pandemic so it included pieces of face masks decorated with beads.

The pieces from Shah were large and smaller prints of huge black-and-white pieces she created on plyboard for Freetown Collective concerts over the years based on songs by the band.

She said Muhammad pulled from his imagination. All his pieces had stories behind them and the characters he painted were reminiscent of folklore.

“If you know Muhammad’s work he is very into his thoughts so his pieces are very surreal and playful, so at first glance you may not necessarily understand what it’s about.”

Niles expressed the Freetown Collective appreciation to The Brix Hotel for its assistance and enthusiasm. He added the group would like to make the exhibition an annual event but it will first do an audit to see the impact on the patrons and the artists.