Over the past decade, carnival has been given increasing recognition as a valid artform and one that has tremendous potential as a tool for regeneration. Paul Anderson reports on the rise of carnival arts and the development of plans for a national centre for carnival.
As carnivals have become more organised, bigger, and brighter they have also become a platform for the expression of diverse communities and cultures. Many carnivals in the UK use the actual event as a way of asserting cultural pride and heritage, and as an important outlet for creative expression for those wanting to reclaim the streets: in other words, a kind of social, cultural and creative catharsis.
In many of the carnivals held in the UK (particularly Caribbean-style carnivals), the parades provide an exclusive opportunity for Mas bands, Mas artists and revellers to show off their intricately designed costumes and floats. Much of what you see on the street is designed by local and internationally acclaimed artists from the various traditions in carnival arts Caribbean, Brazilian or European styles, some paid and many unpaid.
Some UK carnivals - particularly in the more urbanised settings such as Luton, Leeds, Manchester and London - complement the visual spectacle of the parade with performance-based elements such as sound systems, stages and the occasional Soca tent. This offers different ways to engage and interact with different artforms and creates a platform for different cultures, ages and abilities.
Carnival and regeneration
Carnival has given rise to a wealth of creative expression and has now become an important outlet for many young people, who spend a great deal of time in their own bedrooms (doubling up as studios) where they produce music and lyrics, and practise cutting up for set pieces on stage. This has given rise to a host of crews, like So Solid and Artilla, who have developed a massive following from appearances on carnival stages around the country.
Many Mas bands, too, spend time in their own homes creating costumes to be displayed in the carnival event, but do not attract the same interest from multimillion-pound media companies looking for the next big thing. So how will carnival survive given the lack of attention to the artistic needs of bands and artists? Well, we in the Luton Carnival hope to have an answer to this!
There are well over 300 Mas bands across the UK, but very few of these access Arts Council England funding, much less regeneration funds, and they are invariably overlooked by charities, trusts and local authorities. At the same time many groups don't understand the language of 'outputs' and 'funding agreements'. However, in some cases regeneration funds have been used to enable carnival bands to participate in local festivals and celebrations. There are excellent examples of the use of carnival for regeneration in places like Leicester Braunston, Woodberry Down in Hackney and Marsh Farm in Luton.
Luton (and specifically the Luton Carnival Arts Development Trust [LCADT]) is soon to be home to the first-ever purpose-built and independently run centre for carnival arts in the world. As well as securing core funding from the Arts Council to build a team, we have managed to access a number of regeneration funds to support:
Educational work in schools
Intergenerational work
Training in managing event safety (an increasingly significant factor with new licensing regimes making carnival events much more organised and expensive)
Community development work,
Business development.
All this through engagement with carnival arts!
Collaboration
In essence, much of this was supported because Lutons 30-odd years of carnival event history has been honed, grown and supported by LCDAT in our quest to raise the status of carnival arts. LCDAT began in 1998 by attempting to build an inclusive approach to carnival arts participation through a community Mas Camp.
In Trinidadian carnival, Mas Camp is a workshop/making space (often in people's homes, forecourts, gardens and garages) hosted by individual competitive bands. We have pluralised this term and called our central workshop space by this name. This is now a pivotal hub for carnival enthusiasts from Luton and the surrounding region as from the second week in March, three months before Luton International Carnival, groups commence the building of costumes to be showcased.
It is not only Mas bands that attend, but also a huge range of schools, community groups, music and dance troupes from Samba, African, south Asian and Caribbean traditions all come to practise before they go on the road. The Mas Camp has been able to play down the competitive side of carnival-making and has focused the carnival community on working together and sharing: a kind of organic peer-led model. Lutons Mas Camp has given rise to a number of highly influential community leaders, skilled artists and business people who, having made a success of themselves in Luton, have gone on to export their talents to assist other carnivals around the country.
The first dedicated carnival centre has been designed by Ash Sakula Architects, who have worked to shape our vision for the artform around a physical space: a space that will take elements of a theatre, technical workshop, dance studio, community centre, crèche and a business centre and combine them all under one roof. The Centre will house a national archive for the artform, a business incubation centre to develop and support carnival-related businesses and entrepreneurs, and flexible spaces for informal and formal learning around different carnival styles, traditions and music. We will also be launching the countrys first foundation degree in carnival arts in association with the University of Luton.
Ongoing access
Central to all this will be the Mas Camp that will not only be set up before Luton carnival as usual, but will also host carnival-related events where carnival arts can be showcased and made accessible to the general public throughout the year. The centre will become one of Lutons larger venues, hosting cultural events that can hold up to 400 people at any one time. These events, showcases and spectacles will have strong roots in one or more of carnival's rich and diverse creative and cultural traditions - whether they are from European carnival styles or from Caribbean, South Asian and African traditions.
The National Centre for Carnival has not been named as yet, but this building will be completed in late 2007 when it will open for business. At present the Trust is embarking on a recruitment phase to build the capacity of its team, securing partnerships and building strategic alliances to safeguard and implement our ambitious plans for carnival.
Paul Anderson is Director of Luton Carnival Arts Development Trust. t: 01582 876084;
e: info@lcadt.com
w: http://www.lcadt.com
Luton International Carnival takes place on 29 May.