PAN DEVELOPMENT NEEDS STRUCTURED SPONSORSHIP

While there is nothing fundamentally wrong with Pan Trinbago’s obtaining State and/or corporate sponsorship for the structured development of pan, nonetheless the demand by the organisation that Government should provide it with $22.8 million for Carnival 2005, or else, was unfortunate. The pan movement has been the beneficiary of sponsorship since the early 1960s, because of the intervention of late Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams. But Dr Williams appeared to see this sponsorship, not in terms of development of the instrument, although this would become an unplanned byproduct of his intervention, but for the purpose of steelbands taking part in Panorama and other Carnival season shows on more or less even terms, and to keep possible flare-ups at Carnival and the run up to Carnival to a minimum.

So that when Pan Trinbago seeks to apply what can best be described as mid 20th century thinking to an early 21st century setting, it does itself, the movement and the whole question of sponsorship or rather patronage of the arts, however unwittingly, an undeserved injustice. Patronage of the arts has been around long before enterprising Trinidadians invented pan. It has been responsible for the celebrated frescoes of Michelangelo which adorn the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and provided the opportunity for North American audiences to hear in all their majesty at the Metropolitan Opera the magnificent voices of Enrico Caruso and Marion Anderson. There has been sponsorship of the arts by the Church, the State, corporations and by wealthy individuals and families. Many Broadway theatres and productions have received and continue to receive sponsorship. Even halls of learning, for example the University of Southern California, which in the 1970s received a great deal of sponsorship from the late Shah of Iran, have been beneficiaries of patronage.

Pan Trinbago is in good company when it seeks patronage, but is out on the proverbial limb when it demands it. When Dr Williams sought sponsorship of the steelband it was because his People’s National Movement Government, even as it understood the importance of the pan, was unable to be pan’s patron because of low Government revenues. I should add that Eric Williams was in the tradition of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, late President of the United States of America. Trinidad and Tobago Government revenue in 1960, when Williams first began tinkering with the idea of pan sponsorship (he would actively promote it later) was $186.7 million, although that year 277 oil wells were completed as oil producers, with an up to that time record production of 42,559,000 barrels of crude. Of course, American, British and Dutch crude oil majors were shafting us with a market price of US$2.30 to US$2.60 a barrel, based on the iniquitous Law of the First Price. But I have strayed.

Because of the Depression there had been active nationwide Federal patronage of the arts in the United States some twenty-five years before Dr Williams would toy with the idea of advancing corporate sponsorship of steebands. In 1935, President Roosevelt’s Administration had introduced a Federal Arts Programme under which actors, writers, musicians and artistes received year-round Federal subsidised incomes. The famous Afro-American author, Richard Wright, was among the beneficiaries. The incomes of the musicians, writers, actors along with the rest of those who benefited had been modest, yet there is no record of ultimatums issued. The innovative Federal programme would be phased out a few years later as the country’s across the board financial situation improved. In turn, corporate sponsorship had resulted in the creation of the Smithsonian Institute, while the famous Vanderbilt family had been among the early financial backers of the Metropolitan Opera Company, which over the years featured the likes of Caruso, Marion Anderson and Arturo Toscanini, the famed conductor.

Pan Trinbago should seek to develop strategies, as the Newsday Editorial of Tuesday, October 5 has pointed out, which would see a move away from the Carnival mindset and instead promote year round employment of, initially, the core players of the leading pansides. In addition, the Editorial stressed, the pan movement should be run as a business and as any other business properly marketed. A crucial point of the Editorial was that Pan Trinbago should have a Pan Theatre, along with a carefully designed and promoted pan season, August through September and capitalising on the Independence and Republic Day holidays.

From where I sit such a Pan Theatre should receive full financial backing from the oil, natural gas and energy based majors in Trinidad and Tobago through a ploughing back into the economy a fraction of the profits they earn here. This would create jobs for stagehands, lighting experts, technicians, managers, among others, apart from create the stage, not merely for core pan players in leading bands to gain year round employment, but assistant pan tuners, writers of sheet music, transport contractors. The list is seemingly endless. The ball, as the cliche goes, is now in Pan Trinbago’s court. It is up to it, with the assistance of Government, of course, to plan for and negotiate corporate patronage of the instrument.