Visual arts educator Dave Cooper has launched an innovative cultural education program addressing a concerning disconnect in Trinidad’s youth understanding of their Carnival heritage. After nearly twenty years of teaching, Cooper noticed students could identify contemporary Carnival elements but lacked fundamental knowledge about its origins, cultural significance, and how its components interconnect.
The Wireman Initiative represents a multifaceted approach to cultural preservation, combining wire-bending artistry, recycled materials, music technology, and historical education. During 90-minute immersive sessions, participants construct miniature ‘wireman’ figures that transform into functional steelpan players when completed.
Each class begins with an educational component featuring a 15-minute lecture and video presentation on Trinidad Carnival’s origins, drawing from Cooper’s master’s degree research in Carnival Studies at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. The curriculum emphasizes historical creativity, highlighting how ancestors utilized available materials like wire and fibers when commercial resources were scarce.
The program’s technological innovation emerges through QR codes embedded in each wire sculpture. When scanned, these codes activate Cooper’s original composition ‘Adidas: All Day I Dream About Soca,’ specifically produced for the initiative to avoid intellectual property complications while seamlessly integrating music into the educational experience.
Beyond technical skills, the initiative teaches the anatomy of steel orchestras by having participants create different pan types—tenor, double tenor, double second, double guitar, and triple cello—each producing appropriate melodies that collectively function as a miniature orchestra.
Cooper views this project as addressing a critical gap in formal education systems, noting the absence of Carnival studies at secondary school levels despite Carnival’s status as a multi-billion dollar global industry exclusively featuring Trinidad-style celebrations. He is developing a secondary-school curriculum called ‘fetecraft’ focused on Trinidad-style fête décor and authoring ‘Carnival Arts Practices for Secondary Schools.’
The initiative also aims to counterbalance what Cooper perceives as excessive hypersexuality in modern Carnival, seeking to refocus attention on cultural foundations rather than commercial exploitation. He believes educational foundation will protect Trinidad’s cultural distinctiveness from evolving into other Carnival styles like Brazil’s.
Scheduled to operate as cultural field trips with three daily sessions four days weekly at Port of Spain’s Carnival Museum, the program has garnered support from the Port of Spain City Corporation and Bermudez as sponsor, with hopes for additional ministerial and corporate backing.
The project represents a personal full-circle moment for Cooper, whose childhood fascination with Carnival began with creating wire figures at age six using his patented ‘Cooper’s Twist’ technique. His professional journey encompasses visual arts education, industrial design training in Brazil, and extensive experience designing Carnival events worldwide through his company Hybrid Theory.
Cooper intends to pursue doctoral studies based on his fetecraft concept, aspiring to become an authority on cultural education within Carnival studies while inspiring youth to channel their creativity toward positive cultural development.