Peter Tosh, kids have lots in common
THE PETER Tosh Museum opened on October 19, 2016 to an invited audience. On November 1, at the public opening, I was moved by the first group to visit – schoolchildren from the Horace Clarke High School in St Mary, Jamaica. What a beautiful thing this was.
Art is an excellent subject to be encouraged among students at a very young age. In fact, this is what is most encouraging about the Peter Tosh Museum, which I was fortunate to have assisted in setting up.
I was particularly excited about the experience my son Cole had throughout the process of creating a museum. He does not yet realise it, but it is a distinct privilege that he will carry throughout his life.
Cole had the incredible opportunity to hear his dad, Kingsley Cooper, who spearheaded the museum project, manage the programme at the official dedication of the museum by Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Tosh’s birthday last year.
Forgive me if I am about to sound giddy-headed about this experience through the eyes of my boy (I have now discovered that parents often live their joys and childlike awe at even the simple things, through their children), but it was truly a remarkable one.
RARE PROJECT
Consider this: Museum openings are not routine occurrences in the art world, let alone in Jamaica. They take years to be commissioned and built. Yet, Cole witnessed this rare project from the basic construction phase, where block-laying and block-breaking gave way to a new space in which one of his favourite items went on display as a museum artefact.
You may be thinking that a threeyear-old does not get excited by a museum, especially if it is not kid-centric. But Cole was. He is moved by the things in which he finds specific interest and is already scarily self-directed in this regard. And, like any child his age would, he locked in on one of the key artefacts that fascinated him.
For the months leading up to the museum’s opening, while all the items were under restoration mode, he found an objet d’art that he was obsessed with: the unicycle. There were days when a simple mention of Peter Tosh would elicit steady interrogation. “Where is the unicycle? I need to ride the unicycle!”
Cole even made up his own Peter Tosh song, not caring much that his composition only had the legend’s name in line and verse! Such was his fascination. Tosh would have found this method of questioning quite appropriate since this was a project to honour his music and legacy.
With his parents consumed with all things Tosh, it was easy to see how he caught the ‘Peter Tosh Museum fever’. While there is some truth to this, he could have also completely ignored our immersion in the project. And, perhaps the boy did have a primer that subconsciously heightened his awareness and joy at his Peter Tosh Museum experience.
A TREND