“Showcase that value and you make an irrefutable argument.” “For governments to generate public policies for these industries, they have to understand the economic value they bring,” she says. Everybody who does it does so because they have a passion for it – and they are willing to starve and sacrifice for that to happen.”įor Trinidad Zaldivar, Chief of the Creativity and Culture Unit at the IDB, the first challenge is to make the case for public administrators in the region to help create a profitable and sustainable creative sector.
The value of perseverance is a message she underscored at the Business Summit of the IDB’s 60th-anniversary celebration last year: “There aren’t that many incentives for creatives to do the work that they do. She is also a member of the IDB’s NextGen Board, which brings together 20 of Trinidad and Tobago’s brightest to inspire social, environmental and economic change in line with the IDB's Country Strategy and the country’s development goals. She has been invited to share her knowledge and inspiration with other creatives and entrepreneurs in the region at IDB gatherings such as FOROMIC, an annual event focused on reinventing inclusion with creative initiatives, based on digital solutions and new business.
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If the right kind of support were there for creative industries, it probably wouldn’t be that way, she adds.Īyoung-Chee is striving to change the equation, sharing her sense of how to capture the vast potential of the creative economy from a first-hand perspective.
It worked in my favor, but I feel as though it should not be the case,” she explains. “For whatever reason, among us in the Caribbean, and probably Latin America, there is this sense that you have to make it outside of the region in order to be validated. In the case of Radial, funding needed to be secured in the United States due to lack of local investment, much as Ayoung-Chee’s success owes much to her achievements abroad. Talent, however, is indeed facing structural hurdles in the region. The IDB study also showcases a region ripe with creative talent, with a further example from Trinidad and Tobago: Radial, a streaming app for soca music – the traditional genre of Carnival in the country – is tapping into the musical nostalgia of the vast diaspora, while also making the rhythms available to a wider public. Up to 20% of failed businesses were attributed to lack of conviction from the entrepreneur or business partners. Her assessment and experience echo the findings of Launching an Orange Future, a study on creative enterprises in the region by IDB: Sixty percent of entrepreneurs surveyed have had a creative business fail, with the most common causes being a lack of financing and strategic planning. Not all of them have worked, but I’ve seen it all as growth,” she says.Īyoung-Chee says more funding, capacity building, education and entrepreneurial training can help fill the gap between specialists’ “grandiose projections” about the potential of the creative industries in Latin America and the Caribbean and the concrete investments required. In the past nine years, I’ve started nine companies. “I’ve stood out because I’ve taken many chances. Though she credits her Project Runway win for giving her a “leg up” in her career, the result attests to the self-belief and perseverance that have propelled this mixed-race woman from a small country to entrepreneurial achievement. We’re overflowing with talent in this region.” “I’m part of this in-between generation who pursued our dream. I’m still part of a generation that’s bridging the gap,” explains Ayoung-Chee. “The lack of investment in entrepreneurs and the creative industries makes it very hard.
The contestant from Trinidad and Tobago would go on to win the 2011 season of the competition, setting an example for cultural and creative industries in the Caribbean and of how to overcome the challenges they face.
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Mere months before becoming a contestant on the trendy fashion design TV show Project Runway, Anya Ayoung-Chee was learning how to sew.
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