UNESCO drives support to cultural entrepreneurs in Ecuador!

UNESCO, through the International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD) supported the development of the Cuenca Cultural Incubator in the Cuenca region of Ecuador with funding of over US$84,000. The project is an initiative of the Nucleo del Azuay House of Ecuadorian Culture  (Casa de la Cultura Benjamin Carrion Núcleo del Azuay) for the promotion of entrepreneurship and the Cultural Economy.

Between 2019 and 2022, the IFCD grant enabled the Cuenca Cultural Incubator to improve the facilities of the cultural incubator through a Media Lab and an open working space, to establish 10 official partnerships with public, academic, and civil society organizations, and to develop a strong methodology to provide professional and skills training. In addition, seed funding was allocated to help cultural entrepreneurs in the region to turn their ideas into successful business ventures.

A total of 28 cultural entrepreneurial projects benefited from training and 10 received seed funding through the Cuenca Cultural Incubator during this time. Participants included artists, promoters, and creators from the fields of art, design, multimedia and music, among others.

One project selected for seed funding was InDanza, a local movement laboratory and contemporary dance company that aims to make dance accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. Their innovative social and artistic vision seeks to generate new aesthetics around dance and disability and to make their impact visible through education, social and corporate responsibility partnerships, and artistic performances.

At the end of the incubation stage, 80% of the entrepreneurs had created a viable product and 70% already had made sales, totalling a collective increase of 400% in monthly sales. Several of the entrepreneurs also secured other sustainable sources of funding to support their projects.

Thanks to the growing network of IFCD beneficiaries across the globe, the Cuenca Cultural Incubator further developed a partnership with the Yucatecan Institute of Entrepreneurship (Instituto Yucateco de Emprendedores - IYEM), one of the implementing partners of the project “Promoting the creative economy in the state of Yucatan”, who is another beneficiary of the IFCD in Mexico. This partnership allowed both initiatives to share expertise and experiences in the field of entrepreneurship and business innovation, while improving their methodology and capacity to support cultural entrepreneurs in the region.

The cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are important drivers of inclusive and sustainable social and economic development across the globe making them a priority for UNESCO. Representing 3.1% of global GDP and 6.2% of all employment, they are also among the world’s fastest growing industries. The Cuenca Cultural Incubator was selected from among 480 proposals submitted in 2019 and marks the first time Ecuador received funding from the IFCD.

The IFCD aims to advance the development of CCIs in developing countries. It does this through supporting initiatives which reinforce public cultural institutions essential to the development of cultural industries by strengthening financing and market development for cultural goods and services and by widening the participation of previously excluded regions and social groups in the creation, production and distribution of cultural goods and services.