Celestine Williams

Cyan Development Concepts

What does your company do?

We are a Centre of Learning and Production. 1. We train youth We work with young emerging creatives and youth entrepreneurs. We offer holistic development training and mentoring to them. This includes Personal Development training, the Basics of Business and Creative Arts skills. 2. We produce art We work with industry professionals and train the youth to produce art that meet industry standards. They acquire valuable technical skills and hone their abilities to create arts products. 3. We manage internships We place youth in industry where they can learn important workplace skills and develop a strong work ethic. They earn while they learn. They also learn from industry experts on the job and they acquire sound business etiquette.

What is your biggest success?

The greatest achievements include: 1. Being in business for this long, since arts is not generally perceived as a viable business but a hobby. 2. Working with industry professionals and experts who have a healthy regard for our work 3. Having trained hundreds, of not thousands, of youth, who continue to make arts a career or business 4. Actively making a change in the lives of our youth who need guidance and mentorship along with sound skills and knowledge

What has been your biggest hurdle?

The biggest hurdle to date includes: 1. The perception that art is mainly a hobby and not a career nor business. 2. The lack of investors for funding the arts and quality arts education 3. The lack of permanent staff in our business that makes it challenging ito continuity since we have a big dependency on graduate interns supporting our work