Caribbean Examination Council

Candidate Name: Destiny J. Herbert

Candidate Number: 1900060113
Center Code: 190006
Name of School: Charlotte Brookson Academy
Year: 2021-2022
Territory: St.Maarten
Subject: Dance
Table of Contents

Acknowledgment 3

Rationale 4

Lucinda Audain 5

Creative Piece 7

Appendix 8
Images of Practitioner 8-9
Proof of Investigation 10-11
Interview Questions and Answers 12-18

Reflection 19

Bibliography 20
 Acknowledgment

First off, the researcher would like to thank god for providing her with the strength to complete
this School Based-Assignment.

Secondly, many thanks and gratitude are being given to her dance teachers and parents for
guiding her throughout this process. For without all these persons the completion of this School
Based-Assignment wouldn’t be possible.
 Rationale

Lucinda Audain was born December 7th, 1984, and from a very young age she has been making
a mark on St. Maarten. As a creative director Ms.Audain has impacted numerous youths on
St.Maarten, educating them in different arts such as silt waking, fire breathing, dancing, painting
and drawing and much more. Throughout all of her trials and errors, Lucinda has pushed through
to ensure that her life goal is accomplished.

The researcher chose Lucinda Audain due to the work that she has done with the youths on
St.Maarten. Her aim and drive to push and encourage the youths on St. Maarten can be
inspirational, and makes a unique mark on the arts of theater. This assignment will showcase the
works that Ms. Lucinda Audain has done and what she has achieved with FunTopia.
 Lucinda Audain

Born on this island, St. Maarten, December 7th, 1984, was a female that was given the name
Lucinda La’Rich Audain. Lucinda attended the St.Maarten Academy High School, wherein she
then graduated in 2002 as a cum laude student. In the upcoming year of 2008, she acquired her
Bachelors Degree in Facilities Management Business Administration at the Hanze University of
applied science in the Netherlands. Throughout this year Lucinda also debuted as a poet at the
Philipsburg Jubilee Library and while doing that she is also known for being a member of the
One Poet Society.

Ms. Audain 's life passion is art and culture, and her main form of self expression is painting and
writing. Lucinda manages herself as an artist under the name La’Rich which originates from her
second name. This dynamic individual is epitome of what a multidimensional artist is. Lucinda
as an individual has earned the skill of being a painter, poet, self taught graphic designer and a
digital artist. As an artist she is also the Co Founder of From The Soil, this group consist of pro
active cultural enthusiasts whose mission is to promote St.Maarten’s culture as well as its history
on both a local and international level with members based in the Netherlands and England. Not
only is Lucinda known as a Co Founder for From The Soil, she is also the owner and creative
director of Movement for the Arts, Dance and Entertainment Productions, which abbreviates
M.A.D.E Productions. This movement focuses on stimulating creative business and
entertainment within the industry by collaborating with local artists and entertainers. Within the
island of St. Maarten, if you are inneed of a face and body painter, makeup artist, conceptual
photo shoots, an event planner, mural designer, portraits and digital designer, you can contact
Ms. Audain at her current establishment known as Funtopia.

In the year 2012, Lucinda created a second company after Body Arts by La’Rich which is now
named Funtopia and this year 2022 commemorates its 10 year anniversary. The concept for this
establishment was to work with adults, but they did not see the concept so initially the
establishment became youths based cooperation that focuses on skills development and creative
concepts working primarily with young persons. Acquiring youths to be a part of this
establishment was not the easiest, this process came with a lot of trial and error, proving to
persons that this idea can work, working out a concept and gathering consistent people. Although
Funtopia was created in 2012, it wasn’t until 2014-2015 that people started to understand the
motive and mission of Funtopia, and from here is when business started to grow.

Lucinda Audain has made an important impact on the island of St. Maarten and can now be
known as one of the island's cultural practitioners. The way in which her establishment Funtopia
has taught numerous youths within the island different art skills such as silt walking, dancing,
painting and drawing, fire breathing, face and body painting is inspiring and encouraging to the
upcoming youths and adults on St. Maarten.
 Creative Piece
Lucinda Auadain was born and raised on one of the Dutch Caribbean islands called St.Maarten.
She’s a mural, portraits and digital designer, makeup artist, face and body painter along with so
much more. Ms. Audain has educated a great number of kids on the island of St. Maarten in the
arts of face and body painting, fire breathing, silt walking, painting, drawing and dancing. She is
also a part of a few groups which helps to promote the different arts as well as St. Maarten’s
Culture.

Lucinda has earned a variety of skills and throughout her knowledge she has then taught these
skills to many youths on the island. She shares these skills through an organization which she has
created, called Funtopia. Through this foundation many young persons can say that their artistic
side has been enhanced in many different ways and forms. Not only has Lucinda enhanced their
creativity but has also instilled morals and virtues into her youths so that they can be prepared
and ready for the outside world. The work that she has done on the island is not only
extraordinary but is also inspiring to the younger generation who are aiming to follow in her
footsteps. Due to her work she has helped pave a path for many youths to excel in the area of arts
and so much more.

Through her devotion in helping the youths and the island, Lucinda Audain can now be known
as a cultural practitioner on the island of St. Maarten. What she has done is truly life changing.
Her work is greatly appreciated by the citizens and will be remembered by the majority.
 Appendix

Images of Practitioner

Lucinda Audain critiqued the artwork for Charlotte Brookson Academy of the performance
students (2018)

Lucinda Audain being interviewed for The Great TV (2015)

 Lucinda Audain performing a poem (2012)

Lucinda Audain along with Funtopia members with the Government of St.Maarten
Proof of Investigation
 Interview Questions and Answers

Question 1

❖ When was Funtopia first established?

Funtopia was established in 2012.

Question 2

❖ What career did you pursue before Funtopia?

Before I did Funtopia I did several things, I studied international Facility Management in
the Netherlands and then worked in the Facility Management Department for the
government for 4 ½ years. After i got a job as a creative designer in a event planning
company, i did that for almost 3 years then I created Funtopia

Question 3

❖ Who or what inspired you to start your company?

I started out first doing body painting around the island, so i had a company before
Funtopia called Body Arts by La Rich, and then I went to Miami, Florida to attend the
international Body Arts convention, and there i learnt different things within
entertainment, where face painting and body arts is concerned and i got a lot of ideas of
what i can do to expand my business, in other to maximize profitability. That was the first
instinct and then as I got more into it, I started to work with young people and the whole
concept of the business changed to be more of a youth based`cooperation that focuses on
skills development and creative concepts working primarily with young persons.

Question 4

❖ What are some challenges you encountered while creating Funtopia?

First, initially the concept I wanted to work with adults, but they didn’t see the vision or
the scope because they didn’t travel to Florida to see these concepts existing so it was
different. Initially it was very difficult to get young people involved in the company, with
a lot of trial and error and proving a lot of people wrong that it can work. just working out
the concepts, getting consistent people, trying to convince clients that it’s worth their
money, delivering service, what that looks like developing a brand, all of those are
 challenges. It wasn’t until 2014-2015 that people really understood what FunTopia was
about and then we started to grow in that respect.

Question 5

❖ How did you solve them?

Trial and error because anything you do you're gonna fail several times before you get it
correct and I never was afraid to fail. I made some very expensive life lessons during the
creation of Funtopia. It was difficult because nobody really believed in the dream, so
that's how it goes sometimes and you just have to live with that fact and you put in your
100% effort and eventually things will manifest the way it suppose to be.

Question 6

❖ If you did not create this establishment what would be your alternative career
choice?

I would probably be working in the hotel industry, either in food, beverage, maintenance
or housekeeping management, something very systematic.

Question 7

❖ What would be your favorite memory since creating this establishment?

I've had many memories, i think when we had the caribbean tour that we did in 2016, we
did Dominica, Saba, St.Eustatius and Anguilla and all of these countries, when we came
they treat us like celebrities they gave us the red carpet treatment and it was good for me
to experience that not for myself but for those young persons, some of which never
traveled and then to be able to go on a Caribbean tour and to see all of these things, other
people respect them and appreciated them for being so super talented, it build their self
confidence and motivates them to continue to the arts and that was a big deal to me.

Another great memory was the FunTopia show we did in 2019, which was amazing, I
mean it wasn’t perfect but it was our first step in the direction that we really wanted to go
and the feedback from the people and to see the performers get their acts together and do
what they have to do, was amazing.

Question 8
 ❖ What motivates you to keep this establishment going?

God, cause there were many I said like we failed, and so many times we tried to get
things going and it didn’t work, concepts didn’t work, a lot of money was lost but what
motivated me was the youths. You know when I was growing up, I never really had
somebody like me in my life. I had very supportive parents but basically my mom and
my grandmother, but they didn’t see the vision I saw in terms of what I wanted to become
in the arts. They would always just be supportive and say “just keep going”, but I never
had anybody to lay out my plan in front of me to achieve this, so me being that role
model for these young people and being able to touch so many people lives through my
journey is most fulfilling and I always think about who I am and what I mean to people
and it’s a difficult burden to carry because at the end of the day even though I’m an artist
and I’m a role model I still have a personal life, so it's always difficult to find that
balance.

Question 9

❖ What would you consider your greatest achievement in Funtopia?

My greatest achievement would be this year. Things aren’t perfect because of the
pandemic and Irma a lot of things couldn’t manifest in the way I wanted to but this year
we are celebrating ten years of existence and for me that’s a milestone achievement, just
to be able to say that I committed to this thing and its 10 years old and I’ve inspired
hundreds of young persons to be apart of this journey, so that’s a great achievement for
me.

Question 10

❖ How do you manage your goals and responsibilities as an entrepreneur?

Time management is very important, you know to be honest, being self employed you're
not always motivated to do things in the time that you have to do it, but you have to. You
have to have a structure, even though you work for yourself, you have to have a
systematic approach to everything you do and so you work your Monday to Friday, you
work your 9-5, you get up and you get things done. You know if you don’t do that things
could be chaotic, so I have a very structured way of doing things. So days of course I
won’t lie I’ll be tired because mentally always being creative, responsible and a go-getter
is exhausting, so there are moments where I take long breaks, where I could just recharge
my battery or catch myself, just to find balance.
Question 11

❖ Where would you see your establishment in 5 years?

In the next five years I hope to have a building, have a fixed location where people can
come and experience Funtopia. What that would look like I don’t know yet is it a theme
park I don’t know but it’s going to be something that is needed and then something that
the country would appreciate and surrounding islands definitely would appreciate so
that’s a really big goal. We have ideas of what that would be but the fix idea of what it
actually would be, I’m still looking for a solid plan I know what it is but how to say it
will take time to make it exactly what it would be and yeah it’s still been refined and
developed but the direction is clear definitely an establishment or physical building where
people could come and experience Funtopia in the physical sense and of course growing
and developing more concepts in terms of events and just generally be consistent, so
people can looked forward to these things and growing different areas of our business
plan that we had on the black board due to COVID.

Question 12

❖ What motivates you to keep going as an individual?

My mom, my family, myself, God, life. I just have a really big ambition to be happy
before used to be successful but success does not always bring happiness so my focus is
always been to be happy and I’m happy being free like not having to work for anybody
I’m happy to be able to create and develop concepts and change lives that makes me very
happy so that’s a motivation in itself.

Question 13

❖ What is a career accomplishment you are proud of?

I'm really proud that I graduated and I have my bachelors degree it may not be in the field
that I wanted to cause I would've loved to study arts but I never had the opportunity to
because of financial reasons and time but I’m very happy for that and it just goes to show
you know sometimes you start life and you might not be able to do the things that you
want it as long as you finish it and you know I’ve always applauded myself for being a
finisher anything I start I must finish and that’s very important even if it’s doing things
that you don’t like at the end of the day you have to be consistent for yourself and in
everything you’re doing there’s a lesson to be learnt.
Question 14

❖ How did the pandemic affect your establishment?

Covid just shut everything down and we couldn’t do anything because you know social
distancing and physical contact was a no no and trainings require you know everybody
coming together and training space is not so big so we didn’t have training, we didn’t
have workshops, we didn’t have clients calling for events because nobody was keeping
parties so it completely destabilize the company and it took some time for us to get back
on our feet.

Question 15

❖ How does your foundation contribute to the St.Maarten culture?

Funtopia has been a part of the majority of cultural events we represent or we portray a
lot of cultural attributes whether it’s the cultural statues. We always are a part of cultural
activities whether it’s the statues where we portray cultural iconic like one titty lokay,
paben, salt pickers, market lady, domino’s players, the fisherman these are like a part of
our story as Caribbean people or our story in general in St. Maarten, cause were known
especially the Simpson Bay Village for having fisherman and then we have taken upon
ourselves revive the cultural form or cultural heritage our Afro cultural heritage of moko
jumbies and we play a big role with bringing that back to life and keeping it going and
you will see moko jumbies in festivals like carnival, parades you know for Christmas you
see them. Pretty much for most events you will see moko jumbies museum and we’ve
taken that mantle up to continue that exploration and establishment of the moko jumbie
culture in St. Maarten and we’ll be proud to have organizations like UNESCO,
St.Maarten and the resilience for community development has invested in that program
so we can educate young persons we have two programs one for kids between the ages of
five-twelve and an existing after school program where they can learn the art of moko
jumbie culture and the skills of silt walking and then we have another group which is the
13-27where they do silt training and learn African dance in silts and African history
where silt walking originated and they also learn a lot of other activities around silt
walking and the art form.

Question 16

❖ What are some virtues and morals you install in your youths?
Very important anybody that joins the group they have to pass through orientation and
they have to review or learn our Funtopia handbook and that handbook teaches you what
are the values we expect them to uphold you know we are very big on diversification and
acceptance and we want Funtopia to be the place where people feel safe to be themselves
and they can express themselves and it’s only when young persons that feel comfortable
with who they are and what they can do is when they flourish and then they tap in into
that. I like to say I don't use it around them because it sounds so “eh” but they tap into
their inner God they tap into their inner virtue of who they are as an artist and for me that
personal connection with who you are is very important because then you can manifest
your greatness. To speak on that level to some people is like “woah” but to be honest that
is exactly what I establish in them I create a space where they can be themselves, because
we don’t have like I have this concept of what they supposed to do if they have to be
mimes, if they have to be dancers, if they have to be fire performers but it is all of them,
they come together and I tell them the direction depending on the client or what we want
to do in terms of the event but whatever they portray it is them that create it at the end of
the day they create the choreo , they create the concept. I get ideas of the costume and the
presentation and I make sure it’s on a professional level but 100% of what we portray in
Funtopia is these young people and that is because I created the space, where they can be
themselves and saying that everybody’s different you have different personalities
different character traits and of course you would have some conflict and conflict
resolution is very important so,number one when you’re in you might have biasness
against somebody being fatter overweight or somebody being skinny or somebody being
gay or straight or whatever the case is because the outside of Funtopia people are judged
by these things if you are any of those things that judgement should not exist because at
the end of the day what you are whether fat, skinny, gay or straight should not affect what
your supposed to bring to the table in terms of your creativity in terms of your art and it’s
that pureness that I always seek and its not always perfect because you know young
people especially they would be who they are at the end of the day because they come
from homes they come from different communities groups that have different values and
morals and to have that coin flipped where you have to think differently when your
working in this group is difficult so we always have these little issues but it does not
dictate how they group together you know and accepting people for who they are is a
very big and important character trait that I expect them to portray even if they are faking
it, at the end of the day they know how to act when there around Funtopia and then of
course responsible, responsibility time management, understanding money is very
important because I don’t just want young people that would just do what I say they come
with ideas and expectations and their dedication and there appreciated for their
contribution and they are valued and they are celebrated because they commit, and those
key words are very important in our organization.
Question 17

❖ Would you say this foundation helps prepare them for the outside world?

Very much so. We’ve had young people that came back, they’ve traveled and finished
their education in the states or wherever, they come back to talk and they’re like you
know with the discipline that they got, they felt they were prepared or ready for what to
experience, working with other creative companies in the Netherlands or America and
that makes me feel good, because people have little expectations from people coming
from St. Maarten because we’re so small but the concept of Funtopia is so international
and if we had the funds and the support, we could be way bigger than what we are at the
moment, but I don’t let those things discourage me. I always start where I'm at. It’s very
important to not make things bigger than they are,in terms of making a goal so big that
you can’t achieve it. You always start where you are and before you know it you are
where you're supposed to be. Some people are scared to start because they don’t have this
and they don't have that but you just make a start, so even though we are so small, we
come with so much potential and so much impact in people’s lives. If we were large, like
in a bigger country like America or Europe our impact would be even greater, but
because we are small, because of finances and whatever our impact is just as large as if
we were on an international scale because of the quality of what we do in terms of
working with people. I mean it’s not perfect but it is something that differently holds a
place in a lot of people lives and Funtopia is everything that you can dream of, everybody
have a different perspective of what Funtopia is because of what they look for in it and
it’s always something beautiful and it’s always something positive. This is very important
to me.
 Reflection

I am enlightened to learn all about Lucinda’s creation, Funtopia. I discovered the challenges and
successes that may come with establishing a new business. The process may not always be easy
but with time and patience you will make it. I learned that going after your dreams, especially if
it’s beneficial, it can have a positive effect on you and the society around you.

Lucinda has provided exceptional service to her country which aids in its development. Such
works are greatly appreciated by the citizens and youths. I hope and anticipate to see more
people follow in her footsteps, even her own members. The establishment is truly a blessing to
the island and i do look forward to its development in the future.
 Bibliography

https://m.facebook.com/larichtheartist/about?lst=100004203525532%3A27709410%3A1645274
869

https://www.writersunlimited.nl/en/participant/lucinda-audain