Xenia Joost is the Deputy Secretary General for the Arts at the Estonian Ministry of Culture, overseeing the nation's creative and media sectors from music, film, and theatre to architecture, design, and the games industry.
She entered the role with a clear conviction backed by extensive experience: survival alone cannot be the goal for the creative sectors. Having built her own fashion label, led export strategies across Asia at Enterprise Estonia, and scaled premium brands in international markets, she has navigated firsthand the financial pressures and structural gaps that determine long-term viability for creative careers. This experience now directly shapes her policy work. At the Ministry, she is co-developing Estonia’s first creative export strategy in partnership with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, working to shift the logic of public funding from mere survival toward growth and resilience. Her approach positions the integration of creative thinking across traditional and digital industries not as a cultural gesture, but as a vital strategic choice for agile nations.