Incubating Artificial Intelligence For the Arts

Schemas empower arts organizations. This connected network demonstrates how structured data amplifies voices, ensuring diverse art is seen and valued.

In the art sector, terms like “structured data,” “metadata,” and “linked open data” are often met with confusion—or worse, dismissal.

An innovative DALL-E 3 AI Food Art Generator created by talented youth artists from Winnipeg, showcasing a modern fusion dish. The image features golden, fire-charred bannock infused with bone marrow butter, paired with a spiced Moroccan lamb tagine. Artists developed this free AI food art tool to turn culinary imagination into stunning visual art, blending technology with creativity. The AI Food Art Generator exemplifies the power of artificial intelligence in digital arts and media arts, empowering creators to visualize and express unique culinary concepts. This collaborative project, supported by the OpenAI Researcher Access Program, enhances awareness of food security while celebrating cultural fusion through artistic collaboration. Discover how these emerging artists transformed their artistic journey, coding their own image generator while exploring the world of AI food art.

OpenAI Researcher Access Program: A Game-Changing Partnership

Imagine a space where the wisdom of our ancestors meets the tools of the future—a program where artists and creators from remote northern and Indigenous communities come together to explore the vast possibilities of artificial intelligence. This is the focus of our 2024-2025 Incubator for Digital Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship: a grassroots, community-driven program blending traditional knowledge, creative leadership, and modern innovation. 

From AI-powered storytelling and immersive virtual reality experiences to the transformative potential of climate entrepreneurship, our program is reimagining what it means to create, lead, and thrive in the digital age. With support from the OpenAI Researcher Access Program, we are empowering the next generation of to push boundaries, tell untold stories, and build sustainable futures through the power of arts and artificial intelligence.

Through this program, we were able to advance organizational transformation for community and the arts sector by integrating emerging technologies, incubating creative leadership, and championing adaptive entrepreneurship. We learned about building institutional resilience—supporting arts-focused organizations to evolve beyond traditional models and embrace data-driven decision making, and sustainable governance practices. We learned to reimagine our operational frameworks, diversify revenue streams, and cultivate ecosystems that nurture both individual talent and collective capacity.

We learned how to use audio visualizers using GPT 4 Turbo (GPT 4.5) and Javascript. It was lots of fun!
We learned how to use audio visualizers using GPT 4 Turbo (GPT 4.5) and Javascript. It was lots of fun!
Through OpenAI-powered tools and mentorship, we’re fostering creativity, leadership, and community-based research, helping artists innovate in the digital arts space.
Through OpenAI-powered tools and mentorship, we’re fostering creativity, leadership, and community-based research, helping artists innovate in the digital arts space.

A Project Made Possible thanks to support from the OpenAI Researcher Access Program

This project originally started as a grassroots initiative 2021-2022 with support from the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Greenhouse and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Building on this highly-successful pilot, in 2023 and 2024 our program worked towards changing the story of the arts, shifting from the conventional to the extraordinary, where creativity and technology merge in ways that break down barriers and open up endless possibilities. Integrating AI with art, we’re not just teaching artists how to use new tools—we’re empowering them to reimagine what art can be, how it’s made, and who gets to tell the stories. Since May 2024, support from the OpenAI Researcher Access Program has allowed us to dive deep into the intersection of art and AI, transforming our approach to artistic creation and community engagement.

The impact has been profound. Artists are now able to blend contemporary and traditional cultural arts with the latest in generative AI, giving birth to entirely new forms of expression. Whether it’s AI-powered storytelling, interactive installations, or AI-generated visuals that speak to their heritage, these artists are not just creating—they’re innovating, pushing the limits of their craft, and making their mark on the digital world in a way that’s uniquely their own. These works are powerful reflections of who they are, where they come from, and the future they envision for their communities.

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Growing a Community of Care and Practice for the arts

We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to OpenAI for their incredible support through the OpenAI Researcher Access Program. This partnership has provided our program with the tools, resources, and expertise to explore new frontiers in arts innovation and creative leadership. With OpenAI’s transformative technology, we’ve been able to empower our artists to blend traditional knowledge with cutting-edge AI, unlocking new possibilities for cultural expression and storytelling. 

We also thank and appreciate the many partners, funders and supporters from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design Creative Entrepreneurship and Masters of Arts in Creative Leadership programs, Manitoba Agriculture, the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, the University of Minnesota Duluth, the University of Victoria Community Based Research Lab, University of the Arctic, the Local Services Board of Melgund, Global Dignity Canada and the Manitoba Arts Council.

Read Our 2023-2024 Impacts and Outcomes Report
OUR PROGRAMS HAVE BEEN SUPPORTED BY
Canada-Council-for-the-Arts-Digital-Greenhouse
Art Borups Corners, its land-based programming and Winnipeg-based Arts Incubator programs were made possible with support from the OpenAI Researcher Access Program.
Art Borups Corners, and its Winnipeg-based Arts Incubator programs in 2024 were made possible with support from the Manitoba Arts Council.
Art Borups Corners, its land-based programming and Winnipeg-based Arts Incubator programs were made possible with support from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design Creative Entrepreneurship and Master of Arts in Creative Leadership Programs.
Art Borups Corners, and its Winnipeg-based Arts Incubator programs were made possible in 2021 with support from Manitoba Agriculture and the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership.
Sustainable-Canadian-Agricultural-Partnership
Art Borups Corners, and its Winnipeg-based Arts Incubator programs were made possible with support from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
Art Borups Corners, its land-based programming and Minneapolis and Winnipeg-based Arts Incubator programs in 2024 were made possible with support from the University of the Arctic.
Art Borups Corners, and its Winnipeg-based Arts Incubator programs were made possible with support from the University of Victoria Community Based Research Lab. We've learned so much from them!
Art Borups Corners, and its Winnipeg-based Arts Incubator programs were made possible in 2021 with support from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.
Art Borups Corners, its land-based programming and Winnipeg-based Arts Incubator programs were made possible with support from the Labovitz School of Business and Economics at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
Art Borups Corners, its land-based programming and Winnipeg-based Arts Incubator programs were made possible with support from Global Dignity Canada.