With ECO-STAR North, we are building a sustainable future by supporting Arts, Creative, and Climate Entrepreneurship. We achieve this by blending community-based participatory research with the power of interdisciplinary arts and innovative, mixed-method applied artificial intelligence.
Understanding the ECO-STAR North Methodology for Innovation
Let’s ditch the corporate jargon. The ‘Customer’ isn’t a target demographic or a sales funnel metric—they are the hero of your story. Who is this person or community that your big idea is for? What’s their world like? What are the real, unmet needs that keep them up at night or the quiet dreams they’re hoping to achieve? Getting to the heart of the ‘C’ is an act of radical empathy; it’s about closing the distance and truly understanding their journey.
This is where you become a bit of a detective and a bit of a storyteller.
It’s about more than just surveys; it’s about deep listening, observation, and building real relationships. You have to walk in their shoes to see the world from their perspective. Are you sure you know what they really need, or are you just guessing? The most powerful innovations come from solving a problem that is deeply felt and understood.
When you genuinely put the Customer at the center of your universe, every decision becomes clearer. You’re not just creating a product or service; you’re crafting a tool, a gift, an experience that will genuinely help the hero of your story on their quest. It’s the difference between shouting at people and walking alongside them.
What We’re Learning:
We’re adapting the idea of ‘Customer’ to mean ‘Community’ or ‘Co-creator.’ In the context of the arts and community development, the relationship is rarely just a transaction. The “audience” isn’t a passive consumer; they are an active participant who helps create meaning. This is vital for interdisciplinary arts because it breaks down the wall between the artist and the viewer. The work becomes a shared space, a dialogue. Your ‘Customer’ becomes your collaborator, and the project’s success is measured by the strength of the community that forms around it.
ABOUT THE ECO-STAR NORTH PROGRAM
ECO-STAR North invites artists, educators, and community leaders to join in co-creating this new path forward — where innovation grows from the land, the language, and the stories that have always been here.
This project has been seeded in 2025 with generous support from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design Creative Entrepreneurship Program, Enterprise Development Group, The Arts Incubator Winnipeg, Art Borups Corners, the Manitoba Arts Council Indigenous 360 Program, The Labovitz School of Business and Economics at the University of Minnesota Duluth, The Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter-Arts Projects program, and the OpenAI Researcher Access Program.
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