Manitoba Youth and Artist-Led Structured Data and Schema Development for the Arts
Project Summary
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA — With support from the OpenAI Researcher Access Program and the Manitoba Arts Council Indigenous 360 Program, youth and artists are developing custom WordPress plugins that automatically generate structured data (schema) for creative works, exhibitions, and arts programming. It builds on work piloted with strategic arts innovation funding from the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Greenhouse.
This project ensures that visual art, creative writing, exhibitions, and cultural storytelling are properly represented, discoverable, and preserved in the next generation of web technologies.
Structured data is not just about SEO — it is about making the arts visible and accessible to future audiences, AI systems, researchers, and cultural archives.
Why Structured Data Matters for the Arts
1. Enhancing Discoverability
Schema allows artworks, exhibitions, and artist profiles to appear correctly in search results, digital knowledge bases, and AI platforms — ensuring creative work reaches wider audiences.
2. Preserving Cultural Narratives
Proper metadata creates lasting digital records, ensuring that today’s artistic contributions remain accessible and understood for decades to come.
3. Expanding Accessibility and Inclusion
Structured data improves how screen readers, translation tools, and assistive technologies interpret creative works, helping arts projects reach diverse audiences.
4. Empowering Digital Sovereignty
By building their own schema tools, youth creators are shaping how their work is described and shared online — exercising control over their digital narratives.
Outcomes and Broader Impact
- Custom, lightweight schema plugins designed specifically for the arts sector
- Dynamic schema generation for creative works, exhibitions, and artists
- Increased online visibility for youth-driven arts content
- Scalable frameworks for community organizations and future arts projects
- Training the next generation of artists and cultural workers in future-ready web practices
Vision
This work bridges art, technology, and culture — ensuring that community-driven creativity is not lost in the evolving web landscape, but rather becomes central to it.
Supporting this initiative means supporting the future of arts visibility, accessibility, and cultural preservation.