About Our Program
Incubating Digital Arts and Creative Entrepreneurship
Our program emerged during the pandemic as a grassroots initiative to unite artists and communities during a time of uncertainty and isolation. Designed to be intentionally small and focused on growth from the ground up, it aimed to cultivate creativity, foster innovation, and create meaningful connections between artists and makers. From its inception, the program established a unique, nurturing environment for experimentation, where bold ideas could thrive and take shape.
As a pilot project, this arts-focused, volunteer-driven collective launched as a digital arts and entrepreneurship initiative. Its mission was to design and test a culturally grounded, community-centered creative incubator. Since our first programs in 2021-2022, we have provided flexible training—both live and self-paced—that empowers youth and community members to harness digital technologies in creating, sharing, and elevating their artistic work.
The program’s core objective has always been to build on proven cultural entrepreneurship training, blending traditional knowledge, scientific insights, and modern tools to open new pathways for arts-based employment. Indigenous artists from Northwestern Ontario, Nunavut, and Manitoba collaborated with an inclusive team of researchers, educators, and professional artists, gaining invaluable skills while forging meaningful connections across disciplines and geographies.
This experimental Incubator for Digital Arts and Cultural Entrepreneurship was envisioned to develop and pilot an urban and land-based arts and culture training program for emerging Indigenous talent. Its primary goal was to create opportunities for sustainable self-employment, empowering the next generation to lead in their creative industries.
By facilitating cross-sector collaborations, partnerships, and networks, the program addressed critical challenges faced by urban and newly urban Indigenous artists during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explored innovative approaches to increasing digital and data literacy, while advancing the digital transformation of the arts sector. This work has enabled the program to contribute meaningfully to arts sector activities and support the resilience of Indigenous artists navigating a rapidly evolving creative landscape.
Objectives
Key objectives in supporting professional development and organizational capacity building for arts services included:
Building a resilient and healthy arts sector;
Ensuring artists and other arts professionals have access to learning opportunities;
Enhancing capacity building for arts organizations, in particular new groups, collectives and emerging artists;
Promoting diversity and increased collaboration within the arts community.
With support of strategic innovation funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and its new Digital Greenhouse program, our project sought to capitalize on one specific opportunity and challenge: The increasing reliance and utilization of digital communication technologies and collaborative hardware/software solutions to connect physically remote locations with each other and major urban centers.
We are incredibly thankful to the students and faculty from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design Creative Entrepreneurship and Master of Arts in Creative Leadership programs, Live It Earth and the University of Victoria Community Based Research Lab.
Visit Our Community Arts and Climate Entrepreneurship Collectives
Our community and regional programs and project have been made possible through support and funding from a number of institutions in the United States and Canada.
