City connects artists

In an effort to help Mandurah "creatives" wanting to turn their passion for the arts and crafts into a business, the City is holding an eight-week entrepreneurial workshop series.

Artpreneur 101 program facilitator Belinda Lockerby said more than 40 applications had already been submitted for the series, which would be "helping creatives connect to commercial opportunities and find their customers".

"It's about thinking outside the box and supporting creative people to do things differently," she said.

"There are tonnes of possibilities and solutions with art businesses, such as therapy to help students express themselves.

"It's for those artists with heaps of paintings who don't know how to sell them or designers with textiles that don't know how to get them to a manufacturer - we will be tapping into existing resources and finding market spaces.

"It will address artists' own barriers and how to overcome them by considering mindset and networks."

Mayor Marina Vergone said the free program was worthwhile because it involved the community as a whole and in time would help build Mandurah's economy. Artpreneur 101 follows in the success of Mumpreneur 101, which ran in 2014 and this year.

Its objectives are to increase entrepreneurial capacity in the region, contribute to innovation, growth, employment and diversification of the economic landscape, increase business skills of creative community, increase knowledge on commercial conversion, branding, apps, online stores and pathways to market, and give artists the tools and resources to achieve their own definition of success.

The program is limited to 20 places but the City is looking to hold another series given the overwhelming response.