Rockhampton Art Gallery is one of several organisations partnering with The Ideas Distillery on CQ Shopfront, an exciting regionally-based project, designed to help artists navigate the world of business.
An initiative of the Bundaberg-based The Ideas Distillery, CQ Shopfront aims to prove that creatives can successfully live and work regionally.
The project will enable artists from the broader Central Queensland area – from the Fraser coast in the south, to Mackay in the north and west to Banana Shire – to gain access to skills development, mentoring and networking opportunities to help them refine their creations, in terms of market need, branding, packaging and more, to build commercially viable creative products.
Rockhampton Art Gallery is backing the project by providing links with local artists, workshop and residency venues, and a desire to stock refined products in the future Rockhampton Museum of Art.
The first in a series of “Business for Creatives” Zoom workshops and webinars for local artists are being held in May and June. Topics include What is Merchandise, Product Planning, Sales Strategy, Introduction to Business Planning, Target Audience Profiling and more.
Workshops are being conducted by artist and Flying Arts tutor Katie Whyte and Shelley Pisani from The Ideas Distillery.
Rockhampton Regional Council Community Services Portfolio Spokesperson Councillor Drew Wickerson encouraged local artists to take part in the webinars and workshops.
“We have a lot of talented artists in our Region, and projects such as CQ Shopfront will go a long way to nurturing our creatives as they each develop their arts practice so it becomes commercially viable.
“In turn this will show that it is possible to be a successful artist and live in regional Queensland,” he said.
