New co-working space opens its doors to creatives in Gloucester
JOLT offers studios, support and resources for people in the creative industry
A new co-working space is opening in Gloucester for people in the creative industry.
Based in the heart of Kings Square, it offers co-working spaces, studios, rehearsal rooms and semi-private studios.
It's hoped to help people in the county make a living in the creative industries by offering them a hub to work from.
People are invited to work in one of the 22 free spaces in the open plan office or to hire a room at an affordable cost to meet, collaborate and work with like-minded people.
The creative industries are the fastest growing area of the UK economy and is worth 9% of all UK jobs.
JOLT has been designed to put Gloucestershire on the map of areas people can come to in order to pursue their career instead of relocating to a bigger city like London, Manchester or Bristol.
James Garrod, programme manager at JOLT, said: "If an area doesn't act on this then there's a chance an area could get left behind and we want to make sure that doesn't happen in Gloucestershire.
"We want Gloucester to be a place for creative people to come to and be a viable place for people to be creative and run creative businesses."
The co-working spaces are free to members of the public on Monday to Friday who want to bring their laptop or sketchbook, and they can also make use of free wi-fi and the posh coffee machines.
There are larger studios and pod studios for people to use as creative incubation suites. People can apply to use them on subsidised rates to kickstart their creative business.
They can be used for anyone: photographers, music producers, painters, graphic designers, seamstresses, sculptors and more.
JOLT is a charity and is part of Gloucester Culture Trust and aim to be the affordable, entry-level beginning for those on their creative journey.
People can also sign up to various programmes where they receive mentoring, workshops and resources to build their career and reach the point where they can afford their own creative studio space themselves.
James added: "We hope we'll get people who've either got a hobby, are a creative graduate or who want to explore a passion of theirs more and turn it into a business.
"We hope they'll come in and use the space to either do their emails, grab a coffee or to be around other creative people and then by engaging in our programmes stat to realise they can make a living doing what they want to do.
"they can then take the next step and apply for a studio space, more mentoring and more structured support and we'll help them grow until their more sustainable."
For more information about JOLT and where to find the studio space you can visit their website