Javaughn Henry has been working as a freelancer for the last seven years. While he loves the creative lifestyle — and array of different projects he gets to works on as an independent contractor — he also knows how lonely it can be.
Now, Henry is trying to give freelancers a place to not only come together, but to share ideas and collaborate.
The audio engineer and photographer is in the process of launching the Skyline Collective, a space in downtown Pawtucket that will offer freelancers access to shared office and studio space, various lessons and an art gallery. Henry has also started a Kickstarter campaign to help raise money for the initiative.
“I wanted to fill the offices with people who believe in collaboration, not just those who want to come in, close the door and leave.”
“I felt withdrawn from the larger creative community so I wanted to originally branch out and open my own office,” Henry told Rhode Island Inno. “I started to think deeper about the fact that if I’m looking for my own creative outlet and I’m looking to collaborate and share resources with other creators, why couldn’t I establish something that would give creators a central location where they come share resources and collaborate together.”
The space will be located within the building at 881 Main St. and will take up about 2,500 square feet. It will be able to hold 36 people and potentially up to 50 or more once the art gallery is open.
Henry has partnered with five other freelancers and creators to rent the offices and said that there are more offices available if anyone wants to join the collective on a permanent basis.
Henry and the other five planning to rent office space in the collective, which includes musicians, photographers and jewelry makers, plan to offer lessons to the community.
“I wanted to fill the offices with people who believe in collaboration,” said Henry. “Not just those who want to come in, close the door and leave.”
At the beginning while things are still getting situated, the six in the collective will open their offices to the public for select office hours. Eventually, said Henry, the goal is to have the space open at all times to the public.
A soft opening is planned for Jan. 10, while Henry expects to open to the public sometime in March.
Day passes will be $5 and Henry said he hopes to keep the cost of classes, which will be offered in photography, videography and audio production, to $10 or $15 per class in order to make them accessible to anyone interested.
There will also be different memberships that people can purchase on a monthly basis. The silver membership will charge people $30 per month and provide six day passes to the space per month, as well as three day passes.
The gold membership will be $50 per month and give members 12 day passes and four classes per month, while the diamond membership will be $100 per month and offer unlimited access to the space and five classes per month.
While there are already established companies such as WeWork and WorkBar that offer similar services as The Skyline Collective, Henry said the idea is not just to provide office space, but bring the whole freelance community together.
“The idea of bringing in people to collaborate and work together is so important and so essential,” he said. “It’s not only your ideas that shine through but if you work with others, those ideas can be enhanced and you can find the true sense of yourself by working with others.”
