When documentary filmmaker Nancy Kelly wants to get some serious writing done, she hops on the ferry near her home in the San Francisco Bay area and then cycles to Page Street, a coworking space in San Francisco. She has had an artist-in-residence fellowship there for about three years, maybe four, she says.

“I remember one woman saying to me, ‘That takes all day,’” recalls Kelly. “That’s the point. I spend a day writing and not dealing with all the other crises that can happen when you have your own filmmaking business.”

Kelly, whose critically acclaimed work has been aired on PBS, Showtime and Sundance, is now spending her time at Page Street working on a PBS documentary called The Dreamers, which she produced with her husband, the director and cinematographer Kenji Yamamoto at their business, Kelly + Yamamoto Productions. Although she has gone to readings, there is little to take her mind off the page. “I really get a lot more done there,” Kelly says. “There’s something about a coworking space that is motivating.”

Many businesses and institutions are adding artists-in-residence programs, and coworking spaces are starting to embrace the trend, once mostly a mainstay of museums and other arts institutions. Coworking spaces such as Estudio Six in Austin, Texas, WeWork in Portland, Ore. And the Woodward Residency in Ridgewood, N.Y. are among those that have introduced residencies. In another sign of the cachet of artist-in-residency programs, Paseo, a housing development based in Austin, Texas, in 2025 began offering a rent-free apartment for a year to artists in visual, literary, performing and culinary arts, as well as crafts, along with access to its coworking spaces and fitness facilities.

While the trend still has room for growth, the site Reviewed by Artists now counts 727 fully-funded residences for artists, which come with a stipend and housing, in a variety of settings around the world. The global market value of artist-in-residency programs, estimated at $.8 billion in 2026, is expected to grow to $1.2 billion by 2034, according to Market Intelo, a market research firm.

With many people wanting to live and work in the next SoHo, there are business reasons to offer artist-in-residencies. Organizations see these programs “not merely as cultural amenities but as generators of intellectual property, international soft power, and creative industry growth,” Intelo noted. “Additionally, hybrid residency models combining in-person intensive programs with virtual mentorship and collaborative networks have reduced operational barriers, allowing smaller organizations to establish competitive programs.”

Embracing ‘local’ creativity

For coworking spaces, having a creative culture and events to fuel both creativity and collaborations can help attract and retain members, and the presence of artists in residence supports that. “What I see is an owner who is passionate about art and wants to support local art and show off local artists,” says Liz Elam, futurist and founder of the Global Coworking Unconference Community in Austin, Texas. “I’ve seen a lot of people use that to kind of turn their space into a gallery and also change it up. Maybe it’s one artist one year, and another artist for another year. It keeps the space feeling new and different.”

Page Street has offered its fellowships to a variety of creative professionals. Janis Newman, an author, founded the coworking space in San Francisco where Nancy Kelly works and a second location in Berkeley, Calif., as part of Lit Camp, a nonprofit that supports writers via conferences, classes and community. She introduced the fellowship program on an as-needed basis when she found that some working writers could not afford the basic membership fee of $60 a month. Some writers tell her at their initial interview that they will need financial support to join the workspace. “We always wanted to be able to offer these fellowships if writers asked for them,” she says.

Five percent of the two coworking sites’ 330 members currently have full fellowships, and 15 to 20% have partial fellowships, by Newman’s rough estimate. Kelly has recently offered fellowships to a member who got laid off from her day job and another who was coping with a medical challenge. “The people who have been full members are part of our culture and would have to withdraw,” she says. “I’m able to keep them, so it helps to keep the culture.”

Not all are as well-known in their fields as Kelly. “They are all serious about their writing but don’t have to have published anything yet,” Newman says. “They are mostly regular people who want to write, want to be a member but can’t afford to, for one reason or another.” 
 

Preserving curated communities

Newman finds that beyond helping the members, the fellowships are a glue that help keep the carefully-selected community intact. She interviews each member to make sure they are a good fit, and she doesn’t want to lose anyone who contributes to the welcoming vibe. “That’s because of my experience with previous co-working spaces, where we might get a member who was competitive with other writers, not supportive—and that changes the culture,” she says.

Although for much of the day Page Street’s offices are intentionally silent, the group has lunch together every day, craft groups, parties and readings. “Writing is very solitary, and you want community,” Newman says.

As for Kelly, she’s glad to have a place where she can stay focused on her creative work and prepare for upcoming shoots on a series of short documentaries on women environmentalists—and keep her mind off distractions like grocery lists or the laundry. There is something about the stimulation of a coworking space that is motivating,” Kelly says.

Although the location in Berkeley would be easier for her to get to, she plans to persist in commuting to San Francisco because that’s where her creativity percolates. “Because of the way it’s structured there’s all these little nooks and crannies so you can literally go and hide in a corner,” she says. Sometimes, that’s what it takes to keep doing the work that builds a creative career, and Page Street has designed its spaces to support that.