A familiar downtown building has been repurposed into a digital arts production hub and retail incubator.
Novacks is now home to 121 Studios, a co-working arts production space created by the UnLondon Digital Arts Association.
The front of the location is a retail incubator, bridging the gap for small businesses looking to expand into a store-front.
“It’s a space where individuals and small companies with ideas can come in, without taking on the risk of setting up something permanent, longer term and with all the fixtures independently,” says UnLondon executive director Titus Ferguson.
“[Instead] they can do that with short term lease, in collaboration with other people, and they get community support around them.”
Wendy Van der Meer owns House of Wenday, and eco-fashion clothing business. By setting up in the incubator space, Van der Meer addressed the struggle she had working out of her own home.
“When you’re working out of your home you don’t have that line between ‘this is work’ and ‘this is play’, or ‘this is sleep’ and ‘this is work.’”
As a digital arts co-working space, the rest of Novacks is made up of offices, desk space, and various kinds of studios. For a membership fee, creators are welcome to use 121 Studios and its features for their own projects and businesses.