Wilmington’s Creative District has taken another big step forward as it welcomes a new creative partnership. The District's next move will see NextFab Studio make its second home in Wilmington, from its origins in Philadelphia.
NextFab Studio, LLC (“NextFab”) will expand operations south of Philadelphia and open a makerspace in downtown Wilmington with assistance from a $350,000 Delaware Strategic Fund grant recently approved by the Council on Development Finance.
Delaware Governor Jack Markell said: “The company’s creative approach to making much-needed technological resources and education available, as well as its commitment to reinvigorating American manufacturing, makes NextFab a perfect addition to Wilmington’s downtown Creative District.”
Founded in 2009 by Dr. Evan Malone, NextFab’s mission is to foster personal fulfillment, innovation, and economic development through providing broad-based awareness of, access to, competence with, and commerce enabled by Next-generation digital design and Fabrication technologies and services. Like a gym for exercising your creativity, there are no prerequisites to joining NextFab as a member, and NextFab’s member community includes more than 650 individuals from every conceivable background. NextFab members have direct access to state-of-the-art equipment, software, training, consultants — everything they need to master new tools and techniques, and turn an idea into a product and product into a business. NextFab’s instructors and consultants span an enormous range of disciplines and experience, including engineering, arts, business, and science. NextFab currently operates two facilities in Philadelphia, and plans to open its latest 3,500 square-foot facility in Wilmington’s Creative District in the first half of 2016.
The Wilmington Creative District is a part of a national wave of creative placemaking initiatives that seek to transform urban areas. The project encompasses the area in downtown Wilmington bounded by Fourth, Ninth, Market and Washington Streets and, with the active engagement of a variety of partners from the private and public sectors, will continue the momentum of LOMA and Market Street. The Creative District will be focused on creative production and consumption, a place where creative entrepreneurs — artists, musicians, designers, tech innovators, makers and manufacturers — and neighborhood residents thrive and where locally designed goods and original works are made and consumed.
This revitalization will engage the community — current and future residents, as well as civic and business leaders — in a range of initiatives and programs that include:
This revitalization will engage the community — current and future residents, as well as civic and business leaders — in a range of initiatives and programs that include:
- affordable housing
- greening and streetscape projects
- real estate development
- programming and community engagement
- public art and public performance projects
- centers for creative entrepreneurship
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