COLUMBIA — NOMA Warehouse, the co-working space for artists in Cottontown, will close by the end of January, the owners confirmed to Free Times.
The Sumter Street brick warehouse opened three years ago as a vintage storefront, event space and co-working venue for creatives in the area. Family duo Mazie Cook and Beth Lawson wanted the space to platform and assist artists in getting their work in front of consumers.
But now, under the weight of running the operation on their own and new additions to their family, the duo is stepping back.
"Our lives have just changed, personally, a lot in the last three years," said Lawson, who is Cook's mother-in-law. "So as we look towards the future, we want to keep doing like really cool things for Columbia, but more in a collaborative sense with others. (And) to free up our time a little bit more to prioritize some family."
Cook, who is the brains behind NOMA Warehouse, had two children during the warehouse's three-year life.
"I never thought I was gonna be an entrepreneur, ever. That was never something that I thought I would do," she said. "And so the flip side of that is I never saw myself being a working mom. And those two things happened at the exact same time."
NOMA Warehouse co-owners and operators, Mazie Cook, left, and Beth Lawson on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024.
While the warehouse will close by month's end, Lawson confirmed, NOMA Warehouse won't be going away completely.
The owners plan to collaborate with other businesses in town and use their social media to promote local artists and makers.
Rowdy Vintage, the vintage clothing storefront in NOMA Warehouse, will move to Re-Find's new location off Rosewood, which is set to open in March.
NOMA Warehouse vacates the building at 2022 Sumter St., but Lawson doesn't know what's next for the red-brick warehouse.
"We're gonna move out and we're really really hopeful that something amazing and cool for Columbia and the neighborhood comes inside this space. I wish we had more impact and control over that you don't," she said. "But NOMA Warehouse as an entity lives on."
Signature events like their Friday vintage market and the annual sustainability minded Solfest Rollfest are "the types of events" the duo want to keep putting on, it will just be in another location.
NOMA Warehouse is closing at the end of January after more than three years in business on Sumter Street in Cottontown. Photo by Zoe Nicholson
"Continuing the mission, but just more pop-up style and collaborative. Our social media is gonna stay active for sure. So we definitely want people to keep up," Cook said. "It's not dying, it's just transforming."
Cook and Lawson are hosting The Last Rodeo on Jan. 20 to say goodbye to the space. The open-invite party is "all-black" and Cook wants guest "to go all out" with their outfits.
