About
Nauti Studios
About Nauti Studios
Nauti Studios is a charity reviving old industrial buildings to support communities in multiple ways.
Over the last 12 years, Nauti Studios has brought old warehouses alive with creativity, culture and community. We have grown into a charity operating two locations in New South Wales: our 1200sqm premises in Forest Lodge (next to Glebe), inner Sydney, and our 250sqm premises in Hazelbrook, in the Blue Mountains.
We have opened our industrial doors to welcome a vast number of the public through events, workshops, exhibitions, open studios, performances, screenings and markets that bring newly created work to public audiences. We have formed clubs and socials to foster togetherness and connection.
We have hosted more than 400 creative and cultural events, drawing thousands of attendees every year. As an example an upcoming market at our Sydney location, for example, is expected to draw approximately 2,000 people in a single week.
At the same time, Nauti Studios is something additional behind the scenes. Before a painting is hung in a gallery you attend or a musician takes the stage at a venue to go to, that work has to be made somewhere. Nauti Studios is that somewhere. Our association exists to support innovation, culture and the arts by supporting independent artists and creative practitioners with space to create. We provide affordable studios, creative workspaces and production facilities that give makers with a physical craft, people for whom space is essential, somewhere to work. Our Sydney premises is the work place of around 50 artists, creatives and small businesses working across extremely diverse fields, from painters to glass artists, prop makers to musicians, robotic engineers to costume makers, small businesses and entrepreneurs. Our Blue Mountains premises supports a further 20. Over the past 12 years we have provided creative workspace to more than 300 creatives and small businesses.
We value diversity, and everyone of all walks of life and professions are welcome at Nauti Studios. As the founders and operators of our organisation are themselves people from minority groups, we are passionate about providing space for people of diversity. Our priority cohort includes Indigenous artists, emerging practitioners, individuals experiencing financial hardship, LGBTIQA+ people, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and other minorities.
Within our walls we promote mental health, wellbeing, social inclusion and creative expression, and through building community we encourage partnerships, collaborations and advocacy initiatives that strengthen the capacity of artists and creative communities to keep creating and growing. Our buildings are hubs of inspiration and innovation. We keep our local areas vibrant, valuable and full of life, both economically and culturally.
As a charity, we accept donations and all funds we give back to our communities through providing space and facilitating creativity, culture and connection.
Nauti Studios was founded in 2014 by Nat Cheney, who was just 24 at the time and built each space by hand using sustainable, repurposed materials.
Read more about how it all started below.
Our Locations
Nauti Studios
Sydney
Our Sydney location is situated in the inner Sydney suburb Forest Lodge (next to Glebe), offering a vibrant urban atmosphere surrounded by cafes, restaurants, galleries, and a thriving creative community.
It’s ideal for creatives, craftspeople, freelancers and small businesses seeking a inspiring workspace and connections close to the city.
Nauti Studios
Blue Mountains
Our Blue Mountains location is nestled in the mid-mountains town Hazelbrook, offering a warm, inspiring, community-driven environment where creatives, freelancers and small businesses can connect and collaborate, in a beautiful part of the world abundant in natural beauty.
Nauti Studios was founded by Nat Cheney in 2014. Nat is self-taught builder. A builder of spaces, communities, businesses and our charitable organisation.
The Nauti Studios journey started very organically. Feeling out of place, like the weird creative kid growing up on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, she moved to Melbourne where she studied illustration. During this time Nat worked as an illustrator doing photorealism commissions, while exploring surrealism and photography in her own practice.
When returning home to visit, she rediscovered a new appreciation of Sydney's coastline and its sun-bathed beauty and decided to stay but she needed a workspace.
How It All Started
Nat Cheney, Founder of Nauti Studios
As an artist Nat found she was most creative, productive, inspired and innovative when in a workspace with other innovators.
When returning to Sydney back in 2013, she searched for a space like that but nothing felt quite right. There were shared corporate offices which felt too clinical, and open warehouse that were unprofessional.
Then, she met other creatives who shared her frustration and so Nat thought “well, if everyone is complaining about Sydney not having creative spaces, why doesn’t somebody build one!?”
Nat Building the Hazelbrook Studios from recycled materials.
So Nat found a warehouse so dilapidated that no one else would touch it. She taught herself to build and using repurposed materials brought the building back to life.
In 2014, the first Nauti Studios opened in Stanmore. A 600sqm warehouse with workspaces for over 30 people, coworking desks and a venue that would host hundreds of events, shoots, workshops, meetings and more.
The plan was to return to full-time illustration, but in 2017 Nat was approached by a family who owned a building in Hazelbrook. They loved what Nat had built and wanted to lease their building to someone who would give back to the community.
She began to speak to locals in the Blue Mountains and many echoed the same frustration, with responses like “get me out of the house” and “I need to be around creative people!”
It needed a lot of love, but in 2017 Nat beautifully restored former town hall and scout hall and opened Nauti Studios Blue Mountains. A 250sqm workspace for 20 creatives, hot deskers and local community events.
Nauti Studios Stanmore, founded in 2014 - 2023
Nauti Studios Hazelbrook, founded in 2017
After almost 10 wonderful years in Stanmore, Nat was given one month’s notice to relocate.
In 2023 she found an incredible warehouse in Glebe. It’s Nauti’s third thriving, purpose-driven, creative community hub.
A massive 1200sqm property where 3 multi-story warehouses merge together, it now provides space to over 50 creatives. Although still in its infancy, it has already hosted thousands of people attending exhibitions, events, shoots, workshops and more.
Nauti Studios in Forest Lodge, founded in 2023.
What began as a need for her own workspace, has grown into something much bigger.
Nauti Studios is now a charity supporting two thriving creative communities.
All funds go back into providing space affordably and sustainably.
Sustainability, equality and inclusion are core to Nauti’s ethos. From construction to furniture, Nat prioritises repurposed, repaired, or locally sourced materials.
As a member of a number of marginalised groups, Nat fosters a space for people of all walks of life. Nat believes inspiration, connection and community encourage creatives to flourish and which in turn enriches the local community.
The name “Nauti” comes from Nat’s love of wordplay.
When building the first studio, a friend asked if she was going to have a theme for the space. With her love of the environment and feeling at home in the ocean, Nat instantly thought ocean theme.
She now realises they likely meant a colour palette, but in retrospect, it was the ocean that brought Nat back home to Sydney, to then build something she had been looking for all along.