Our History
Our first project, in 1972, was the restoration of the Opera House in the National Historic site, Victoria Hall, in Petrolia, Ontario, built in 1889.
A feasibility study and business plan by our original company, Brian Arnott Associates, and the subsequent restoration of the building inaugurated the first cultural consulting practice in Canada with a small staff under the direction of Brian Arnott.
From this beginning, the company developed its expertise in capital planning for cultural projects and in business planning in the cultural and non-profit sectors. This expertise was widely applied in building new theatres, heritage restoration projects, museums, art galleries, and other cultural organizations.
In 1982, the Technical Services side of the company was incorporated as Novita Ltd. while Brian Arnott Associates continued to provide Management Consulting and project planning and development services.
During this period, Novita developed its expertise in facility programming and design opening the Markham Theatre in 1985 to great acclaim.
Also in this period, the company expanded its capacities in policy development and municipal cultural planning.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, there was a convergence of technologies
for presentation systems for theatres or other meeting and assembly
spaces. In the early 1980s, Novita’s Technical Services division had
begun to design audio-visual multimedia systems for spaces other than
live performance theatres.
In 1990, David Jolliffe joined the
firm. David’s first project was the restoration, again, of Victoria
Hall, which had been gutted by fire on its 100th anniversary. David
became Manager of Technical Services in 1992, and a Partner in 1997.
In
1997, Leslie Wright joined Novita as a partner bringing her extensive
expertise in governance, policy, public consultation and facilitation,
and project development, gained from her work in the community-based
health and social services sector. Leslie’s presence deepened and
diversified our Management Consulting practice.
In 1999, Novita
Ltd. split into two sister companies: Novita Techne Limited (Technical
Services Division), with Brian Arnott and David Jolliffe as owners, and
Novita Interpares Limited (Management Consulting Division), with Leslie
Wright as the owner.
In 2008, Novita Interpares established a branch office
in a circa-1808 Georgian-style building in Old Town Lunenburg, Nova
Scotia, a UNESCO World Heritage site. This location enables Novita Interpares to
better serve our clients in Atlantic Canada and the US north-east.
In 2010, Novita Interpares moved downtown to new offices at 1110 Yonge Street. This marked a new era for the company in which the two sister companies began to work independently out of their separate offices, with David heading up the team at Novita Techne and Brian and Leslie moving with Novita Interpares.
Today,
Novita Interpares is a close-knit and interdisciplinary office with four full-time staff and a number of colleagues and content specialists with whom we develop specialized teams. Our wealth of
knowledge and perspectives comes from both the company’s experience - more than 1,000 projects - and our diverse range of consultants and specialists.