DIPLOMA PROGRAM IN HERITAGE CONSERVATION 

The three-year Diploma Program is the centerpiece of Willowbank's educational offerings. The first two years feature intense eight-month (September to April) sessions at Willowbank. The third year is a transition year into full-time employment in the field, and combines September and January classes at Willowbank with on-site or off-site internships. Tuition is only $5,000 per year. Willowbank is a non-profit institution supported by a wide range of donors and events. The Diploma Program is for those who love the idea of working with both their hands and their minds, and who want to make a tangible impact on our shared natural and built environment – whether as designers, developers, master builders, skilled tradespeople, planners, researchers, or conservators. The heritage conservation field is changing. The new paradigm is more dynamic, more ecological, more holistic. Willowbank is a new kind of institution for a new age. It is perhaps not surprising that there is a waiting list for our Diploma Program graduates.

Willowbank in context: Willowbank is one of a handful of places around the world where the teaching of design, conservation and craft skills is carried out within a nationally-significant historic site. The use of a rich and layered setting to support a variety of related educational programs is unique within Canada. The site attracts visitors from around the world because of its tangible and intangible values as a place with 8,000 years of cultural history. Students come to explore the site more deeply and to study both the conservation of existing natural and cultural resources, and the introduction of compatible contemporary layers. Willowbank is about sensitive adaptive reuse and revitalization, not only for individual places but for entire communities. We do not accept many of the assumptions of 20th Century education and conservation. We believe there has been too much of an obsession with observation rather than experience, with theory rather than practice, with objects in isolation rather than the ecology of interconnectedness. We use a cultural landscape framework for all our programs and activities. We define cultural landscapes as places that exist in the cultural imagination and that are defined by the intersection of artifact and ritual. We are convinced that the 21st Century is going to be a time of renewed appreciation for these ongoing expressions of cultural practice, these places that give us a sense of shared identity.

Diploma Program resources: The Diploma Program operates with an extraordinary range of faculty associates, over 60 in number. These people are the best in their field, representing almost every discipline and skill. They come from the private sector, the government sector, and academia. Willowbank's unique blend of apprenticeship and academic styles of learning allow us to use their talents in whatever setting best suits their individual strengths. Classrooms and workshops take place both within the main early-19th Century Willowbank mansion and in the converted barn complex on site. Additional courses are taught using the grounds of the estate, and there are frequent field trips. The second year program involves the development of conservation plans for significant sites in southern Ontario. These are done in cooperation with the owners of the sites and with partner agencies. Third-year internships vary widely, and are tailored to the student's individual interests and career goals. Internship hosts have included a heritage planning unit in Hamilton, the Ontario Heritage Trust in Toronto, a masonry contractor in Niagara on the Lake, the National Capital Commission in Ottawa, a restoration architect in Port Hope, and a restoration carpentry firm in Philadelphia. Some students have done specialized conservation projects at Willowbank. Each internship involves mentors drawn from existing Willowbank faculty associates or from a specialized area of particular interest to the student. Assistance is given to students in finding summer employment. Students have had paid work during the time at Willowbank involving conservation projects in the Niagara area as well as Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, Tokyo, and Sri Lanka. New opportunities for paid work during the school year are becoming available through the contract work of Willowbank's Centre for Cultural Landscape. Diploma Program students are automatically eligible to take part in the annual Willowbank Summer School in Canova, Italy. This course happens in June each year. However, the tuition and fees for this course are separate and in addition to the regular Diploma Program costs. Diploma Program students are also eligible for the annual Summer Documentation Program. This is a paid internship that involves preparing measured drawings and photographs of historic buildings at risk in the Niagara on the Lake area. Space in this program is limited so separate applications are required each spring.