A rare and beautiful century estate is the setting for an innovative educational and training program in heritage conservation. The two come together in a living learning and working environment that celebrates the preservation of our cultural and historical legacy.

Willowbank is one of a handful of places around the world where the teaching of traditional craft and restoration 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 continuity between past and present, about sensitive adaptive reuse and revitalization, not only for individual places but for entire communities.

Its mission is to explore ways of sustaining places and communities, through the integration of past, present and future. We see the restoration arts as a key part in understanding the past, connecting it to the present, and then reshaping it for the future.

We are convinced that the 21st Century is going to be a time of reconnecting us with our cultural landscapes – landscapes that live in our imagination and that give us a sense of place and a sense of identity. 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.

The school is committed to exploring new ways of teaching and learning that combines the best of academic and apprenticeship traditions. Our faculty and students give equal weight to working with the mind and working with the hands. We believe in learning by doing. We bring in the very best practitioners from across Canada to provide mentorship and guidance. We do not shy away from the latest technology, but we insist on starting with simple, tangible, immediate connections with materials and knowledge. We teach individual skills and then team skills, and we believe that the best work is done when everyone works on a level playing field and there are no hierarchies.

We have an extraordinary range of faculty associates, over 50 + in number. These people represent almost every discipline and skill in the conservation field, and 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.

The full‐time Diploma Program is the centerpiece of the School of Restoration Arts. This three-year program introduces students to the full breadth of the conservation field, through a carefully constructed curriculum combining the best of academic and apprenticeship training.

The program accepts applications from anyone with a high school diploma. It also welcomes many people with existing apprenticeship training or with college and university degrees. We are committed to treating all trades and disciplines as equal participants in the conservation of significant cultural resources. Students from various backgrounds find that Willowbank is a place of sharing and mutual learning. The combination of individual and team projects allows for a variety of learning opportunities.

Graduates of the Diploma program may choose to move directly into full time employment or self‐employment in the heritage conservation field, or they may pursue additional studies in the area that carries special appeal.

In the skilled trades, some of our students have left before completing the Diploma because they have found full‐time employment in their immediate area of interest, usually because of summer opportunities. Those who remain have the advantage of a trade skill, such as historic masonry, plus a broader set of skills involving documentation, analysis and the development of conservation plans. One of our graduates is working for a masonry firm on the magnificent stone buildings at Parliament Hill. Another graduate is working for a prominent glass company in Toronto working on historic windows.

In the design/build field, we have graduates who have used their combination of design and drafting skills with project management and implementation skills to take on project supervision as heritage specialists. One of our graduates is working for a large developer on a major downtown heritage property in Hamilton; another is working at a much smaller scale on historic residential properties for private owners. Recent graduates have found their special interests in fields as diverse as design, drawing, and documentation; historic interiors; stone masonry; and research and project management.