Willow Springs Creative Centre Is…..

A little idea that just keeps on growing. The seed was planted by four artisans in Lappe Ontario. Lea Hayes, Liisa Leskowski, Kathy Toivonen and Judi Vinni (> our artists) moved in to the old Koski’s Store (> store’s history) that once served their rural community just outside Thunder Bay, Ontario. They set up Willow Springs Artisan Gift Store and Studio to create and sell their art as well as other regional artists’ work. They also began to offer art classes to people of all ages and interests.

They decided on the name Willow Springs because it embodied everything the women stood for; flexibility, growth, tenacity, using nature as inspiration and their art medium, as well as a trait that is a salute to their Finnish roots, sisu. Willow abounds on and around their property and the PROPERTY’S water source is a natural spring.

Judi and Liisa had earned the moniker the Willow Witches of Ware by teaching willow furniture making for years before they bought the store. Once the four women got together they often found they used the phrase “ and whatever else springs up” because new ideas and initiatives just kept springing up and grew as fast and tenaciously as a stand of willow (and everyone knows you just can’t keep a good stand of willow down).

As time past the women came to recognize that they were not just offering art classes. Their creative programs offer so much more. Things like community development, personal discovery, healing and spiritual exploration are as much the fruit of these so-called classes as are works of art (> art gallery). They decided that in these programs lay the real future of Willow Springs. As a result Willow Springs Creative Centre (> mission statement) was founded as a non-profit organization (> board bios) in June 2006.

Now the whole community is invited to be a part of Willow Springs Creative Centre (> join us). We offer everything from art camps (> summer art camps) to customized art programs
(> customized art programs) developed to meet the specific needs of a group or community. One of our most exciting developments is our garden (> development of the garden) and horticultural therapy programs (> garden programs). Not only do we use the garden space around our building (> grounds committee) to host and inspire programming, but we take our art and garden programs on the road. And new events (> special events) and programs (> calendar) just keep springing up!

We rely on so many people and programs to keep Willow Springs strong and growing. Thanks to our volunteers (join us), funders, sponsors and community partners (> partners links).