Willowtail enriches our community by building a creative network of practitioners in the arts, through inspiration and place.

Willowtail Springs Nature Preserve and Education Center is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing Residencies and Community Programs in the Arts and Nature with Scholarship and Partial-Scholarship Support

Willowtail Springs Preparing Future Artists Through Residencies

Program helps sharpen skills, get real-world experience
By Kenna Walsh, Durango Herald Staff Writer
Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018 11:52 AM
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If you are looking for Willowtail Springs B&B Vacation Cabin Rentals, go to www.willowtailsprings.com to make a reservation.

Willowtail.org
Awards 1-3 week residencies, making available to emerging and established practitioners from all over the world in the arts and nature a stunning environment with diverse ecology.
Elegant cottages and private working studio fit seamlessly into this unique preserve.
Exquisite grounds, clear skies, forests, gardens, water and wild life make this an ideal and unusual resource for creating individually or in collaboration to inspiring curiosity and an intensity for learning.

Margy Dudley, artist and photographer, spent several retreats at Willowtail. Her time spent here culminated in the book, A Willowtail Year, including several poems by Peggy Cloy. The book was sold at our 2015 fundraiser and is now in all 3 cabins at Willowtail.

Margy Dudley, Photographer, Artist, Writer, owner Open Shutter Gallery:
“This is a place that is timeless. The only voice you hear is the stillness and quiet, the present. Inspired by the wilderness and the creatures that inhabit it, the sounds of the breeze and the view of the setting sun. In nature we gain deeper understanding of ourselves and our place on this earth. This knowing comes from the land, is apparent to almost anyone who arrives. It’s immediate and almost magical. Only poetry can best describe what is felt in this place. To some it may feel sacred, to others it’s a connection lost. There is a growing list of retreats and residencies available in this graceful setting”.

VALUES:
Willowtail Springs Nature Preserve and Education Center:

– Promote creative expression in The Arts.
– Support and encourage those who seek to conserve, protect, and renew natural ecosystems.
– Provide and protect into perpetuity a place where practitioners can pursue and manifest their vision through exploration, reflection, research and collaboration.

A Willowtail residency exists to invite practitioners, in an array of fields and mediums, a time and space free from their usual obligations and distractions.  Complete immersion into this space allows residents to contemplate and focus on their projects with the preserve’s sights, sounds and smells to inspire them.  Essential to creating deeper works are the unexpected directions of thought and the expansion of nascent ideas into more robust and surprising creations.