Spotlight on Willow Tree Performing Arts
In our latest member spotlight, we’re thrilled to be joined by David Faulds, Founder, Director and Lead Facilitator at Willow Tree Performing Arts.
What does your social enterprise do, and why do you do it?
Willow Tree Performing Arts creates accessible performing arts experiences for children and adults with disabilities and additional support needs.
We use music, rhythm, movement, storytelling and shared creativity to create environments where people feel safe enough to participate, connect and belong.
Our approach begins with the person rather than the activity. We recognise that participation may look very different for different people. For one person it might mean singing, dancing or playing an instrument; for another it might be making eye contact, anticipating a sound, choosing whether to join in, sharing a moment with somebody else or simply feeling comfortable enough to remain in the room.
That matters because people with disabilities and additional support needs can still encounter significant barriers to accessing meaningful arts experiences. We want to change that.
Our aim is not simply to provide activities for people. We create structured creative environments in which people can make choices, contribute and be recognised as active participants.
At Willow Tree, regulation comes before activity and belonging comes before performance.
What products, services and/or experiences do you currently offer?
Our community programmes include:
Together We Shine — Creates Moments: Inclusive group performing arts experiences using music, rhythm, movement, communication and shared creativity.
Storytellers — Creates Journeys: Accessible sensory storytelling combining music, sound, movement, objects, imagination and participant choice.
Count Me In — Creates Connections: Small-group accessible music-making with an emphasis on choice, agency, communication and connection.
We also provide one-to-one sessions, work within schools and additional-support settings, deliver commissioned sessions for organisations, and are developing training for staff and practitioners.
What’s your personal motivation?
I have worked in music, performance and education for more than 30 years, including as a teacher, Head of Creative Arts and professional performer.
Over time, some of the most meaningful experiences of my career became the moments that would never appear in a concert programme or examination result — the person who joined in when nobody expected them to, the shared laugh, the first independent choice, or the moment somebody realised that everyone else in the room was listening to them.
Willow Tree grew from the belief that those moments deserve to be valued.
I don’t want people with additional support needs merely to be accommodated within somebody else’s version of the arts. I want them to have creative spaces designed from the beginning with them in mind.
What is next on the horizon for your social enterprise, and how do you plan to get there?
The next stage is to grow Willow Tree sustainably while protecting the values that made it work in the first place.
We want to increase access to our community programmes, deepen our partnerships with schools and organisations, create clearer pathways between school-based and community provision, and continue developing our evidence of impact.
A particularly important part of our future is workforce development. We are beginning to explore how the principles behind Willow Tree can be shared with teachers, support workers, facilitators and organisations so that accessible creative practice reaches many more people than we could ever reach by delivering every session ourselves.
Our long-term ambition is for Willow Tree to become a recognised centre of expertise in accessible and inclusive performing arts practice.
What’s the hardest thing you’ve had to overcome in your social enterprise journey?
One of the greatest challenges has been building something new while simultaneously delivering the work.
Like many small social enterprises, we have had to learn about governance, funding, marketing, partnerships, finance and organisational development while continuing to provide high-quality sessions.
There have also been moments when programmes have grown slowly or funding has been uncertain.
Those experiences have taught us an important lesson: growth cannot simply be measured by numbers. We need to listen, adapt and build something sustainable without losing the relationships and quality of experience at the heart of Willow Tree.
How has being a member of Social Enterprise Scotland helped you?
Becoming part of Social Enterprise Scotland has helped us see Willow Tree not simply as a collection of successful sessions, but as a social enterprise capable of creating wider and more sustainable change.
The opportunity to connect with experienced people within the sector, access advice and consider our future development has been particularly valuable as Willow Tree moves from its start-up phase towards its next stage of growth.
It has also helped reinforce that our social purpose and our sustainability do not have to compete with each other. Building a stronger organisation allows us to create greater impact.
What is your most satisfying achievement so far?
There isn’t one single event.
It is seeing people begin to regard Willow Tree as somewhere they belong.
Participants return week after week. Families tell us that people look forward to coming. We see people make increasingly independent choices and develop relationships within groups.
We’ve also seen professionals recognise the approach. Support workers have asked how they can learn to facilitate in similar ways, schools and organisations have invited us back, and our work has begun to attract interest beyond individual sessions.
Perhaps the most satisfying achievement is becoming increasingly unnecessary inside a session.
When participants begin interacting, playing, choosing and creating together while the facilitator can almost disappear into the background, something important has happened.
The space has become theirs.
Who in the social enterprise community inspires you and why?
We are inspired by social enterprises that remain genuinely connected to the communities they were created to serve as they grow.
The organisations we learn most from are those that demonstrate that professional practice, financial sustainability and strong social purpose can reinforce rather than undermine one another.
What top tips would you give to other social enterprises?
- Start with the people rather than the programme.
- Listen carefully to what happens when you deliver — particularly to the things you did not expect.
- Don’t confuse growth with impact.
- Collect evidence from the beginning, including the small stories and observations that demonstrate change.
- Build relationships before you need something from them.
- And protect the reason you started. As systems, funding and administration grow around an organisation, its purpose needs to remain visible at the centre.
For more information about Willow Tree Performing Arts, please visit their website and Facebook.
Want to read more Member Spotlights? Visit our blog. If you’d like to be featured, please email membership@socialenterprise.scot.