Williams Mill Experience: The Brocks

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The Williams Mill - Halton's Treasure by John Sommer

Williams Mill Visual Arts Centre As Key elements of its vision, the Williams Mill Visual Arts Centre will: Facilitate the development of the careers of visual artists and craftspeople. Promote the visual arts in and around Halton Hills, Ontario, by means of exhibitions held throughout the community, and programmes to increase public awareness, and appreciation, of the visual arts. Provide space for the working studios of both emerging and accomplished visual artists and craftspeople. Sponsor educational programmes that serve both artists and the public with respect to the visual arts.  Develop a programme to interpret the heritage site where the Williams Mill Visual Arts Centre is located.

Our Vision
“Strengthen the community in which we live, through support for the visual arts and heritage interpretation at the Williams Mill.”

Husband and wife duo Doug and Mary Lou Brock are long-standing residents of Georgetown and in 1972 founded a chemical company called Caledon Labs.

As local entrepreneurs, the Brocks long admired the beauty of the William’s Mill property and acquired it in 1985. Since that time they have done considerable restoration of the buildings and in 1988 Doug and Mary Lou had the two historic buildings designated under the Ontario Heritage Act. In summer 1994 they began to rent the premises as working studios to professional artists and craftspeople.

The Brocks hold a keen interest in visual arts and heritage buildings, and married these two interests through acquisition of the unique Williams Mill property. They believe in the importance of art to enrich our lives and challenge the way we see the world. They view heritage buildings as important in reminding us how things have changed while often staying the same.

As an ongoing labour of love, The Williams Mill has captured their collective imagination and they demonstrate their continued passion for The Mill by taking an active role in the artists and the work being showcased there.

In the Brock’s own words, “We are not only landlords, we remain very involved in operating the gallery, and in promoting the concept and artists' work”.

Today, the Brocks are acknowledged as dedicated patrons of the arts and volunteer a significant amount of their time to working at the Williams Mill.

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