Plas BrondanwSusan Williams-Ellis
Foundation (SWEF)
Foundation (SWEF)
post@susanwilliamsellis.org
01766 770590
post@susanwilliamsellis.org
01766 770590
We hold cultural and artistic activities at Plas Brondanw in order to promote the arts in the area, and to offer opportunities for people of all ages to socialize and express themselves creatively. We hold a program of talks, workshops, courses and events throughout the year. Keep an eye on these pages or on our accounts on social media to find out what is coming up.
For more details, or to reserve a place at an event contact us on 01766770590 or post@susanwilliamsellis.org. There is no need to reserve a place at exhibition openings, but places are limited for talks and workshops, so please reserve a place for these events, even when they are free to attend.
We have decided to set a theme each year, going forwards. Items from the Susan Williams-Ellis archive will be curated according to the theme for the year, and this will also be the theme for the open and young open exhibitions. We invite artists who wish to have solo or group shows to consider responding to the theme, if they feel inspired to do so, although this is not a requirement. Events will also be curated to respond to the theme, where appropriate. The themes are deliberately broad and may be interpreted in any way that the artist feels is appropriate. The themes for the next five years are outlined below:
2023: Airbourne
2024: Transformation
2025: Space
2026: Animal / Vegetable / Mineral
2027: Disturbance
2028: The Sea
Brondanw Young Artists Club
First Saturday of the month
Time: 10 - 11:30am
The club aims to give children the opportunity to try diferent materials, work with experienced artists and develop their own art practice.
The club is aimed at children aged 6 and above, older children and teenagers are very welcome, we will do our best to tailor the activities to suit the audience.
Life Drawing Sessions
Block 1: 27/06/2025: 6-8pm
A model, easels and drawing boards will be provided, but you will need to bring your own paper and drawing materials. The £30 ticket price covers three sessions - buy a ticket for the first session in the block, the other two will be included automatically.
There will be no tutor for these sessions, they are an opportunity for you to practice independently and support each other as artists.
Sacred Herbs of Britain
15 June 2025: 4pm
A bilingual storytelling show retelling the story of Olwen, interweaving myth and magic, herbal lore and folk tales.
Join Claire Mace in the gardens at Plas Brondanw for a bilingual retelling of the story of Olwen, the giant's daughter with hair yellower than the broom and cheeks pinker than the foxglove.
She leaves a trail of white clover wherever she walks, and is the heroine of "Culhwch and Olwen", a tale from the mediaeval manuscripts of the Mabinogion.
Inspired by folklore from across Wales, this is Olwen's territory; myth and magic, herb lore, folk tales and stories of trees and plants illuminate her landscape.
Please note this is an outdoor event, and we will be moving between spots in the garden. Wear sutiable clothes and footwear, and bring a chair, a stool or a cushion to sit on if you like. Tickets are £10, with a cheaper concession ticket for unwaged and retired people and children at £7. The show is aimed at adults, but is not unsuitable for older children.
This traditional storytelling performance has been developed thanks to the Gwobr Esyllt Prize from Chwedl, the network of women storytellers in Wales, Contact Chwedl at hello@chwedl.org
Tour dates at www.anadlu.com
Andrea McLean - The Mythical Landscape: A Timeless Encounter?
9 July 2025: 7pm
Andrea McLean is a visual artist based in Herefordshire. As Faculty of the Royal Drawing School, she teaches the courses Mapping: Drawing Internal Landscapes, and William Blake: Drawing and Imagination. Her circular Mappa Mundi painting hungs near the entrance to the Map Room in the British Library. Andrea studied at Falmouth and the Slade, held a Rome Scholarship, Gloucester Cathedral residency, and has recently exhibited at the Towner Art Gallery, been an invited speaker at Middlesex University, and at The Pari Centre, Tuscany.
Andrea's talk presents different ways artists and poets have mapped the landscapes they encounter, whether those landscapes are real or imagined. Drawing on William Blake's poetry and imagery, and medieval circular maps created for memory and pilgrimage, we can ask about the nature of timelessness as an experience. Although timeless topography is impossible in our temporal world, it could be that journeying towards this ideal can give artists paths and encounters connecting them to the natural world poetically, and to other artists of their past and future.
This talk is part of the Hafod residency series, in collaboration with Noelle Griffiths. These talks are free to attend, and there is no need to book.
Website: andrea-mclean.co.uk
Instagram: @andreamclean6278
Life Drawing Sessions
Block 2: 25/07/2025 - 22/08/2025 - 19/09/2025: 6-8pm
A model, easels and drawing boards will be provided, but you will need to bring your own paper and drawing materials. The £30 ticket price covers three sessions - buy a ticket for the first session in the block, the other two will be included automatically.
There will be no tutor for these sessions, they are an opportunity for you to practice independently and support each other as artists.
Professor Emily Zobel Marshall
Anansi’s Thread: Storytelling as Resistance in Croesor and the Caribbean
8 November 2025 - 6pm
Professor Emily Zobel Marshall grew up in the mountains of Eryri in an isolated cottage near Croesor with her Black Caribbean mother and English father. She returns to her home turf to explore the folktales of Anansi, the shape-shifting African-rooted trickster spider, whose stories were used as a resource for resistance and survival for the enslaved in the Caribbean. Anansi is also alive in Plas Brondanw, in stories transcribed by Amabel Willams-Ellis, who was also fascinated with indigenous global mythology and folklore. Emily explores this cross-cultural web and weaves into it poems from her collections Bath of Herbs and Other Wild (Peepal Tree Press, 2023, 2025) which connect the threads between Croesor, the Caribbean and storytelling as source of endurance, healing and strength
Emily Zobel Marshall is of French-Caribbean and British heritage and grew up in North Wales. She is Professor in Postcolonial Literature at Leeds Beckett University. Her research specialisms are the cultures and literatures of the African Diaspora, with a focus on the folkloric trickster figure and Caribbean carnival cultures, and she is widely published in these field. She has published two academic books, Anansi’s Journey: A Story of Jamaican Cultural Resistance (UWI Press, 2012) and American Trickster: Trauma, Tradition and Brer Rabbit (Roman and Littlefield, 2019), and is Co-chair of the anti-racist charity the David Oluwale Memorial Association (DOMA). She develops creative work alongside her academic writing and her poetry collection, Bath of Herbs (2023), was published by Peepal Tree Press. Her forthcoming collection, Other Wild, will be published by Peepal Tree Press in Autumn 2025.
Pint and Chat
Third Wednesday every month
7-8pm
Come and practice your Welsh! While our local pub is closed (hopefully not for much longer), Plas Brondanw is pleased to welcome a group of Welsh learners to practice once a month, under the guidance of Osian Rhys from Menter Iaith Gwynedd. Email osian@menteriaithgwynedd.cymru for more information. Bring your own drink.