Prema Friends

The Friends of Prema is a sister organisation to the Arts Centre. The Friends is a charitable association which raises funds through subscription, planned events and generous donations to support Prema Arts Centre.The Friends' committee meet regularly to discuss new ideas for trips, parties and other arts-related events. You don't have to join the committee, your role can be just to take out a Subscription with us, sit back and enjoy the benefits of priority mailing, invites to parties, exhibition openings, priority booking … not to mention that we give you discount on everything you do at Prema. Bargain!

Coach Trip to the Guardian Book Festival @ Hay-on-Wye

Sat 31 May Leaves Uley Bus Stop 8am £22 or Friends £18

Hailed as the “Woodstock for the Mind”, the Hay-on-Wye festival is quite an experience. Now in its twenty-first year, the Festival takes the form of conversations with writers, musicians, film-makers and comedians which last around 40 minutes, and then 20 minutes Q&A with the audience. There’s also bits of stand up comedy as well as some of the finest international film for those with a passion for the moving image as well as the spoken/written word.

The average price for an event is £5, but there are a lot of free events. The price in the programme here is solely for the coach to get you to Hay – we anticipate arriving around 10am and there’s a jam-packed day of talks from established and emerging writers and creatives. You’ll need to book your event tickets on 0870 990 1299. Hay is a great little town with more miles of Bookshop and Mountain to wander than you could cover in a week. Here’s a great opportunity to get up close to some of the hottest exponents of the written & recorded word. All you need to do is hop on the coach in Uley, sit back and enjoy the ride. Book early.

Ludlow and the Elton Hall Garden

Wed 20 Aug Leaves Uley Bus Stop 9am £22 or £18 (Friends)

By August, our gardens are starting to look a little past their best, but at Elton Hall the sumptuous gardens are just coming into their own. The garden is marked by a wonderful juxtaposition of architectural eccentricities and exquisite plantsmanship – miniature gate lodges which double-up as potting sheds, a castellated pavilion, a “tortoise fortress” as well as glorious borders and beds of dahlias and national collections of echinacea and rudbeckia (to name but a few). Elton Hall has everything – pretty house, the perfect setting, wonderful history and some of the finest planting you’re likely to experience. Here’s the chance to have a relaxing stroll around some of the most glorious bits of Shropshire in the balmy late summer sun (we’ll have time for a meander around Ludlow and some lunch too). Price here includes admission to the gardens.

Where Does My Friends’ Subscription Go?

Throughout the programme, you’ll see that we offer Friends Prices - these are for people who have taken out a subscription with the Friends. The monies raised through these subs go directly into providing services to help with the smooth running of the Arts Centre.

The Friends Of Prema have bought a new heater for the Upstairs Room and a digital camera to catalogue what we do. They part-funded our People & Prema Newsletter and the plan for 2004 is that the Friends will buy a piano so that we can develop a participatory programme of live music making here at the Centre.

How to join

The Friends have four kinds of membership

• Life Membership of £150 - this means that you will be a life-long Friend and will not have to renew your membership on an annual basis.
  
  
• Family Membership costs £20 per year and means that you, your partner and your kids can be given the discounted price for all events.
  
  
• Individual Membership costs £15 per year and means that you will be offered the discounted price for all events.
  
  
• Individual Concessionary Membership costs £10 per year and is offered to those who rely solely on a state benefit to survive (incl Family Credit) and means that you quarlify for the marked Friends (concs) price on all our events.

To join the Friends, please send a cheque for the relevant amount, made payable to "The Friends of Prema" to the office at Prema - mark your envelope "Friends".