Kettle's Yard
Kettle's Yard
Castle Street
Cambridge
Cambridgeshire
CB3 0AQ
England
Website
Telephone
01223 748100
Fax
01223 324377
Kettle's Yard is a house with a permanent collection of 20th century art and a gallery showing a changing programme of 20th century and contemporary art exhibitions.
Kettle's Yard House was created by Jim Ede, once a curator at the Tate Gallery. It is more than an art collection, the building and the way in which the art and other objects are displayed are unique. In many ways Kettle's Yard House retains the characteristics of a real home and visitors are welcome to sit in the chairs, read the books and enjoy the art works.
Kettle's Yard Gallery enjoys an international reputation for its innovative exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. A wide variety of exhibitions are shown every year including major retrospectives of modern artists as well as first UK showings by contemporary international artists.
** Please note that during 2012/3, Kettle’s Yard is undergoing building work related to construction and development of a new Education Wing. As a result, the opening hours and viewable space of the Gallery and the House are at times restricted (the opening hours are as now stated). During the building work, the gallery will be showing a series of displays of selected works from the House collection. Familiar works will be presented in new ways and with contextual material from the archive and the reserve collection that is not normally available to the public. **
Venue Type:
Gallery, Historic house or home
In the Kettle's Yard House there is a collection of 20th century art including paintings by Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis and David Jones and sculptures by Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Constantin Brancusi and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. For a list of all the artists represented in the collection see our website. Also on show in the house are the furniture, ceramics and natural objects collected by Jim Ede.
Collection details
Music, Fine Art, Decorative and Applied Art, Archives, Architecture
Key artists and exhibits
- Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Alfred Wallis, David Jones, Ben Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson, Christopher Wood, William Congdon, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Constantin Brancusi, Naum Gabo, George Kennethson, Joan Miro (represented by one work), Lucy Rie, Italo Valenti, William Staite Murray, Elisabeth Vellacott.
Katie Paterson
Katie Paterson has earned widespread acclaim for work that tackles some of the key questions about our place on earth. Her work often involves collaborating with leading scientists and researchers across the world. The exhibition brings together previous projects and new work. Inside this desert lies the tiniest grain of sand saw Paterson working with experts in nanotechnology to take a grain of sand and carve it to just 0.00005mm across – which she then buried deep within the Sahara desert. A photograph of Paterson standing amongst the dunes, features in the exhibition, a contemplation of the monumental elevating the minute.
On display in St Peter’s Church is a new piece, Fossil Necklace, a culmination of her residency at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. The necklace comprises over 170 beads carved from fossils that chart the evolution of life on earth. From a dinosaur tooth to a squid’s backbone, the oldest fossil is around 3.5 billion years old.
Other works in the exhibition approach the themes of time and scale in different ways. As The World Turns is a record player moving imperceptibly slowly, in time with the rotation of the Earth. An ancient meteorite, fallen to earth and buried, is discovered and remade in Campo del Cielo, Field of Sky. The meteorite has been cast, melted then re-cast into a new version of itself that visitors can touch. The artist hopes to return it to space one day.
Suitable for
Admission
Free
House Guests
From April to July visitors to Kettle’s Yard will have the opportunity to see ‘guests’ from eight other University of Cambridge museums and collections carefully placed amongst the artworks and objects in the house. We hope the guests, from butterflies to Inuit carving, will inspire visitors to discover more about the other Cambridge University museums and to see Kettle’s Yard in a new light.
The House Guests have been selected by the museums’ directors in collaboration with Kettle’s Yard Associate Artist Jeremy Millar.
“It is not simply the beauty of the artworks collected at Kettle’s Yard that makes it such an extraordinary place, but rather how these are placed amongst domestic items, and gathered natural objects. By inviting objects from the collections of the University of Cambridge Museums to visit, too, such juxtapositions will be made all the more diverse, and richer as a result.” Jeremy Millar, 2013
Part of the project is a collaboration with the Critical Writing in Art and Design programme at the Royal College of Art. The students will be contributing to a publication that accompanies the exhibition, featuring interviews with museum curators and essays by Jeremy Millar and Lizzie Fisher, curator at Kettle’s Yard, available from late May.
Suitable for
Admission
Free
Lunchtimes Talks
House Guests
Heather Lane, Librarian & Keeper of Collections, The Polar Museum, Scott Polar Research Institute and students from the Critical Writing Programme at the Royal College of Art.
Please note there is limited capacity for the House Guests talks, attendance will be on a first come first served basis.
When
1:10-1:40pm
Website
The practice sessions
Reflect on the idea of collections and collectors with our House Guests project and artist Janine Woods.
Drop in post-work, pre-pub £8 per session, pay on the door.
Start your weekend with an informal evening of art-making, short tours, music and performance. Each month we will offer a different combination of artforms and ideas for you to sample. No need to book in advance, admission includes one drink (then pay bar).
Suitable for
- Not suitable for children
When
6-8pm
Admission
£8 per session
Website
Tour of House Guests
Tour with Director of Kettle's Yard, Andrew Nairne.
Suitable for
When
1pm-1:45am
Admission
Free
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