Annual Report of the Kettle's Yard Committee for the year 2007-08

1 Introduction - Kettle's Yard

This year, with Phase 1 of our development achieved, we have been able to lay the ground for Phase 2 with the appointment of a full-time Development Officer, largely funded for two years by a private trust and charged with driving forward the appeal.

As we review the year, one of the major themes to emerge has been how new audiences have been attracted to participate in our programmes. The appointment of our first Interdisciplinary Fellow led to an exhibition about geometry, involving participants from a host of disciplines across the arts and sciences, matched by audiences of similar range. A two-part exhibition of animated drawing brought in a noticeably young audience. The New Music programme and associateship have created a student New Music Ensemble with young people engaging with the music of our time. And often behind the scenes, the education programme has reached out, through its Art and Wellbeing programme, to audiences who might not otherwise have the chance to take part; particular successes this year have included sessions for young carers, Alzheimer's sufferers, and people with eating disorders.

As ever we are grateful to the organizations and individuals who have supported our activities. They are listed at the end of this report (Appendix A) but special mention should be given to Arts Council England East, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Henry Moore Foundation, Cambridge City Council, and the University itself for their continuing support. During the year, a grant of £47,700 from the Heritage Lottery Fund has allowed us to embark on an oral history of Kettle's Yard which is already building an invaluable archive combining the memories of older generations with new responses to Kettle's Yard from some of our youngest participants. New Fellowships - Interdisciplinary and Curatorial - have been launched with the support of the Isaac Newton Trust.

2 Staff

Mr Michael Harrison continued as Director, assisted by Mr Sebastiano Barassi, Curator of Collections, Ms Susie Biller, Marketing and Events Officer, Ms Sarah Campbell, Education Officer, Ms Elizabeth Fisher, Curator of Exhibitions, Mrs Maree Allitt, Bookshop Manager, Mr Paul Allitt, Designer/Technician, Ms Lara Gisborne, Administrator, Ms Kate Wyatt, Administrative Assistant, Ms Deborah Owen, Ms Sabrina Rippon, and Mrs Carolyn Emery, Gallery Assistants. Mr Ron Peachy was replaced as Cleaner by Mr Andrew Maddocks. Ms Amanda Rigler continued as Temporary Administrative Secretary while Ms Gisborne acted as Marketing and Events Officer. Ms Biller returned from maternity leave in July. Ms Caroline Sier joined the staff as Development Officer and Mr Robert Wilkinson as Oral Historian, both on two-year contracts.

3 Committee

Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern continued to chair the Committee with the following membership: Professor Martin Daunton, Professor Robin Holloway, Ms Charlotte Kingston, Mr Tim Llewellyn, Mr Steven Morris, Dr Alan Munro, Ms Jane Munro, Mr Eric Parry, Ms Ruth Rattenbury, and Mr John Talbot. Mr Duncan Robinson stood down from the Committee on his retirement as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, ending a relationship with Kettle's Yard from its early years. He was replaced by his successor, Dr Timothy Potts. Ms Mary Dezille continued to serve as Secretary.

4 Appeal and development

Phase 1 of the development, the remodelling of the offices, was completed on time and on budget, and staff moved back into much improved accommodation in September. The changes include the introduction of a reception area off the courtyard, reducing traffic through the offices. Enlargement has allowed more extensive use of voluntary help and work placements; this has already benefited research for the appeal.

A grant from a private trust enabled us to appoint Caroline Sier as Development Officer for a period of two years to drive forward the Development Appeal. Caroline has come to us from a career which has taken her from the Eastern Arts Association, to the National Trust, English Heritage, and the Youth Hostelling Association. Her first months have been focused on preparing a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

5 Exhibitions and Fellowships

The exhibition programme was remarkably various in kind and the gallery took on different characters from show to show. The classic hang of Callum Innes's abstract paintings was replaced by a reconstruction of the timber bunkhouse from which Swedish artist Henrik Hakansson had observed the Californian Condor. For Momentary Momentum, a two-part compendium of animated drawing, brought in from Parasol Unit London, the gallery was transformed into a warren of darkened cinema spaces.

Beyond Measure was a follow-up to the 2006 exhibition Lines of Enquiry. This time, instead of drawing, the common language of geometry was explored in the work of 21 artists and 42 practitioners from a range of disciplines including astronomy, philosophy, molecular biology, geology, and engineering. The exhibition extended into St Peter's Church with an installation of the American minimalist artist Robert Morris's four mirrored cubes.

Like its predecessor, Beyond Measure was organized by Barry Phipps who became Kettle's Yard's first Interdisciplinary Fellow in 2007, commissioned to explore links between art and other subject areas. At the same time, film-maker, artist, and curator Lutz Becker took up the first Kettle's Yard Curatorial Fellowship to develop the first of a series of exhibitions about Modern Times. Both these Fellowships have been made possible by generous grant-aid from the Isaac Newton Trust.

6 Collections

Loans from the permanent collection

Five works were lent to the following exhibitions:

Nigel Hall: Sculpture and Drawing 1965-2008, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton (8 March - 8 June 2008):

Nigel Hall, Frieze I (NH 1)

Ben Nicholson, Abbot Hall, Kendal (7 July - 21 September 2008), De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill (11 October 2008 - 4 January 2009) and Tate St Ives (24 January - 4 May 2009):

Ben Nicholson, c.1930 (Cornish Port) (BN 5)

Ben Nicholson: woodcuts, linocuts, lithographs 1928-1967, Alan Cristea Gallery, London (23 October - 21 November 2007):

Ben Nicholson, Jug with two mugs (BN 28)

Ben Nicholson, Two mugs (BN 30a)

Ben Nicholson, Profile (BN 32)

Loans to University Departments

The five-year loan of the following works was agreed:

Prunella Clough, Garden (PC1), to the Centre for Family Research;

Ken Draper, Shadows (KD2), and Simona Ertan, Untitled (SE1) to the Old Schools.

Conservation

Paintings: two paintings (PC1 and RH1) were treated by Sally Woodcock.

Works on paper: eleven works (KD2, KW1L, AW 58, AW 122, BN 27, BN 30a, HGB 116, EV 14, EV 16, EV 17, and EV 19) were treated by Museum Conservation Services Ltd.

Furniture: three chairs (021 1985 F and 026 a-b 1985 F) were re-upholstered by Margaret Metaxas; one table (055 1985 F) and four chairs (107a 1985 F and 111 a-c 1985 F) were conserved by Paul Waldmann.

Rugs: all the antique rugs were cleaned by a specialist cleaner.

Books: a conservation programme for Jim Ede's books has been devised in collaboration with Colin Elsden and Michael Lawrence of Stoakley Bookbinders.

The curator conducted the annual inspection of works on loan to Colleges and Departments of the University. One painting (Paul Feiler's Boskenna Tree, PF 1) was retrieved from Downing College because of its deteriorating condition.

New acquisitions

Two rugs (a Fachralo Namazlik, c.1880 - 054 2008 T - and a Tekke Turkmen, c.1875 - 055 2008 T) were acquired to replace worn-out ones (013 1985 T and 030 1987 T), in the Dancer room and the library.

Student loan scheme

As usual, the scheme proved very popular. Fifty-eight students borrowed ninety-six works for the academical year.

7 Music

Thursday Subscription Series

There were sixteen concerts in the subscription series:

Michaelmas Term

New Music Series

The New Music programme was devised by Richard Baker, Kettle's Yard New Music Associate. The Associateship was part-funded by the Faculty of Music for the development of a student New Music Ensemble. There were five new music mornings, interspersed with the Coffee Concert series. These were devised and delivered by local groups: Cambridge Gamelan Society, Jo Roberts and colleagues from Radio209, M.E.M.E., David Ryan, and University of Cambridge composers.

Sunday Coffee Concerts

Lunchtime concerts

The lunchtime student concerts continued to be well supported. Violinist Catherine Myerscough programmed the year and was succeeded in managing the series by violinist Guy Button at Easter. There were 24 concerts.

Other events

Cambridge Modern Jazz club continued its programme at Kettle's Yard.

8 Education

The programme included:

Regular activities

12 Glitter and Glue sessions; 21 Saturday Drawing sessions; 24 Wednesday Club sessions; 4 Tuesday Studio.

Children and families

10 weekend/holiday workshops; 6 Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination workshops; 'Drop In and Draw and Make Things' available throughout.

Adults

30 exhibition talks; 16 house talks; 22 adult education sessions; 11 workshops; 8 special events (late night opening, evening lectures, symposium, film screening); 1 touch/descriptive tour for visually impaired visitors.

Groups

13 adult groups; 27 higher education groups; 20 further education groups; 13 summer/language schools; 20 secondary schools; 9 primary schools; 2 special needs schools; 4 teachers' private views; 3 Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination CPD sessions for teachers.

Art and wellbeing

11 outreach visits to Addenbrookes' Hospital oncology ward; 3 outreach/visits with young on-set dementia group; 4 Fulbourn Hospital visits; 7 'Insight' sessions (homeless groups); 3 eating disorders unit visits; 20 University Counselling sessions; 3 general outreach talks; 2 Summer School sessions (partnership with Fitzwilliam and CMHRC); 2 other community groups (Arthur Rank Hospice, Arts and Minds).

Projects

5 Young Carer sessions; 10 'Ticket to My Imagination' sessions plus private view for participants/friends; 16 interviewees for the ReCollection Oral History Archive; 1 away day and 1 gallery-based session for 'Half Thoughts, More Voices'.

The public programme of events continued to offer a mix of practical- and discussion-based sessions for all ages. Glitter and Glue, monthly art sessions for parents and toddlers, has a very strong following. Both the Folk Museum, with whom we do joint publicity, and the Fitzwilliam Museum, offer similar early years sessions, neither of which have detracted from our attendance figures. Wednesday Club continues to sell out within five minutes. An art group for young people has proven difficult to get off the ground. KY Create came to a natural end and the change to a weekday slot for FRESH failed to get a response. Tuesday Studio, for 11-14 year olds ran a successful pilot in the summer term, on which we are hoping to build in the autumn. We participated in local and national initiatives, including: Big Draw, Science Week, Cambridge Wordfest, and Adult Learners' Week.

For adults, we offered Saturday Drawing fortnightly as well as full 'study day' sessions. The latter have been fully booked this year and have received very positive feedback. We ran three discussion-based art history courses this year: Kettle's Yard and its artists for the Institute of Continuing Education and Breaking Boundaries for the WEA, both having run for a number of years, as well as Craft Connections, a six-week course devised by Barley Roscoe. We hosted two successful symposia: Ruffled Feathers, organized by the Exhibitions Organizer in partnership with Birdlife International and CRASSH, explored further the themes of the Henrik Hakansson exhibition. Between Categories: artists' experimental film and new wave cinema, was organized by David Ryan from Anglia Ruskin University in partnership with the Arts Picturehouse and examined the relationship between sound and the moving image. We also participated in the Memory Maps conference, hosting an evening performance of poetry and song, as well as a writing workshop.

We are continuing our work with Homerton College to provide training sessions to Initial Teacher Trainees and PGCE students. We hosted four teachers' private views: for Henrik Hakansson, Davison/Shanahan, Beyond Measure, and Michelle Charles, and teachers' packs were available free on the website for the first three. We hosted three Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination teacher CPD sessions and aim to offer one session a term for the coming year. We developed a new teachers' resource that made connections between Kettle's Yard and St Peter's Church.

The Art and Wellbeing programme continued its work with Addenbrooke's and Fulbourn Hospitals, Arts and Minds, Cambridge Mental Health Resource Centre, and Centre 33. Due to changes in staffing structure and funding, the regular visits from the homeless shelters have not been strong and will need to be reviewed in the coming months. However, the relationship with the early onset dementia group at Hilltops has led to more opportunities, including outreach talks to their elderly group. We have also built new links with an eating disorders unit.

Building on the success of a young carers' project run in 2006, we extended our offer in early 2008 and worked in partnership with the Zoology Museum, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the Whipple Museum to deliver five practical artist-led sessions across the four venues. Eleven young carers participated and gave very positive feedback on the experience; we will be offering another young carers project with new partners in 2009.

In late 2007 we secured funding for two large projects: the Heritage Lottery Fund has contributed £47,700 towards the creation of an oral history archive, which will focus on the last 50 years of Kettle's Yard as well as contemporary responses from first time visitors. The ReCollection project will culminate in January 2010 with the launch of a website; Arts Council England East have contributed £18,800 to a creative learning project called Half Thoughts More Voices that also runs over two years and will end in February 2010. Working with creative learning practitioners, we are examining our practice and organizational culture and looking to find new ways of communicating with our audiences.

In partnership with the Fitzwilliam Museum and with funding from Renaissance East of England and the Cambridge City Council, we have created an adult leaflet and a children's booklet that both make comparisons across the two collections and encourage visitors to examine the collections in a new light.

Finally, the Education Officer is now an Area Representative for engage. The role involves attending quarterly meetings as a Council member and arranging regional events with the other two representatives for engage East.

9 Health and Safety

The annual Health and Safety inspection was conducted in December. The results were overall reassuring. The Departmental Safety Officer attended a Continuity Management training course organized by the University's Emergency Management Team. A review of security arrangements was carried out by the Departmental Safety Officer and the Fire Safety Manager. A new system to alert contractors to the dangers of asbestos on the site was introduced in June.

10 Attendance

40,063 visits to 7 exhibitions over 275 days.

19,085 visits to the house over 310 days.

5,967 participants in educational activities, talks, lectures, and group visits.

4,521 attendances at concerts.

735 attendances at corporate events and late night viewings.

The figure of 40,063 exhibition visits compares with 47,226 last year; 19,085 visits to the house compares with 21,479. The overall attendance of 70,371 compares with 79,732 in 2006-07.

11 Finance

Accounts 2007-08

General Accounts (£)	Income	Expenditure		Surplus/(deficit)
Total balance brought forward				152,756
Recurrent	373,519	350,551		22,968
Exhibitions	127,948	205,768		-77,819
New Music	18,791	19,176		-385
House	15,929	17,089		-1,160
Education	26,221	24,192		2,029
Trading	72,058	36,502		35,556
Overall Surplus/deficit in 2007-08				-18,812
Chest absorption of pay deficit				5,702
Balance carried forward				139,646
Music Account (£)	Income	Expenditure		Surplus/(deficit)
Balance brought forward				4,496
Movement in year	33,115	30,013		3,102
Balance carried forward				7,598
Appeal Account (£)	Income	Expenditure		Surplus/(deficit)
Balance brought forward				631,200
Movement in year	186,811	165,533		21,278
Revaluation of CUEF units				-20,566
Balance carried forward				631,912
Funds held from which only the income generated is spendable
Balance brought forward
Recurrent account Music account				1,316,218 500,382
Revaluation of CUEF Units				-189,324
Balance carried forward
Recurrent account Music account				1,179,043 448,233
Total Endowment assets				1,627,276
Total Assets				2,406,432

12 Conclusion

This report has been written at a time when, day-by-day, the economic future has become increasingly uncertain. It was from a life that had seen two world wars with a depression inbetween, and the threat of nuclear disaster, that Jim Ede conceived the idea of Kettle's Yard. Art and music and his vision of a place which allows time for reflection and a requestioning of values may prove to be even more important in the months and years ahead. While the financial outlook is worrying, the artistic prospect is truly exciting, and we press on towards the completion of Kettle's Yard.

MARILYN STRATHERN

(Chair)

Appendix A

Kettle's Yard and its programme were supported in 2007-08 by:

The University of Cambridge
Arts Council England
AHRC - The Arts and Humanities Research Council
NESTA - The National Endowment for Science, Technology, and the Arts
The Friends of Kettle's Yard
The Henry Moore Foundation
Cambridge City Council
Cambridgeshire County Council
The Isaac Newton Trust
John and Jennifer Talbot
The Elephant Trust
CRASSH
D. G. Marshall of Cambridge Trust
and many individuals contributing to the Kettle's Yard Appeal

The New Music Fellowship and programme were supported by:

The PRS Foundation
The Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge
Dr Shirley Ellis
The RVW Trust
The Hinrichsen Foundation
The Britten-Pears Foundation
The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation