The last year has been extremely successful, attracting a record number of visitors and restoring an annual surplus to the accounts. The highlight of the year, drawing the highest ever attendance for a Kettle's Yard exhibition, was 'WE the Moderns' - Gaudier-Brzeska and the birth of modern sculpture. On a house-keeping level, the impact of a University-wide pay and grading exercise was alleviated by the University itself stepping in to meet the immediate costs.
As we continue to celebrate our 50th birthday through 2007, it is particularly appropriate to pay especial tribute to the Friends of Kettle's Yard. Founded in 1986, at a time of financial unease, the Friends have grown in number to more than 1,100 members. This year they have extended their giving beyond their annual revenue grant of £35,000, by handing over invested units valued at £109,000 towards the capital and endowment appeal. At the same time, individual Friends have continued to respond generously to our appeal for pledges of bequests and planned giving.
The affirmation of support for Kettle's Yard within the University and from those closest to it has been of huge encouragement, coupled with the sustained and sustaining support of Arts Council England, through its revenue and project funding, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and that of other grant-giving bodies. (A list of supporters is given at Appendix A.)
Mr Michael Harrison continued as Director, assisted by Ms Susie Biller, Marketing and Events Officer, Mr Sebastiano Barassi, Curator of Collections, Ms Sarah Campbell, Education Officer, Ms Elizabeth Fisher, Exhibitions Organizer, Mrs Maree Allitt, Bookshop Manager, Mr Paul Allitt, Technician, Ms Lara Gisborne, Administrative Secretary, Dr Elizabeth Haslemere, Administrative Assistant, Ms Deborah Owen, Ms Mary Conochie, and Ms Sabrina Rippon, Gallery Assistants. Mr Ron Peachy joined the staff as Cleaner. Ms Susie Biller went on maternity leave in May and was replaced on a temporary basis by Ms Lara Gisborne. Ms Amanda Rigler was brought in as Temporary Administrative Secretary.
Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern continued to chair the Committee with the following membership: Professor Robin Holloway, Mr William Kynan-Wilson, Mr Tim Llewellyn, Mr Steven Morris, Dr Alan Munro, Ms Jane Munro, Mr Eric Parry, Ms Ruth Rattenbury, Mr Duncan Robinson, Mr John Talbot. The Committee was sad to lose from its membership Colonel Michael Payne, who died during the year. Professor Martin Daunton joined the Committee on the nomination of the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum. Ms Mary Dezille continued to serve as Secretary.
Kettle's Yard was awarded Full Accreditation by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council in November.
A successful application to Arts Council England East for £150,000, coupled with a special grant from the Friends of Kettle's Yard, enabled the first phase of development to proceed; the remodelling of the offices to make them workable for the present level of staff and to provide disabled access will be completed by early October. Fund-raising continues towards Phase 2, to provide a new education wing and endowment.
Lines of Enquiry (15 July - 17 September)
Rodin: All about Eve (23 September - 19 November)
The Kettle's Yard Open (25 November - 7 January)
'WE the Moderns' - Gaudier-Brzeska and the birth of modern sculpture (20 January - 18 March)
(also shown at the Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield)
Arturo Herrera (31 March - 20 May)
(in association with the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham)
Edmund de Waal at Kettle's Yard (26 May - 22 July)
(in association with mima, Middlesbrough)
Callum Innes: from memory (28 July - 23 September)
(in association with The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh)
International and regional, ranging through the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, the exhibition programme was striking for the range it encompassed within a twelve-month span. The summer of 2006 had brought Lines of Enquiry, an exhibition organized by Barry Phipps and developed out of an earlier project at Churchill College; artists, astronomers, archaeologists, architects, engineers, heart surgeons, and others from a host of disciplines - in Cambridge and from afar - explored the common language of drawing as a tool of exploration and explanation. Rodin: All about Eve was an exhibition about one sculpture, though represented by three casts in different spaces. They were accompanied by remarkable photographs of 'Eve', some taken in Rodin's lifetime, and lent by the Musée Rodin, and others newly commissioned from Iraida Icaza and Nicholas Sinclair. The Kettle's Yard Open was widely hailed as the best yet, selected by artist David Ward and film-maker Jayne Parker from a submission by over 300 artists from the Eastern region. And then 'WE the Moderns', a show at last setting Gaudier-Brzeska in the context of his European contemporaries - Picasso, Brancusi, Matisse et al. Loans were gathered from collections throughout Europe and the UK, creating a rich anthology of early 20th-century sculpture, from which Gaudier emerged as a true pioneer. From there we stepped firmly into present times with the first one-person exhibition in this country of the Venezuelan artist Arturo Herrera whose collages and photographs worked and reworked the languages of modernism. And, aptly in our anniversary year, we invited Edmund de Waal - for many the outstanding potter of his generation and a true alumnus of Kettle's Yard from his student days in Cambridge - to make new installations, working with the spaces of the gallery and the house.
Photographs by Iraida Icaza and Nicholas Sinclair, and etchings by Linda Karshan, donated by the artist to the Kettle's Yard Appeal, were shown in the house.
'WE the Moderns' and the Edmund de Waal exhibition were both made possible by substantial grants from Arts Council England. The Henry Moore Foundation grant-aided 'WE the Moderns' and Rodin: All about Eve was generously supported by John and Jennifer Talbot.
Some years ago the Committee decided to close the house collection with the possible exception of adding works by artists already represented. This year the Committee was delighted to accept the extraordinarily generous offer of a group of sculptures by the Russian constructivist artist Naum Gabo from his daughter and son-in-law, Nina and Graham Williams:
Construction in Space - Suspended (NG 4)
Alabaster Carving (NG 5)
Miniature Carving (NG 6)
Round Stone (with a bronze cast) (NG 7 and 7a)
Somersault Stone (NG 8)
Imbedded Stone (NG 9)
Negative Volume (NG 10)
Round Stone (NG 11)
Amulet (NG 12)
A Karabagh rug (053 2007 T) was purchased for the house as part of the programme of conservation and replacement (see Conservation below). A painting by Christopher Wood (Flowers, 1928, oil on canvas; CW 28 L) has been loaned to Kettle's Yard by Mrs Jane Deighton, initially for five years.
Paintings: twenty-nine paintings were treated and/or reframed (RH 1, AW 5, 10, 12, 15, 19, 22, 27, 33, 34, 38, 43, 44, 47, 63, 64, 81, 92, 103, 105, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 117, 118, 119, and 121).
Furniture: fifteen chairs were repaired and/or re-upholstered (024 1985 F, 111a, b, and c 1985 F, 092 1985 F, 013 1985 F, 043 1985 F, 045 1985 F, 068 1985 F, 052a-c 1985 F, 008 1985 F, and 063 1985 F).
Textiles: a Persian Korassan (009 1985 T) and a Turkmen Tekke (036 1987 T) were restored. Seven worn-out Indian rugs were replaced with especially commissioned equivalent pieces.
A routine survey of the works on paper on display and in store was conducted by Nick Burnett in July.
Kettle's Yard made two substantial exhibition loans, amounting to sixty-five works. A loan of paintings and drawings formed the basis of an Alfred Wallis exhibition at two museums in Japan, and works by Gaudier-Brzeska contributed substantially to the exhibition 'WE the Moderns' which went on from Cambridge for a second showing in Sheffield. A list of loans is given at Appendix B.
As usual, the scheme proved very popular. Sixty-seven students borrowed 118 works for the academical year.
There were sixteen concerts in the subscription series:
| Michaelmas Term | |
October | |
26 | Elias Quartet |
November | |
2 | Louise Poole, mezzo-soprano, Håkan Vramsmo, baritone and Andrew West, piano |
9 | Libor Novacek, piano |
23 | BBC Singers and Christian Poltéra, cello conducted by Stephen Cleobury at King's College Chapel (in conjunction with the Cambridge Music Festival) |
30 | Peter Cropper, violin and Martin Roscoe, piano |
Lent Term | |
January | |
25 | The Gaudier Ensemble |
February | |
1 | Elias Quartet |
8 | Marie Vassiliou, soprano and Daniel Becker, piano |
15 | Trio Jean Paul |
22 | The Gaudier Ensemble at West Road Concert Hall |
Easter Term | |
April | |
26 | Elias Quartet |
May | |
3 | Kit Armstrong, piano |
10 | Rautio Piano Trio |
17 | Mihaela Martin, violin |
24 | Huw Watkins and Daniel Becker, 2 pianos |
June | |
21 | Kettle's Yard Ensemble Thomas Hewitt-Jones, cello and James Sherlock, piano |
| The rates of subscription in 2006-07 were as follows: | |
| Subscribers | £85 per annum, £35 per term |
| Students | £25 per annum, £10 per term |
| Guests | £8 per concert |
The new music programme was devised by Anton Lukoszevieze, Kettle's Yard and King's College 2005-07 New Music Fellow. He programmed two strands, one taking as a starting point the period of intense artistic development at the beginning of the twentieth century and the second exploring how composers are using new instrumental techniques.
Sunday Coffee Concerts | |
| January | |
| 28 | Apartment House - Etching sound forms: A portrait of Christopher Fox |
| February | |
| 11 | Kurbis, piano trio, and voice - Honey Celebration |
| 25 | Erik Drescher, solo flute and tape - The Extended Flute |
| March | |
| 11 | Apartment House - The dawn of the Avant-Garde - A homage to Gaudier-Brzeska |
| May | |
| 13 | Apartment House - Etched in Acid - a portrait of James Clarke |
| June | |
| 3 | Melvyn Poore, tuba/live electronics and Anton Lukoszevieze, cello - Cello and Tuba Machinations |
The year also saw the return of American composer Christian Wolff, with a concert given by Apartment House, and the first ever performance by the Stroh String Quartet.
There were seven new music mornings, interspersed with the Coffee Concert series. These were devised and delivered by local groups Cambridge Gamelan Society, LEAPS, M.E.M.E., and University of Cambridge composers. Students from the Anglia Ruskin University performed their works and delivered a workshop 'The Joy of Toy' for 8-12 year olds.
The lunchtime student concerts continued to be well supported. Pianist James Sherlock programmed the Michaelmas and Lent Terms. Violinist Catherine Myerscough programmed the Easter Term. There were 26 concerts.
Cambridge Modern Jazz club continued its programme at Kettle's Yard.
The Kettle's Yard Amateur Music Network, which provides the means for musicians in and around Cambridge to make contact with each other, held one informal concert.
The programme included:
12 Glitter and Glue sessions; 20 Saturday Drawing sessions; 24 Wednesday Club sessions; 11 KY Create sessions (plus 2 taster sessions).
22 weekend/holiday workshops; 6 Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination workshops; 'Drop In and Draw and Make Things' available throughout.
25 exhibition talks; 17 House talks; 32 adult education sessions; 7 workshops; 9 special events (late night opening, evening lectures, symposium, film screening); 4 tours of house for Adult Learners' Week; 1 touch/descriptive tour for visually impaired visitors.
17 Adult groups; 14 summer/language schools; 23 Higher Education groups; 21 Further Education groups; 17 secondary schools; 13 primary schools; 9 special needs schools; 1 home school group; 3 practical workshops (2 primaries, 1 secondary); 3 teacher private views (Rodin, Gaudier, de Waal).
8 Outreach visits to Addenbrooke's' oncology ward; 3 Outreach/visits with young on-set dementia group; 2 Cambridge Mental Health Resource Centre visit (CMHRC); 3 Fulbourn visits; 5 'Insight' sessions (homeless groups); 3 youth service visits; 22 University Counselling sessions.
8 Young Carer sessions; 2 Cambridge Women's Resource Centre sessions; 1 secondary school workshop plus parents PV for Herrera; 3 Art and Maths in Motion workshops; 1 student placement (5 days).
A new Education Officer has been in post since July 2006 and has continued many of the successful programmes already well established at Kettle's Yard; Elizabeth McKellar ran her two-term course, 'The Artists of Kettle's Yard' for the Institute of Continuing Education of the University of Cambridge; Mary Conochie ran her six-week course 'The Art of Seeing' for the Workers' Educational Association.
'Art and Well-Being', a partnership programme with the Fitzwilliam Museum, continues our work with a range of community-based groups with specific needs (including Fulbourn and Addenbrooke's Hospitals, Cambridge Mental Health Resource Centre, and local housing hostels). In March, Gill Hart, Access and Outreach Officer at the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Education Officer delivered a presentation about our monthly sessions at Addenbrooke's' oncology ward to an Arts and Health Partnership training day in Bury St Edmunds, which received very positive feedback. Kettle's Yard aims to build on the success of this project and further diversify our audiences - we have also established new links with a young onset dementia group and work experience sessions for special needs pupils from Impington Village College.
New projects have also been delivered; from November 2006 to March 2007, Kettle's Yard, with the support of Museum Hub funding, ran a short series of workshops with five youth groups: one of young women from Cambridge Women's Resource Centre and four of Young Carers with Centre 33. There was an informal meeting to brief other University Museum Education Officers on how the project went with tips for developing links with local community groups.
Kettle's Yard also participated in a pilot project called 'Evolve' from December 2006 to March 2007. Run by Creative Partnerships and Arts Council England East, the Director and Education Officer attended a series of creative learning sessions that were followed up by half-day sessions with all full-time staff. As a result of this process, we have been invited to apply for funding to further explore the use of creative learning to examine our practice and develop our relationship with audiences.
We supported the 'Rising Stars' programme, an initiative of the Community Affairs Department in the University, that encourages postgraduate students to engage with a broader audience to discuss their research. Kiran Singh, working on a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, and the Education Officer delivered three sessions to secondary pupils.
In partnership with Homerton College, the Fitzwilliam Museum, and the Folk Museum, Kettle's Yard delivered four training sessions to Initial Teacher Trainees (ITT) in March. We also worked in partnership with the other University museums and the Botanic Gardens to develop a support pack for language and summer schools. Teachers had three private views and support packs for the exhibitions 'WE the Moderns' and Edmund de Waal at Kettle's Yard. A new teachers' resource that makes comparisons between Kettle's Yard and St Peter's Church has also been created in partnership with The Churches Conservation Trust.
The Education Officer has established links with a number of local networks, including Arts and Health, Cambridge University Education Officers, Arts Education and Young People, and Working with Schools. She has received training in disability awareness and diversity and has attended the annual Engage conference in Manchester, an Engage study day in Norwich, a curators' day at the Hayward Gallery, and the 'Pride not Prejudice' symposium organized by the Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum.
A Kettle's Yard Health and Safety group, comprising the Director, the Administrator, the Technician, the Departmental Safety Officer, and the Fire Safety Manager was set up to ensure compliance with University Health and Safety regulations in all activities. Having put in place the remedial measures it had identified, the University Audit was signed off by the Health and Safety Division in July. The organizational Health and Safety Policy was reviewed in March.
47,226 visits to 7 exhibitions over 253 days.
21,479 visits to the house over 312 days.
5,758 participants in educational activities, talks, lectures, and group visits.
4,534 attendances at concerts.
735 attendances at corporate events and late night viewings.
The figure of 47,226 exhibition visits compares with 36,842 last year; 21,479 visits to the house compares with 16,695. The overall attendance of 79,732 compares with 66,168 in 2005-06, and is the highest yet recorded.
Summary of the recurrent account with balances drawn forward:
Income | Expenditure | Surplus/(Deficit) | |
| Recurrent account | 386,173 | 324,635 | 61,537 |
| Exhibitions account | 129,396 | 145,426 | -16,030 |
| House account | 15,721 | 17,700 | -1,979 |
| New Music account | 26,335 | 27,406 | -1,071 |
| Education account | 17,400 | 15,329 | 2,070 |
| Trading account | 74,733 | 37,652 | 37,081 |
| Surplus/(deficit) for the year | 649,757 | 568,149 | 81,608 |
| Carried forward from 2005-06 | 70,120 | ||
| Accumulated surplus | 151,728 |
Income included a grant of £55,000, from the University to offset increased pension and pay and grading costs from January 2006. The exhibitions account and accumulated surplus contain a balance of £18,531 from the Arts Council grant to the Black Mountain exhibition which is, by agreement, earmarked for subsequent projects.
The following accounts are self-contained and do not revert to the recurrent account:
Income | Expenditure | Surplus/(Deficit) | |
| Music account | |||
| Surplus/(deficit) for the year | 34,768 | 36,386 | -1,618 |
| Carried forward from 2005-06 | 6,132 | ||
| Accumulated surplus | 4,514 | ||
Income | Expenditure | Surplus/(Deficit) | |
| Appeal account | |||
| Surplus/(deficit) for the year | 124,237 | 1,220 | 123,017 |
| Carried forward from 2006-07 | 188,748 | ||
| Accumulated surplus (deficit) | 311,765 | ||
| On deposit | 123,105 |
||
| Amalgamated Fund Units | 197,336 |
||
| TOTAL | 632,206 | ||
At 50 years of age Kettle's Yard is a grown-up institution, but one which retains an inherent sense of youth and constant renewal. As we enter the new year, we are delighted by news from the Isaac Newton Trust that they will support Interdisciplinary and Curatorial Fellowships at Kettle's Yard over the coming five years. These will enable us to make the most of being part of a great University, engaging with other subject areas, and develop a new model of exhibition programming in a series of exhibitions exploring modern times.
MARILYN STRATHERN, Chair
November 2007
Kettle's Yard and its programme were supported in 2006-07 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
John and Jennifer Talbot
Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CRASSH)
Mills and Reeve
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 Isaac Newton Trust
The PRS Foundation
The Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge
Dr Shirley Ellis
The RVW Trust
The Hinrichsen Foundation
The Britten-Pears Foundation
Exhibition loans from the permanent collection
Alfred Wallis. Artist and Mariner, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum (3 February - 31 March 2007) and Yokosuka City Museum (25 July - 17 September 2007)
Works by Alfred Wallis:
Lighthouse and two sailing ships (AW 5)
Three-masted ship (AW 10)
Two sailing ships with a lighthouse (AW 12)
Boats under Saltash Bridge (Royal Albert Bridge) (AW 15)
Barque with man at the wheel on a stormy sea (AW 19)
Motor vessel mounting a wave (AW 22)
Trees and cottages (AW 23)
Boats before a great bridge (AW 25)
Shipwreck 1 - The Wreck of the Alba (AW 27)
Shipwreck 2 - The Wreck of the Alba (AW 28)
Brigantine sailing past green fields (AW 29)
House with trees (AW 33)
Motor vessel with four men (AW 34)
St. Michael's Mount (or Gibraltar?) (AW 36)
Low water (AW 38)
Gateway (AW 43)
Crucifixion or Allegory with three figures and two dogs (AW 44)
White houses - Hales Down, near St. Ives (AW 47)
Ship, people and animals (AW 52)
Two boats moving past a big house (AW 56)
Sailing ships and two steamers - Newlyn harbour (AW 62)
Mount's Bay (AW 63)
Shoreline (AW 64)
Ships in harbour (AW 66)
Ravine with estuary (AW 76)
Motor vessel with airship and shark (AW 81)
French lugsail fishing boat (AW 82)
Two fishermen in their boat with one mast steeped (AW 87)
Death ship (AW 92)
Orange ship with five fish (AW 93)
Landscape with two large trees and houses (AW 99)
Green and black steamer, lighthouse and seagulls (AW 103)
Fishing boat with mast steeped (AW 105)
Two boats with yellow sails and lighthouse (AW 108)
Grey steamboat, sailing ship and three fish with teeth (AW 109)
Two-master with green hull-line alongside quay (AW 110)
Five fishing boats anchored by pier and lighthouse (AW 111)
Steamboat with two sailors, lighthouse and rocks (AW 112)
Ships in port with lighthouse (AW 116)
Landscape with field, chimneys and road by blue and green cottages (AW 117)
The Old Victry - HMS Victory (AW 118)
Lighthouse, four moored sailboats and rowing boats (AW 119)
Three-master with four sailors, and four dolphins in green sea (AW 121)
Works by Christopher Wood:
St. Ives (CW 20)
Ship in Harbour (CW 23)
'WE the Moderns': Gaudier-Brzeska and the birth of modern sculpture, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield (31 March - 16 June 2007):
Works by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska:
Mermaid (HGB 2)
Wrestlers (HGB 3)
Maternity (HGB 4)
Sleeping Fawn (HGB 10)
Door Knocker (HGB 11)
Duck (HGB 12)
Bird Swallowing a Fish (HGB 14a)
Dancer (HGB 19)
Maria Carmi as the Madonna of 'The Miracle' (HGB 22b)
Wrestlers (HGB 28)
Study for 'Bird Swallowing a Fish' (HGB 29)
Standing Female Nude (HGB 33)
Nude Man and Woman (HGB 35)
Design for Vorticist Ornament (HGB 36)
Birds Erect (HGB 102)
Torpedo Fish (HGB 104)
Satirical Futurist Sketch (HGB 105)
Two Cow Heads (HGB 107)
Pik Piekny Brancusi (HGB 125)
Major Smythies (HGB 131)