It has been almost 70 years since Jim and Helen Ede first ‘opened house’ at their converted quad of cottages in Cambridge (WoI April 2000). Holding daily hours from two until four, the couple welcomed artists and university students to Kettle’s Yard, where they could enjoy a carefully amassed collection of Modernist art that is still found nestled alongside fastidiously placed ceramics, wildflowers, feathers and spirals of pebbles.
Far more than a simple art display, this unique, ascetic home ignored all of the tenets of middle-class living, as well as a traditional gallery hang. Works are placed under windowsills and in hidden corners, chairs are arranged in doorways to enjoy optimal views, while some walls are left entirely blank so as not to disturb lovely afternoon shadows. The only truly private area of the house – Helen’s austere bedroom – includes a secret hatch hidden in the skirting, so that she could call out for tea and biscuits without having to greet guests.
During Jim’s time working as a curator at the Tate Gallery (as it was then known) he was frustrated by what he saw as the philistine attitude of his colleagues, who failed to recognise the wonders of the new avant-garde. He collected pieces by Constantin Brâncuși, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Barbara Hepworth and Joan Miró, often picking up works for peanuts when the gallery chose to reject them. In this new home, he wanted to cultivate what he saw as ‘a living place where works of art could be enjoyed… where young people could be at home unhampered by the greater austerity of the museum or public art gallery’. As a result, the house became a place of convivial inspiration, where like-minded artists could gather among the work of their peers. Evenings were buoyed further by Helen’s performances on her beloved Bechstein piano.
The Edes formally gave the house to the University of Cambridge in 1966, but only under the stipulation that they could stay put, with Jim fulfilling the role of ‘honorary curator’. Following their eventual departure to Edinburgh in 1973, the home has remained just as they left it, with special conditions that include the promise of continual supply of fresh lemons. Every week, a prime example is placed in a pewter dish close to Miró’s Tic Tic (1927), so that the citrus shade might echo that of the canvas.
Both during the Edes’ tenure and since, Kettle’s Yard has continued to be a place of creative inspiration, which has only expanded since the introduction of a suite of contemporary galleries in 2018. Since then, the programme has encompassed new commissions and major thematic shows, as well as drawing from the pre-existing collection. As the site reaches its 70th birthday, a new selling exhibition hopes to raise funds in support of the Jim and Helen Ede Fund Endowment Campaign, which will secure its future and legacy. Select works are also being sold via an auction at Sotheby’s.
Among the highlights on show are photomontages of the founders by punk collagist Linder and a series of porcelain vessels by Edmund de Waal, who first visited Kettle’s Yard as a student in the 1980s. Painter Caroline Walker, meanwhile, has contributed a new work titled Snack Table (2025), which features a vase full of spring blooms surrounded by bags of fruit, in a show of abundance that is rather more ebullient than the carefully curated placements within the house itself. Antony Gormley, too, has contributed one of his cast-iron sculptures in an ode to his longstanding relationship with the gallery (his solo exhibition in 2018 remains the most visited to date).
Prints by Anni Albers and Henry Moore allude to the collection’s origins, while more contemporary examples include an effervescent sculpture by Rana Begum. Her installation No.764 Baskets filled St Peter’s Church in the gallery grounds in celebration of the grand reopening of Kettle’s Yard back in 2018, proving once more that this very special home will always keep artists within its orbit.
‘Artists for Kettle’s Yard’ runs at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, until 12 April. For more information visit kettlesyard.cam.ac.uk
