Threat to Arts Education
/ Education Officer Blog / Thursday 6th December
The Education team at Kettle’s Yard works with about 7,000 people each year. Of that number, about 1,200 are children and young people visiting as part of a primary or secondary school trip. My memories of school are pretty fuzzy (it was, after all, a long time ago) but I can still vividly recall the shark in the ocean diorama at the local museum and the treasure trove of riches in the art gallery located above the museum. Paintings and sculptures from hundreds of years ago and all over the world – it left a lasting impression and now I get to inspire a love of art in others for a living. Similar opportunities for this generation of children and young people is under threat.
If current government plans to implement the English Baccalaureate go ahead, the arts (including Drama, Dance, Art & Design and Design & Technology) will not be core subjects at GCSE level and there are plans to also exclude the arts from revised A levels (the ‘ABacc’). The draft revised primary school curriculum has excluded Drama and is also likely to exclude Dance.
Whether you have kids at school or not, I think this is an issue that will affect all of us – the next generation of filmmakers, architects, designers, musicians, dancers, actors, producers, curators and artists all need to have that spark of artistic passion nurtured from a young age.
As Grayson Perry says:
For so many children, doing art just isn’t something they come across until they are taught it at school. Not everyone’s mother sits down with scissors and paper and makes collages with them or discusses cultural issues over the dinner table. It is the children from poorer homes who will be disproportionately deprived of exposure to culture. The idea that art will somehow look after itself – that society will breed untaught geniuses – is rubbish. We’ll end up with a cultural sector even more skewed towards the privately educated. A bit like what has happened to politics. Enough said.
You can read the rest of his Guardian article
here
.
If you want to find out more – and where to sign an online petition –
click here.
Friends of Kettle’s Yard
/ Waddesdon Manor / Friday 16th November
From Edmund de Waal’s beautifully restrained porcelain installations punctuating the 19th century opulence of this great Rothschild palace to Angus Fairhurst’s bronze gorilla,
Waddesdon
in late September was full of visual surprises.
De Waal’s
interventions, artfully placed amongst the collection of French decorative art, haunted the space like visitors from the future.
It was almost the last day of summer and Friends were able to wander at will and enjoy a good lunch. In the beautiful grounds were sculptures by Gormley, Kapoor and other leading artists including Stephen Cox. For architect Jane Sanders the highlight of the day was the private visit to the archive building on Windmill Hill designed by Stephen Marshall Architects with its interior of carefully selected furniture and lighting pieces as well as more works of art. The Friends organise stimulating trips such as this throughout the year both in this country and abroad. See
the website
for details of how to join like-minded people who are a passionate about Kettle’s Yard.
Kettle’s Yard will be participating in Martin Creed’s All the Bells at 8:12 am on Friday 27 July. In participation with the
Churches Conservation Trust
, we will be ringing the church bells at St. Peter’s and St Giles church, as well as here in the house. We welcome everyone to come join us and ring their bicycle bells along with us to celebrate the opening of the Olympic games 2012! There will be free biscuits and coffee and the gallery will be open for the hour.
At 8:12 am on 27th July 2012, thousands of people across the UK will be joining together to ring in the first day of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Everyone across the country is invited to take part.
Mary Charlotte Greene (b 1860), lithograph Kettle's Yard
Folk Museum
/ Kettle's Yard History / Monday 16th July
Both the Folk Museum and Kettle’s Yard possess exceptional and distinctive collections which inform and delight their visitors. While very different in their own right, they both share important similarities: a unique and atmospheric setting which is integral to their displays; and a strong relationship with the history of the area.
The
Folk Museum
also holds an interesting collection of paintings. This lithograph of the original Kettle’s Yard is by Mary Charlotte Greene (b 1860) aunt of the novelist Graeme Greene. Mary trained at the Royal Academy and painted many scenes of Cambridge over the years which provide an invaluable record of the inn yards and old streets of the city which were largely demolished during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The image provides a glimpse of life in the area known as Castle End – an area where the poorest working class residents lived in overcrowded yards and courts. The largest of these was Kettle’s Yard which in 1851 housed 115 people crammed into 26 slum houses.
The slums were cleared away in the 20th century but the history of the area continues and is evident in buildings such St. Peter’s church (the visible tower in the background of Mary’s painting); the Folk Museum housed in a 17th century building which remains largely unaltered; and the legacy of Jim Ede who took over the derelict cottages of Kettle’s Yard to create a new vision for the area.
Sunday was a wet and early start at Kettle’s Yard. We wanted to celebrate the Olympic Torch running past the gallery and provide a place for the community to participate in all the excitement. We thought we’d have a casual breakfast of croissants and coffee available in the gallery for whomever was out and about in the early hours to cheer on the Flame.
We had a buffet of croissants, chelsea buns, coffee and orange juice. Four lovely volunteers came at 6:30am to help us set up and serve the treats. For a while it was looking like we might be all to attend but suddenly at 6:45am, people starting filing through our door with eager eyes at the sight of coffee and pastries.
Delicious pastries, nicely laid out… they wouldn’t last long!
As the party bus approached, out everyone ran to cheer and began wildly screaming as the Torch ran past us. Some were in the street and some up on the church yard, which gave spectators great views of all the action. The rain wasn’t deterring anyone!
Views from the church yard
After the Torch went past, everyone piled into the gallery and were all taking advantage of their early morning entrance on the last day of Alfred Wallis: ships and boats. What a great way to finish the show!
Happy children, family and friends in the gallery
All in all, we serverd 80 croissants and 30 chelsea buns as well as an ample supply of biscuits to 4 volunteers, 4 staff members and 300 visitors!! We had a great time!
Alfred Wallis: ships and boats
/ Final week / Wednesday 4th July
This is the final week of Alfred Wallis: ships and boats. It has been wonderful to see the enthusiastic response to Alfred Wallis’ beautiful paintings.
We’ve had over 10,000 visitors to the Alfred Wallis show since the beginning of April. There have been some great comments left in our comment book:
Kettle’s Yard visitor book, 2012
Among the positive press was a review from Richard Cork of the
Financial Times
, “
Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge has mounted an illuminating survey of his work. The location proves ideal”
. There have also been some lovely blog posts about our Alfred Wallis show. These include
Art Burger
with vivid pictures of Wallis and the house, an interesting account of childrens interpretation of Wallis on the blog
Children Take the Lead
, and a lovely blog about one of the Alfred Wallis lunchtime talks, featuring the historian Ruth Scurr, University of Cambridge, on
Cambridge Commentary
.
If you haven’t made it to the show you have until 5pm on Sunday 8 July! Watch this space for news of the exhibition tour and a new Wallis publication.
For all artists and arts organisations: the Arts Council has produced a series of videos, released monthly, to promote the Grants for the Arts scheme to individual artists. This is funding designated for individual artists and small arts organisations. Take a look and see how some of the artists are using their funding.
Grants for the arts
is for activities carried out over a set period and which engage people in England in arts activities, and help artists and arts organisations in England carry out their work. It is funded by the National Lottery. Perhaps you can watch the videos and get some ideas to apply for your own stream of funding.
This month’s video focuses on visual artist Ben Rivers which you can watch below.
Alfred Wallis, Sailing ship and orchard, 1935-37 (circa)
Poetry inspired by Alfred Wallis
/ Thursday 21st June
On Sunday 10 June poet
Tamar Yoseloff
ran a study day here entitled ‘Wallis and Poetry’ to coincide with the
Alfred Wallis display
in the gallery. We are delighted to be able to share two of the poems that emerged from the day. Tamar also wrote a fascinating post on her blog about Wallis and poetry, see:
http://invectiveagainstswans.tumblr.com/
Please read the poems below.
Cannibalism
In memoriam – Alfred Wallis 1855-1942 – Cornish Mariner and Painter
He knows the roof of the sky
how it can darken in anger
at a penny in a sailor’s pocket
the hint of a whistle
the whiff of a woman
He grew up on tales of Franklin’s fate -
the ships splintered in an arctic grip
the starving men dreaming
of the blue flesh of their own dead
He knows how the land feels
after days, weeks away
how it tilts him and sways him
as if he has defied his God
with the velveteen sweetness of brandy
He wades through the flotsam
of the grocery store
stamping boxes to a flatness
he can fill with his world
seeking nails he can use
to crucify his visions
In the world beyond
the privileged discuss Primitivism
over cups of Darjeeling
taming fears of consuming darkness
by sending forth the sacrament
the word made flesh
In the world beyond
the scholars pick clean
his remains – marvel
at the whiteness of his bones.
Sue Burge June 2012
‘Small Boat in a Rough Sea’ Alfred Wallis, the Cornish painter, spoke of every boat of the fleet having ‘a soul, a beautiful soul, shaped like a fish’
Sure at last that it was his life he was living
he painted the way he read God’s word, daily
and in simple tones, with the sombre shades
of yacht-paint he had to hand: rock-colour,
sand-colour, for ships and cottages, a flock
of enamelled birds, the moon atop a hill.
He’d picture the bowl of sea in Mounts Bay,
its broken crests of wave, the gulls tucked
into its cliff-folds, its tall masts and rigging,
the tide of its breathing like his very own.
What he could never catch was the fog,
the peninsula turned isle wreathed round
by the haunted sound of its fog-horns,
St Anthony’s Head, Longships, Lizard Point,
like souls on their journey or parishes already
in mourning, Trevose Head, Pendeen.
The bodies recovered have not been named.
But in the dawn a shoal of selves, fine and silvery
as pins, will be putting out for Troy and Eldorado,
for whelks or herring or pilchard, pelagic gold:
It’s always been crabbing or fishing with him, he loved it since he was a nipper.
Plymouth, Lundy, Sole.
Porpoises black as bibles ride the turquoise
and the great white sails glide on like ghosts.
Lesley Saunders
(The quote is from an interview given by the mother of one of the missing fishermen from the Purbeck Isle, which went down off the south coast of England on 17 May 2012.)
Robert Jones, Alfred Wallis expert, delivered a talk at Kettle’s Yard, 12 June. You can watch the talk here.
The Cornish artist and author
Robert Jones
was born in Newquay, Cornwall. The beaches and cliffs were his childhood playground. He studied at Falmouth College of Art where he was taught by Robert Organ and Francis Hewlett. He continued to paint whilst teaching in various schools including A.S. Neill’s Summerhill School for three years, and for seven further years fishing around the Cornish coast. A period as part time tutor at Penzance and Falmouth Colleges of art, followed by a successful exhibition at Newlyn Orion Art Gallery encouraged him to concentrate on his painting. He was able to reduce his teaching commitments and then to paint full time. He is a prolific artist who has exhibited widely.
In 1995 he began researching the life and work of the artist Alfred Wallis, and in 2000 his book, ‘Alfred Wallis Artist and Mariner’ was published to critical acclaim. Continuing with his fascination with maritime subjects he has completed his next book which is about the pierhead painter Reuben Chappell. The book ‘Reuben Chappell Pierhead Painter’ came out in the spring of 2006.
From December 2011 to May 2012 I was Music Assistant at Kettle’s Yard, working on the Thursday Chamber Subscription Series and the New Music Series. My job has been to make everything run smoothly on concert day, from setting up the room to making the programmes to getting in tea for the musicians, so I’ve definitely been kept busy! I’ve had the opportunity to meet some incredible performers and hear some amazing performances. I’m writing this on my last day, and the last day of the subscription series for the year, so now is a good chance for me to look back on the concerts and on my time here and pick out a few highlights.
I knew the New Music concerts were going to be a lot of fun when they started with an irrepressible quartet of tuba players in costume and character – Youtuba put on a brilliantly entertaining show which was also musically dazzling.
Two weeks later and I was holding on for dear life page-turning a monster of a piece by Michel Finnissy for Mary Dullea, performing with top contemporary violinist Darragh Morgan, and soon after I was laughing along with the vocal acrobatics of Rebecca Askew and Melanie Pappenheim’s performance of Orlando Gough’s Flam.
On the chamber music side, personal highlights were hearing Ronald Brautigam perform a treat of a programme (all Beethoven – yes please), and the wonderful humour of singers Karen Cargill and Marcus Farnsworth. Marcus, who subbed in at eight hours’ notice (!), ended with one of the funniest encores I’ve ever heard!
We made a particularly big effort in promoting the visit of top contemporary string group The Smith Quartet, and it was great to see the place filled to the rafters for their performance of George Crumb’s dark masterpiece Black Angels. A week on and we had a van load of percussion (everything including the kitchen sink) for the fabulously fun ensemblebash, but perhaps the highlight was working with John Paul Jones, the bassist with Led Zeppelin. I never thought I would be doing sound for someone of that stature but working here has been full of surprises!
Throughout it all I have had the pleasure of working with some fantastic people. Kettle’s Yard is very fortunate to have such a large community of friendly, interested and loyal concert-goers, and we’ve also been delighted to see our New Music concerts drawing in people who’ve never visited before. The staff and volunteers work really hard to make things happen here and it’s been a pleasure to be a part of things here, even if I’ve been pretty tired at the end of some very long days!
I’d like to thank all the staff and volunteers I’ve worked with but especially Ruth for being totally dependable and generous with her time and Lara for somehow managing to juggle about three jobs and still come out smiling.
I’m delighted to be moving on to a role with the Creative Learning department of the Britten Sinfonia, and I have no doubt I’ll be coming back to Kettle’s Yard soon, but maybe next time as an audience member!
Olympic Torch runs past Kettle’s Yard
/ Olympics 2012 / Tuesday 29th May
Come and celebrate the Olympic torch passing through Cambridge by joining us for early morning celebrations with coffee and tea. We’ll be feeling extra patriotic as we watch the Olympic Flame jog past us, up Castle Street right past Kettle’s Yard!
Enjoy a free regal breakfast of coffee, tea and croissants at 6:30am on 8 July, 2012.
A great photo of some of the constructions created during the Space Makers project. It’s always a lot of fun walking through the education room when this project is going on, makes you wish you could stop and join in. Some of the architects of the future at work!
For the Space Makers project Kettle’s Yard is working with a primary school, a secondary school, artists and Shape East to involve students in the process of building a new Education Centre at Kettle’s Yard.
Over a two year period we are working with one primary school, St Mary’s St Neots, one secondary school group, Comberton Village College, two artists – Raksha Patel and Jo Chapman, Shape East and project evaluators Flow Associates. The project will see the artists work to creatively develop the knowledge and skills of the young people in the fields of architecture and the built environment.
Two weeks later and I was holding on for dear life page-turning a monster of a piece by Michel Finnissy for Mary Dullea, performing with top contemporary violinist Darragh Morgan, and soon after I was laughing along with the vocal acrobatics of Rebecca Askew and Melanie Pappenheim’s performance of Orlando Gough’s Flam.
