Cambridge's revamped Kettle's Yard welcomes record breaking 100,000 visitors in just five months
Redevelopment pays off as visitors flock to Kettle's Yard
Cambridge’s revamped Kettle’s Yard has become one of the most visited museums in the city after a record 100,000 people passed through its doors in just five months.
The yard, which houses one of the best-loved modern art collections in the UK, was transformed by Jamie Fobert Architects in a highly acclaimed scheme which skillfully enhanced the qualities of the original house.
The development included major new exhibition galleries, education space, a café and new welcome areas, placing Kettle’s Yard back on the map as a world-class centre for engaging with modern and contemporary art in the 21stcentury.
Now visitors have endorsed its redevelopment by flocking to visit the museum and its galleries.
Professor Eilís Ferran, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for institutional and international relations, at the University of Cambridge, said : “I would like to congratulate Kettle’s Yard on this remarkable achievement. For more than 50 years Kettle’s Yard has been an important part of the University of Cambridge, as one of our eight museums, contributing strongly to research, teaching and public engagement.”
Kettle’s Yard was created in the late 1950s by Jim Ede, a curator at the Tate Gallery during the 1920s who became a friend to many prominent artists of the time, including Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Alfred Wallis, Christopher Wood, Joan Miró, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Constantin Brancusi, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.
The redevelopment was made possible through generous funding from Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund and many other trusts, foundations and individual donors.
Kettle’s Yard is part of the consortium of the University of Cambridge museums, which also includes the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Museum of Zoology, the Museum of Classical Archeology, Whipple Museum of History of Science, the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, the Polar Museum and the Botanic Garden.
