Kettle's Yard House, Cambridge

Kettle's Yard House - Entrance

I discovered this little gem on a recent trip to Cambridge.  I can't believe I've never found it before especially as I used to live in Cambridge.  On the edge of the city centre, it is tucked away behind Kettle's Yard gallery which has changing exhibitions throughout the year.
 

View of Kettle's Yard House from the Gallery

Now owned by Cambridge University, it was the home of Jim Ede from the late 50s until the early 70s.  Jim was a curator at the Tate Gallery, London in the 1920s & 1930s and as a result met and befriended many artists.  Over the years he amassed an astonishing collection of 20th century art.  I've never seen so many paintings by Alfred Wallis (a personal favourite)!  They are displayed without labels throughout his house amongst his collections of natural objects and other works of applied art.  It is kept largely as it was when he lived there with his wife, Helen.  You are encouraged to sit in the chairs and see the art as he would have viewed it. It is a personal curation of his taste over a particular period displayed how he wished it to be experienced.  There are works by Ben & Winifred Nicholson, Christoper Wood, Willian Congdon, Joan Miro, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Italo Valenti, Henri Moore, Barbara Hepworth & others.  

There's also an amazing spiral of almost spherical pebbles that came from a beach in Norfolk - I want to go there too!

It's fantastic, it's free and on Fridays one of the grand pianos is used for lunchtime concerts.

Kettle's Yard Gallery

If that's not enough you can pop across the courtyard and take a look in Kettle's Yard Gallery and shop.  The current exhibition is Beauty and Revolution: The Poetry and Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay

This place is a gem - go see!