Open House Artist Residency
Open House is a long-term creative programme with Kettle’s Yard and communities in North Cambridge funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Cambridge City Council.
Each year the community selects the Open House Artist in Residence. Follow the residency here through live updates on research, ideas, and activity.
Harold Offeh Artist in Residence 2017
At a public meeting at North Cambridge Academy on the 24th February, members of the public and students at the school voted to select Harold Offeh as the next Open House Artist in Residence for North Cambridge. Harold will be working with communities in North Cambridge to explore the local area from now until the end of September 2017.
You are Here – Isabella Martin Artist in Residence 2016
The second Open House Artist in Residence, Isabella Martin, worked with local residents to explore the area and create a new map together in a project called You Are Here. The project is inspired by Kettle’s Yard, celebrating all the individual and unique things which make a place special.
Isabella worked with local groups to share stories and knowledge and develop creative skills to turn these stories into artworks. The artworks formed part of the alternative neighbourhood map. It shows and celebrates what is unique about North Cambridge.
At the end of November 2016 the map was revealed at a temporary print studio and exhibition in Arbury called Make Your Map where visitors joined her to make their own print of the map using a silk screen. The exhibition featured works from Kettle’s Yard’s collection including pieces by Ben Nicholson and Alfred Wallis, reproductions of historic maps which inspired Martin from the Cambridgeshire Collection and the Scott Polar Research Institute, and artworks created by participants at workshops and projects throughout the residency. For more information and to see photos from Make Your Map click here.
Variations on a Weekend Theme – Emma Smith Artist in Residence 2015
Emma Smith, our first Open House Artist in Residence, collaborated with local communities to develop a new performative artwork exploring people’s restorative pastimes entitled Variations on a Weekend Theme. From April to December 2015, Emma worked across Arbury, King’s Hedges, East Chesterton and Orchard Park, collecting and sharing activities and past times local residents undertake to feel relaxed and restored.
Emma collected advice and activities from residents across North Cambridge and invited people to share their activities with others. She was inspired by an unpublished manuscript written by Jim Ede, entitled Variations on a Weekend Theme. The manuscript details how Jim and his wife Helen welcomed servicemen from Gibraltar for weekends at their home in Tangiers where they could stay, try something new and recuperate.
In November 2015, Emma transformed the disused Maskell’s Bakery on Akeman Street, and for three days the shop became an ‘art apothecary’ where visitors received remedies for a variety of malaises and situations. While reusing the original bread shelves and glass counter, the shop was completely redecorated and a few selected artworks and glass objects from the Kettle’s Yard collection were on display. Visitors were invited to book a consultation with an Assistant Apothecarist in the shop. To see photos from Variations on a Weekend Theme click here.
For more information about Open House or to join our Open House mailing list email
mail@kettlesyard.cam.ac.uk
This three-year creative programme is funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Cambridge City Council.
