Radical Art in Cambridge Workshop: Artists in Residence at Kettle’s Yard in the 1980s

The Kettle’s Yard artists’ residency programme saw the gallery host artists including Dhruva Mistry, Mary Kelly, Veronica Ryan, Ian Breakwell and Jo Stockham. Combining Eastern Arts funding with partnerships with Cambridge University colleges, curator Hilary Gresty arranged studio space, exhibitions and workshop facilitation opportunities for the artists in residence.

The Radical Art in Cambridge research group will host this workshop at Kettle’s Yard to revisit this moment. We will explore how Kettle’s Yard situated itself between Cambridge city and Cambridge University to create a critical and creative capacity for artistic production. We will also look at whether recognition of the history of Kettle’s Yard in the 1970s and 1980s expands the identity of Kettle’s Yard as a home of British modernism.

Encompassing an archive handling session, a moving image screening, and an in-conversation with Gresty and former artist in residence, Jo Stockham, chaired by Dr Amy Tobin, this event will initiate the recovery of Kettle’s Yard’s dynamic yet little-known history during the 1970s–1980s.

FREE, booking required

Image caption: Veronica Ryan, Cavities in the Cloister Court (1988). Lead lawn installation at Jesus College, Cambridge, UK. Courtesy of IMMA, Dublin: Loan, Weltkunst Foundation, 1994.