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University of Cambridge

Open: Tuesday–Sunday, 11am–5pm

We are closed on Bank Holiday Mondays.

Kettle’s Yard will be closed Wednesday 24 – Monday 29 December inclusive and Thursday 1 January. We will be open Tuesday 30 and Wednesday 31 December.

Please note that the Kettle’s Yard house will be closed between 5 – 9 January 2026 inclusive for essential maintenance.

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Open: Tuesday–Sunday, 11am–5pm

We are closed on Bank Holiday Mondays.

Kettle’s Yard will be closed Wednesday 24 – Monday 29 December inclusive and Thursday 1 January. We will be open Tuesday 30 and Wednesday 31 December.

Please note that the Kettle’s Yard house will be closed between 5 – 9 January 2026 inclusive for essential maintenance.

© Issam Kourbaj. Photo: Mark Dalton, Kettle's Yard.

Painting

Urgent archives, written in blood (fragment), 2019

Issam Kourbaj
Ink on paper
20 x 15 cm
[KY01435]
On display

About the artist

Issam Kourbaj (b. 1963) was born in Syria and trained at the Institute of Fine Arts in Damascus, the Repin Institute of Fine Arts & Architecture in Leningrad (St Petersburg) and at Wimbledon School of Art. He has lived in Cambridge since 1990 and since 2011 his artwork has related to the Syrian Crisis, reflecting on the suffering of his fellow Syrians and the destruction of his cultural heritage.
Read the full biography