The Friends were born in a moment of adversity, out of love for Kettle’s Yard and a determination to see it thrive.
— louisa riley-smith
‘I had a phone call from Jon Harris, a local artist and architectural historian. “You love Kettle’s Yard, well then you’d better help save it from closure” was his stark message’, recalled Louisa Riley-Smith, one of the small group of Cambridge residents who launched the Friends in December 1984. ‘It transpired that Kettle’s Yard was in serious financial trouble as the Arts Council grant covering many of its running costs and activities was about to be slashed. As it had no endowment fund for exhibitions, and aid from the University was extremely limited, its very existence was under threat. So it was then that the Friends were born in a moment of adversity, out of love for Kettle’s Yard and a determination to see it thrive’.
Then a young, newly-married mother-to-be, Louisa duly turned up at a hastily-convened meeting of a band of local modern art enthusiasts determined to try and help see Kettle’s Yard through its crisis and beyond. The aim was to set up a Friends organisation to raise awareness of its immediate plight, and create a financial security blanket to ensure this much-loved place would continue to flourish. ‘I was so deeply committed to founder Jim Ede’s vision, I was prepared to support Kettle’s Yard through thick and thin’, she recalled.
I was so deeply committed to founder Jim Ede’s vision, I was prepared to support Kettle’s Yard through thick and thin.
Louisa remembers it as a very well-connected and interesting group, each member with their own strong intellectual and artistic backgrounds. The protagonists were Angela and Derek Taunt. Angela, then an artist in her own right, had found her life and art revolutionised by a meeting with Ben Nicholson in 1971, and she remained close to him until his death in 1982. Derek was a Cambridge mathematician and a Fellow and former Bursar of Jesus College, who had worked as a code breaker at Bletchley Park during the war. Other founding members included Lady Cynthia Postan, a renowned botanist, Philippa Hill and Ron Masters.
‘Derek and Angela were the lynchpins’, Louisa explained. ‘They made a formidable team dedicated to rescuing Kettle’s Yard and providing it with a safety net by raising funds to give it an annual grant, while building up an endowment against future rainy days. Kettle’s Yard had high ambitions to become Cambridge’s major modern and contemporary art centre and we were determined to help give it long-term stability. At that time Derek was adamant that the Friends must be totally separate from Kettle’s Yard so as to be able to offer independent support to supplement its then precarious finances.’
A vigorous recruitment campaign was soon underway. ‘The Taunts opened up their extensive address book, persuading their contacts and acquaintances to come to Kettle’s Yard’s aid by joining the newly formed organisation,’ said Louisa. News of Kettle’s Yard’s plight quickly spread and the numbers joining the Friends began to grow rapidly.
Now that people were rallying to the cause, the challenge was to keep them engaged and happy. What could membership of the Friends offer beyond a chance to play a part in keeping Kettle’s Yard afloat?
‘The central idea behind the Friends was to bring together like-minded people who enjoyed each other’s company’, Louisa recalled. ‘Injecting an element of fun was considered very important. Angela and Derek were determined that events should always have a social component. Each visit would end with a chance to mingle with other Friends.’
The central idea behind the Friends was to bring together like-minded people who enjoyed each other’s company.
With that in mind, a committee was soon up and running, its remit being to plan an attractive annual programme of group activities. ‘A guiding principle was that each event, be it a lecture, visit or expedition, should involve (though not necessarily exclusively) some aspect of modern art, and that we should aim to include experiences such as visits to private collections or artists’ studios not readily available to the general public,’ wrote Derek in the 1992 Friends’ newsletter. ‘The voluntary efforts of the events’ organisers, and those of a succession of generous hosts, guides and speakers, meant that the charges for the events, while offering the Friends splendid value for money, could also provide valuable surpluses for the Friends’ funds.’
The first programme included a visit to the Henry Moore Foundation, a viewing of the art in Peterhouse Master’s Lodge and a visit to a private collection of Ben Nicholson’s work. A possible trip to Lisbon was also planned. ‘In the seven and a half years of our existence, we have notched up a total of well over a hundred events,’ wrote Derek in 1992, with understandable satisfaction. By then the number of Friends had swelled to around 500.
It was Derek, the mathematician, who looked after the finance and administration while Angela ran the events programme in the early days. The visits to private houses and studios were arranged via personal favours from individual contacts. Overnight trips were planned as economically as possible. Accommodation would no doubt be considered frugal by today’s tastes. On a trip to Edinburgh, Friends stayed in basic student halls. En-suites were not on offer.
Meetings of the events committee took place in members’ houses and would always be followed by a simple but hearty meal of bread, cheese and plenty of wine. This mixing of business and pleasure (although interrupted by Covid) still continues.
Meetings of the events committee took place in members’ houses and would always be followed by a simple but hearty meal of bread, cheese and plenty of wine.
In the spirit of engendering enjoyment, it was unanimously agreed early on that the AGM should always be followed by a party. The minutes record that the first AGM was a great success with 80 Friends attending. ‘Hilary Gresty, the Director [of Kettle’s Yard], gave a short talk on the exhibition… The delicious buffet supper was provided by Angela with the help of her friends. It was a very happy occasion’, Derek later wrote.
The volunteer-led events programme has proved to have enduring appeal, attracting a loyal band of regulars and new Friends alike. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of pounds have been passed over to Kettle’s Yard to support many aspects of its work, including conservation and exhibition costs. As with all such organisations reaching its middle years, the ambition is now to draw in new, younger members who may share a love of Kettle’s Yard but have little or no knowledge of Jim Ede, the Friends’ origins and their ‘raison d’être.’
Almost forty years on, Ede’s ideas on creating aesthetic harmony within a domestic space remain a huge influence on many of the Friends of Kettle’s Yard, including founding member Louisa, who remains a member of the Friends’ main committee. ‘I and all the volunteers who help run the Friends will continue to do our utmost to live up to all that has been achieved by way of support for Kettle’s Yard since that first crisis meeting I rushed to in December 1984.’ As co-founder of the Friends, Derek Taunt, summed it up: ‘Good things, it seems, have come from looming disaster.’