Kettles Yard, Cambridge

Mon 8th Jun 2026

09:00 am

Lecturer: Local guide

Kettles Yard is the University of Cambridge's modern and contemporary art gallery. It is set in a beautiful house and hosts a remarkable collection of modern art and regular contemporay exhibitions.

The Arts Society Nottingham is delighted to open the booking for a day trip to Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge on Monday June 8th. We are (we believe) the first Arts Society to take advantage of this new initiative entitled “Women’s Art in the Kettle’s Yard Collection Tour”. It is available only on Mondays, a day on which the museum is not open to the public. We will have an exclusive tour from one of the curators who will focus on works created by women artists.

We will also, during our time there, be able to visit the temporary exhibition in the gallery space entitled “Handpicked: Painting Flowers”. The idea for this exhibition was inspired by the presence of freshly cut flower displays and paintings such as Cyclamen and Primula (1923) by Winifred Nicholson which hangs in the Kettle’s Yard House. The exhibition will present paintings featuring flowers by artists spanning the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. When Jim and Helen Ede opened Kettle's Yard in 1947, a key element of their interior displays was fresh cut flowers. The works will include those from the 20th century such as Vanessa Bell, Henri Rousseau, Winifred Nicholson and Christopher Wood, as well as contemporary artists such as Lubaina Himid, Jennifer Packer, Chris Ofili, Caroline Walker and Alison Watt who breathe new life into a much-loved subject.

We will meet by 9am at the Clifton Park and Ride Site where you can either arrive by tram or drive and park at the site. If you choose the latter, then a day ticket needs to be purchased and displayed on the window screen. It is important that we leave on time so please ensure you have reached the coach and are ready to go by 8.55am. We will not be able to wait for latecomers.

We will aim to arrive at approximately 10.30 whereupon we will have tea/coffee and pastries. The party will then split into two groups. One group will have the guided tour of the house whilst the other visits the temporary exhibition. After a soup and roll lunch, the groups will swap over. We aim to leave by 3.30pm arriving back at the Clifton site at approximately 5pm.

If there is any spare time, the Kettle’s Yard shop is worth a look around as is a great place to buy gifts both for others and for oneself! Kettle’s Yard is situated very centrally in Cambridge and so very accessible to some shops and colleges. If any members wish to pop into Cambridge, they must be back to board the coach by 3.25 pm at the latest.

The cost of the trip is a little higher than normal due the restrictions in numbers allowed which is determined by the number of people who can go on the tours. We have kept this as low as possible, and it will be £62 per person.

In view of the limited places available, this will be an event restricted to members only. It is not possible to book for guests.

When you book, you will be asked for an emergency telephone number. This should be the number of someone not on the tour who would need to be notified of any emergency which occurred on the trip and which affected you.