Biography
Kettle’s Yard is the University of Cambridge’s modern and contemporary art gallery. Ede installed the collection of art, furniture, glass, ceramics and other objects he had gathered during his peripatetic life from 1956. By weighing and assessing the position of each work of art and object, and their relationship with each other, he aimed to create a perfectly balanced whole, as detailed in his book, 'A Way of Life' (1984). In 1966 Ede gave the house and its contents to the University of Cambridge. In 1970, three years before the Edes retired to Edinburgh, the house was extended, and an exhibition gallery added, both to the design of the architects Sir Leslie Martin and David Owers.
On 30 November 1966, Ede officially handed over responsibility for the building and the collection to the University of Cambridge. He continued to live there as 'honorary curator' until 1973, when he and Helen left for Edinburgh. During this period, he devoted considerable energy to fund-raising for an extension to accommodate the growing collection, music events, and temporary exhibitions. Helen died in 1977; Jim devoted the last years of his life to working as a hospital visitor, until his death in 1990.
Between 1956 and 1973 Kettle's Yard was the home of H. S. ‘Jim’ Ede (1895–1990) and Helen Schlapp (1894–1977). In 1922 Ede joined the staff of the Tate Gallery and liked to think of himself above all as a 'friend of artists'. Among the artists he befriended and whose work he acquired were Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Joan Miró, Alfred Wallis and Christopher Wood. This collection later formed the foundation of Kettle’s Yard, the cottages in Cambridge which he converted and where he carefully displayed furniture, glass, ceramics and natural objects in each room, with the aim of creating a harmonic and balanced whole. Once in Cambridge, Ede became interested in new artists such as William Congdon, William Scott, Italo Valenti and Elisabeth Vellacott. In 1966 Kettle's Yard was given to the University of Cambridge. The Edes continued to live there until 1973, when they retired to Edinburgh. Each afternoon throughout the year, with the exception of Mondays, visitors may ring the bell and ask to look around.
