Marjolein has been visiting Kettle’s Yard since she first moved to Cambridge, and still enjoys the experience of the student concerts, New Music concerts and the Chamber Music series at Kettle’s Yard. She regularly attends other musical and cultural events, both in Cambridge and further afield.
In return for those many hours of enjoyment, challenge and inspiration, she is pleased to support music at Kettle’s Yard more actively and to apply her University background and experience. Marjolein says, “with its newly refurbished galleries, it is an exciting time to be part of an enthusiastic team and help to make music sparkle in this wonderful space.”
Sonita is Master, Jesus College Cambridge. She is also the Founder of The Yes Programme, a unique online service that helps school pupils make career decisions by giving them an insight into how classroom skills translate to the real world; and Director of the production company, They’re Watching Us.
Sonita won the Carlton Multicultural Achievement Award for TV and Radio. She is a fellow of The Royal Society of the Arts and the Radio Academy, and in 2003, was awarded an OBE for Services to Broadcasting. She is an honorary fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and holds an honorary Doctorate from the University of the West Indies. She is also Patron of the Red Hen Project in Cambridge.
Sonita is a Director of Wickes plc.
Her previous board roles have included: The Main Advisory Committee and Chair of the Diversity Action Committee of Elisabeth Murdoch’s Freelands Foundation; the Cultural Capital Fund; Chair of the BBFC’s Management Committee; the BBC Trust; National Employment Panel; the London Skills and Employment Board; Chair of the Radio Sector Skills Council; non-executive director of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; and membership of the Court of Governors at the University of the Arts London; a governor at the Museum of London and a non- executivedirector of the London Legacy Development Corporation.
Malavika is Head of Live Programme at Wellcome Collection – a museum of contemporary art and historic collections in London – where she oversees a vibrant public programme of events, broadcast partnerships, youth engagement and schools’ activity. Previously, Malavika worked for the University of Cambridge, organising the Festival of Ideas and later, as one of Arts Council England’s nationally selected ‘Change Makers’ at the University of Cambridge Museums. As a local resident, she has always loved Kettle’s Yard and is excited by the radical potential of its vision and role as a cultural space.
Independent curator specialising in ceramics and craft, with a background in modern and contemporary art. Sarah has regularly curated exhibitions for New Art Centre, Salisbury, since 2010. Other projects include ‘Modern Makers’ at Chatsworth in 2013, ‘Jennifer Lee: the potter’s space’ at Kettle’s Yard in 2019 and ‘Richard Batterham: Studio Potter’ V&A Publishing, 2022.
In working with a portfolio of projects and roles, Sarah has aimed to advance the place that craft disciplines hold in relation to public funding, Further and Higher Education, and presence in the national discourse about art and craft. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art.
Helen has been teaching in a North Cambridge primary school since completing her English degree and a PGCE at Homerton College, Cambridge.
She has worked closely with the Kettle’s Yard community team for the past five years on several projects including Making Conversations and the opening ceremony in 2018 of the New Kettle’s Yard. Helen is also a member of the Open House panel selecting and working with artists and promoting Art and creativity in North Cambridge.
Favaad Iqbal is Head of Indirect Taxes at Cambridge Assessment. Fav received his PhD in Neuropharmacology from University College London in 2012 before going on to qualify as a Chartered Tax Adviser in Deloitte’s Charities & Public Sector team, advising a number of museums and galleries during his tenure. He is a holder of the ICAEW’s Diploma in Charity Accounting and recently completely his Masters in Voluntary Sector Management from Cass Business School. He lives in Cambridge and Kettle’s Yard is one of the places he most enjoys visiting – for the café and drinks receptions, as much as the art itself!
Antoinette Jackson has been Chief Executive of Cambridge City Council since June 2009. The Council provides a wide range of services to the city. This includes arts and community development activities, including some projects in partnership with Kettle’s Yard.
Antoinette is particularly interested in how the arts can help develop communities and shape places
Prior to joining Cambridge she worked for the London Borough of Camden and Reading Borough Council. She attended Somerville College, Oxford where she studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Professor of Modern & Contemporary Art, Head of the Department of Art History, Co-Chair of the Faculty of Architecture and History of Art.
Alyce is the department’s specialist in Modern and Contemporary Art History and Theory. She studied the History of Art & Architecture and Modern English at Trinity College Dublin, graduating with a double first and gold medal for exceptional academic achievement. Awarded both Chevening and British Academy scholarships for doctoral studies she moved to London to pursue a PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She received her doctorate in 1999 and took up her position at Cambridge in 2000.
Suling has a wide range of interest in art, including contemporary art, Asian art, photography and design. She is Chair of Tate Patrons and also supports the Royal Academy, CAS, Kettles Yard, Delfina, Courtauld, Hayward among others, and Royal Opera House in London, the National Gallery in Singapore, and various institutions in the US. She has established an art residency program at Girton College, Cambridge which champions emerging artists as well as awards at other institutions for sustainability.
Suling obtained her BA from Cambridge University and her Masters from Harvard Law School where she sits on the Dean’s Advisory Council. She is a former Governor of Notting Hill Prep.
She is President of the Mead Family Foundation which supports medical and educational causes and the arts.
Nicci is Head of Visitor Services at Cambridge University Botanic Garden, and interim Chair of the Friends of Kettle’s Yard, having been a Friends’ Committee member since 2011.
Nicci was an international finance solicitor at Linklaters in London and Paris for many years, before deciding to change tack and study photography at the then-London College of Printing. This was followed by a decade establishing and running a retail business in the Cambridge area, before joining the Botanic Garden in 2011.
Nicci first visited Kettle’s Yard as an undergraduate. Her interest in Jim Ede’s unique legacy was piqued irrevocably and she has been a supporter of Kettle’s Yard in many ways since moving back to Cambridge, including as an ‘occasional regular’ House and gallery invigilator before the redevelopment project in 2015.
Nicci says ‘It’s a privilege to be leading the Friends at this juncture. The Friends, and I personally, look forward to continuing to support Kettle’s Yard in all its activities.’
Luke Syson is the fourteenth Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum. From 2012-19, he was Chairman of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where he led on the complete refurbishment of the British Galleries, a $22m project, planned to open in January 2020. Luke has held curatorial positions at the British Museum, V&A and the National Gallery – where he led the successful campaign to acquire Raphael’s Madonna of the Pinks for the nation and curated the highly-acclaimed exhibition, Leonardo da Vinci – Painter at the Court of Milan in 2011.