Earlier this year applications were invited for the first round of the Awards, funded by the Max Reinhardt Charitable Trust. The programme was developed to enable galleries, art museums and visual arts venues to support a dedicated programme of creative writing and literacy work with schools. Funding from the Awards will allow the awarded venues (Kettle’s Yard, Falmouth Art Gallery, and Manchester Art Gallery) to employ a creative writer to work with a local school on a creative writing or literacy project, taking inspiration from the venue’s collections, displays or building. The Awards are run in partnership by engage, the National Association for Gallery Education and the National Association for Writers in Education (NAWE).

Between January and February of next year Kettle’s Yard will work with pupils from the Grove Primary in north Cambridge. Through sessions with writer Clare Collinson at their school and at the gallery pupils will discover how artist and writer Ian Hamilton Finlay was inspired by Kettle’s Yard in his own work. The sessions will lead to the creation of a new resource to encourage children to explore the house, collections and surroundings as creative writers, which will be available to download from the gallery’s website and be distributed in the house itself. Part of the unique character of Kettleʼs Yard house is that it does not have labels or written interpretation, which can prove both a challenge and a wonderful opportunity for visiting families and school groups. Creating a resource that can be handed to the gallery’s youngest visitors will provide them with a unique, creative and accessible way to engage with the house.

Karen Thomas, Community Officer at Kettle’s Yard said: “Kettle’s Yard is delighted to receive this wonderful news as it enables us to work closely with our partners at the Grove Primary school to make the most of the unique opportunity that the exhibition of poet and artist Ian Hamilton Finlay brings. The school and Kettle’s Yard are excited to be working with esteemed writer Claire Collinson and to develop a resource which will inspire others to explore the collection in new and creative ways.”