Amanda Game: Reflection on Fen Ditton Gallery's 2nd anniversary
As we celebrate our 2nd anniversary, we have been reflecting on our experiences since opening in May 2018. We have worked with independent curator, Amanda Game, since the gallery’s inception, so invited her to write a piece on her involvement and thoughts of the past two years.
Fen Ditton Gallery in bloom
Although I have only lived full time in Cambridge once (2011/2012), Cambridge and the fens are places I have known well over the years. I used to visit my godmother in Cambridge as a child and I was brought up just across the border in South Lincolnshire. My late husband Andrew Raven was born and brought up just outside Cambridge. It is a city that has always featured strongly in my professional life as a curator and director at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh. My first job at that gallery involved working with the late Henry Rothschild on a show of modern ceramics: Rothschild of course was the influential founder of Primavera Gallery. I was lucky enough to meet the late Jim Ede around the same time when he was living in Edinburgh with his daughter. He bought a pot from an early show! The way that Kettles Yard through both its collection, and programme, recognises the links between different forms of art – ceramics, sculpture, painting – has been influential on my own professional approach.
My relationship to Cambridge was strengthened when I was fortunate enough in 2016 to be invited to work on cataloguing the Sir Nicholas and Lady Goodison gift of modern ceramics and other crafts to the Fitzwilliam Museum resulting in the book ‘Contemporary British Crafts’ published by Philip Wilson.
I had met Lynne Strover, former owner of the Fen Ditton Gallery space, a number of times over the years through our common interest in studio ceramics and I used to walk over to Fen Ditton when living in Cambridge. At that time, I also met Lotte Attwood through a mutual friend, though I knew her work well having been given several of her black and white photographs of Ardtornish by my mother-in-law: a place that is my home part of the year and which Lotte used to visit regularly with her family.
All this history came together when Lotte purchased the Fen Ditton building from Lynne Strover in 2017 and wanting to re-develop the gallery got in touch with me. I sensed immediately that there could be an opportunity to use my longstanding experience to help Lotte create a well-designed intimate gallery space. The idea of establishing a regular platform for interesting artists from different disciplines felt exciting in proximity to a city that was undergoing considerable change and development through new industries and new connectivity.
Install image of silverware by Simone ten Hompel in Borderlands exhibition, Fen Ditton Gallery (May 2018)
The opening show Borderlands set the template, bringing together exceptional domestic silver by Simone ten Hompel (I had worked on a museum show of hers the previous year) alongside Lotte’s own black and white images of interiors. We developed the first year programme at speed, drawing on my specialist interest in modern ceramics; silver and jewellery; Lotte’s specialist knowledge, as an artist herself, in photography and our mutual interest in drawing and printmaking.
A common interest to both Lotte and I is the natural world. Lotte, as many of you know, is a wonderful gardener. Our environmental interest seemed a good focus for elements of the programme. In Autumn 2018 Trees Observed started us off with some astonishing drawings by David Nash, alongside furniture by Jim Partridge/Liz Walmsley and photographs by Lotte herself and Paul Hart.
Sales were brisk and some funds went to the Woodland Trust to help with the posthumous publication of works by the late, great Cambridge woodland historian Oliver Rackham. Birds became the focus in 2019 introducing the work of Cambridge-born Spitting Image founder Roger Law to the gallery with funds from sales being given to Birdlife International. This summer Plantlife is the focus – both as subject and charity, which seems particularly fitting given the new attention we have all been giving to the natural world around us during lockdown. I hope to work on an annual exhibition on this theme.
Amanda in conversation with Paul Hart, part of Land Lines exhibition
Lotte’s daughter, Hannah, was a vital team member from the outset. Her skill as a web designer gave Fen Ditton Gallery a good website and enabled us to establish active online communications for all our shows. As the gallery developed it became clear that it would benefit from the kind of full time attention that neither Lotte nor I could give it and so Hannah became Gallery Manager in May 2019 and is now actively involved in all aspects of the programme. In 2020 with the physical gallery still closed due to Covid-19, Hannah’s skill and knowledge of virtual worlds has been crucial to keep the gallery alive.
Install image from Seeing Red (Jan 2020). Sculpture and screenprint by Nigel Hall RA
Two years on I can reflect on the many things learnt. I have learnt a lot more about the art of black and white photography from Lotte herself and from Paul Hart and his wonderful Fen series of images. It was a particular pleasure to bring the work of the late Fay Godwin to Fen Ditton in 2019 through the Land Lines exhibition, and to introduce, for the first time in the UK the work of American artist Mark Steinmetz. I have enjoyed re-connecting with the world of fine printmaking – an early interest of mine fostered at Oxford Gallery in the mid 1980s. Printmaking, which, like fine book arts, has a strong tradition in Cambridge, has been present in the masterly etchings of Norman Ackroyd and screenprints by Nigel Hall. Hannah plans to develop this element with an exciting Open Print Biennale, starting next year.
Install image from International Blues, July 2018. Ceramics by Bodil Manz and Colin Pearson print by W. Barns-Graham
Working on the Fen Ditton Gallery programme has also offered a rare opportunity to re-examine the building blocks of art and design, through a series of shows each themed around colour: to date International Blues and Seeing Red. How skillful artists work with different materials to explore colour and how this affects visual perception is a rich and fascinating subject and one that has led me back to the work of the late Cambridge scholar John Gage. Ceramics, photography, glass, tapestry and printmaking have all featured, and the gallery has been able to work closely with some very knowledgeable artists such as Garry Fabian-Miller. A show in late 2021 is planned on the colour yellow.
My thanks go to all artists and makers who have joined this new journey to date and to all who have visited, encouraged and supported Fen Ditton Gallery thus far.