Castle Hill Open Day: A Celebration of Heritage

During my first week in Cambridge, I found out about Castle Hill Open Day, a full-day event celebrating a local spot called Kettle’s Yard. I only made it for the last few hours, but I still learned quite a lot about the culture of this area. My time there included an interdisciplinary art exhibit, two ancient churches, and other local collections.

After stopping at a booth nearby a group of kids, who were attentively listening to a storyteller, I stepped into an exhibition to see the newest works. These consisted of photographs by Sophie Rickett, who made an appearance for the festival together with the astronomer Roderick Willstrop from the University of Cambridge. Using negatives from Dr. Willstrop’s Three Mirror Telescope, Rickett developed photographs reinterpreting the process of artistic creation as well as the sublime subject itself. For example, one work features a circular “window” into space, with a cloudy center reminiscent of the Milky Way. Rickett explained that this cloudiness is not part of outer space, but a product of chemicals used to develop the photographs. Thus, the product serves as a reminder of its own nature. In addition, Rickett took this same image and developed ten smaller versions in the bold colors of the Eagle Nebula, showing how art can further inspire art. For more information on the different themes of Rickett’s work, see: http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/exhibitions/2013/new-art-2013/sophy-rickett.php.

  “Pillars of Creation” depicting the Eagle Nebula, taken by the Hubble Telescope

(Image: http://annesastronomynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Pillars-of-Creation-a-star-forming-gas-and-dust-region-within-the-Eagle-Nebula-M16-or-NGC-6611-a-young-open-cluster-of-stars-6500-light-years-away-in-Serpens-Cauda.jpg)

Once I had finished learning more about the artist, the scientist, and their work, I went on a tour of two nearby churches. The first, St. Giles’ Church, is relatively ornate and large. A guide discussed the meaning of the architecture, explaining that the interior of the church traditionally resembles the design of an ark and thus evokes a sense of safety. Beautiful stained glass windows line the walls, and the benches have unique images of saints and animals carved into them – symbolic meaning can be found in every nook and cranny. After St. Giles’, we walked back up a hill to St. Peter’s Church, which is a small, pale, chilly room in comparison. In the otherwise barren center stands a baptism font with mermen carved into it – it is about 1000 years old! We could see a door had been sealed shut on one wall to block off the cold winds. The outline of the door had been left as an indication that the church used to be larger. So much could be gleaned from the architecture and modifications to these edifices.

 

 

St. Peter’s Church in Autumn

Our tour then took us into the nearby Cambridge & County Folk Museum, which has some major artifacts from Cambridge and an old pub room, as well as a café for afternoon tea, of course. The last stop was Kettle’s Yard house, where we saw some modern paintings and sculptors collected by the previous owner, curator Jim Ede (See: http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/house). One of the iconic sculptures is a cubic dog, which children were happily replicating with paper mache in a crafts stall in the backyard.

All in all, this was a wonderful opportunity to delve into the world of art, architecture, history, and science. I also enjoyed the blend of the modern and the ancient. I look forward to visiting more museums and buildings during my time in Europe.