The University of Cambridge's museums and collections are for everyone.

Together, the eight University of Cambridge Museums and Botanic Garden represent the UK’s highest concentration of internationally important collections outside London. With more than five million works of art, artefacts, and specimens, the collections have supported nearly 300 years of investigation into the world around us.

Today, they bring together people from across the world to explore the big questions: from the earliest forms of life to the future of our planet. We work to deepen understanding of our world, inspire new thinking, and address local and global challenges.

What we do

A lot happens behind the scenes. Like most museums and collections, our work centres on three areas:

  • We care for the collections and seek to understand them better
  • We share them with you and with the wider world online, and through exhibitions, events and activities
  • We use them to inspire and make a difference to our communities.

As University museums, we also have a distinctive mission to:

  • Research the collections to help us answer big questions and respond to global challenges such as climate change
  • Teach the next generation and work to widen access to the opportunities that higher education and cultural engagement can offer.

We work closely with the University’s other collections, as well as local and national partners. We are proud to be members of the national University Museums Group and Cambridge Arts and Cultural Leaders. 
 

About the collections

The history of the University of Cambridge Museums stretches back to 1728, and the founding of what would become the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences

Our collections can be read as a history book, documenting Cambridge's role in the development of Western knowledge. Alongside our objects, many of the museums hold field notes, books and other documents which reveal how Cambridge scholars set out to understand the world around them. The most famous of these might be Charles Darwin, and the Museum of Zoology holds some of the specimens collected on his voyage with HMS Beagle.

Other museums represent different ways of seeing the world, through the eyes of artists or craftspeople, and have their origins in private collections. Richard, Viscount Fitzwilliam's gift of art, antiquities and manuscripts to the University in 1816 sits at the heart of the Fitzwilliam Museum. Kettle's Yard, the home in the mid-20th century of Jim and Helen Ede, displays Jim's remarkable collection of modern art in the setting of their house.

Collections for everyone

We are committed to ensuring that all our work, and the way we do it, is as inclusive as possible. From our approach to researching the collections and sharing what we find to collaborating with communities and the development of our workforce, we are committed to positive institutional change. You can find out more about our inclusivity work and our approach to the return of objects on this website.

Find out more 

Read Collections in Action for an overview of our most recent work, and receive updates from across the consortium on our Blog

Since 2012, we’ve undertaken projects of all shapes and sizes, in collaboration with a huge variety of organisations. Find out more on our past projects page and in our 2021-2022 Year in Numbers
 

Museum ambassadors event

 

What's On

Kettle's Yard
03 Mar 2019

Artist led workshops for families of all ages.

Kettle's Yard

Artist led workshops for families of all ages.

Kettle's Yard

Join Kettle's Yard for a special opening evening and performance with Anthea Hamilton.

Kettle's Yard

Join curator Dr Amy Tobin for a short, free tour of the exhibitions, ARTIST ROOMS Louise Bourgeois and Julie Mehretu: Drawings and Monotypes.

Kettle's Yard

Work with our team of artists and volunteers in this hands-on after-school art club, starting on 31 January.

Kettle's Yard
02 Jan 2019

Kettle’s Yard student music programmer Luke Fitzgerald has curated the lunchtime concert series titled Crossing Centuries, performed by some of the best student musicians in Cambridge.

Kettle's Yard
01 May 2019

This informal creative development evening for the network of teachers in Cambridgeshire and surrounding areas is designed to support the development of arts skills and arts education knowledge.

Kettle's Yard
01 Jun 2019

Join us for a free lunchtime talk about Rose Garrard’s ‘Casting Room I’ on Wednesday, 6 February 2019 at 1.30pm with curator Dr Amy Tobin.

Kettle's Yard
01 Aug 2019

Kettle’s Yard student music programmer Luke Fitzgerald has curated the lunchtime concert series titled Crossing Centuries, performed by some of the best student musicians in Cambridge.

Kettle's Yard

Kettle’s Yard student music programmer Luke Fitzgerald has curated this series titled Crossing Centuries, performed by some of the best student musicians in Cambridge.

Kettle's Yard

Talk exploring Congdon’s paintings and the artist’s connections with Jim Ede.

Kettle's Yard

Join us for a workshop exploring the architecture of Kettle’s Yard and taking inspiration from the Julie Mehretu exhibition. Create an architectural artwork to take home.

Kettle's Yard

Open studio for students studying a creative subject at GCSE or A-Level. Work with a professional artist and develop your exam portfolio.

Kettle's Yard

Kettle’s Yard student music programmer Luke Fitzgerald has curated this series titled Crossing Centuries, performed by some of the best student musicians in Cambridge.

Kettle's Yard

Join us for an evening of new poetry in the Kettle’s Yard House curated by Anne Boyer, the Judith E Wilson Professor of Poetry.

Kettle's Yard

Milan Siljanov is currently a member of the Young Artist Programme of the Bavarian State Opera.

Kettle's Yard

Get creative at Kettle’s Yard this half term with free, drop-in drawing activities in our Clore Learning Studio.

Kettle's Yard

Join artist Lucy Steggals and our community collaborators who have created activities together, inspired by Louise Bourgeois. Join them to enjoy and explore spirals, webs and weaving.

Kettle's Yard

Join Dr Aline Guillermet, Junior Research Fellow, Visual Culture & History of Art, University of Cambridge and Andrew Nairne, Director as they discuss Julie Mehretu’s work.

Kettle's Yard
03 Jan 2019

Kettle’s Yard student music programmer Luke Fitzgerald has curated this series titled Crossing Centuries, performed by some of the best student musicians in Cambridge.

The Fitzwilliam Museum

The major dynastic, political and cultural changes that occurred in England under the Tudors and Stuarts are traced in this exhibition. 

Kettle's Yard

Rose Garrard’s ‘Casting Room I’ will be on display in the Research Space on the 1st floor of Kettle’s Yard.

Kettle's Yard
02 Aug 2019

Hannah Kemp-Welch shares the process and outcome of her year-long residency with North Cambridge communities.

Kettle's Yard

Join artist Ian Giles for a public meeting about Open Ramble East – a series of walks being organised with and for LGBTQI+ people living in the East of England.

Kettle's Yard

On the second floor of Kettle’s Yard, just at the top of the stairs, we are currently displaying Evan Roth’s Red Lines, 2018, an Artangel Commission.

Kettle's Yard
11 Apr 2018

Anthea Hamilton installs her work, and works by other artists, in the House following Kettle’s Yard’s collaboration with the artist at The Hepworth Wakefield in 2016/17.

Kettle's Yard
02 Aug 2019

Join us for an audio described and touch tour of the current exhibitions.

Kettle's Yard
02 Aug 2019

Come as Your Favourite Artist!

Kettle's Yard
02 Aug 2019

Kettle’s Yard student music programmer Luke Fitzgerald has curated this series titled Crossing Centuries, performed by some of the best student musicians in Cambridge.

Kettle's Yard
02 Sep 2019

A day of activities for families, artist-led workshops, talks, tours and much more, celebrating women artists in the collection and the exhibitions.

Kettle's Yard
02 Oct 2019

An afternoon exploring the exhibitions, themes of motherhood and female arts practise. For mothers who are professional and/or passionate artists or makers.

Kettle's Yard

Hannah Kemp-Welch, 2018 Open House artist-in-residence, shares the process and outcome of her year-long residency with North Cambridge communities in Hyperlocal Radio.

Kettle's Yard

Find out more about Bourgeois in our panel discussion with Alice Blackhurst (Centre for Film and Screen), Alyce Mahon (History of Art) and Juliet Mitchell (Psychoanalysis and Gender Studies).

Kettle's Yard

Book now for a workshop with professional tapestry artist Julie Taylor exploring original design making and interpretations for woven tapestry.

Kettle's Yard

Inspired by Hannah Kemp-Welch’s Open House residency, we welcome Cambridge Repair Café to Kettle’s Yard. Repair Cafés match people with broken items with the people that can fix them.

Kettle's Yard

Broomberg & Chanarin were part of fig-futures at Kettle’s Yard.

Kettle's Yard
01 Oct 2018

For Actions. The image of the world can be different, Cornelia Parker created a veil of marks upon the two window panes in Helen Ede’s bedroom in the Kettle’s Yard House.

The Fitzwilliam Museum

 

A talk with Dr Richard Kelleher, Assistant Keeper (Medieval and Modern), Coins and Medals.

The Fitzwilliam Museum

 

Drop-in and enjoy half an hour looking at and talking about art.

The Fitzwilliam Museum

Drop-in and enjoy half an hour looking at and talking about art.