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for instance, placing small paintings on tables with chairs before them, to encourage close observation. The Phillips Collection in Washington proved more conducive. Founded in 1918 by Eliza Phillips and her son Duncan, who would become Ede's lifelong friend, it consisted of modern and contemporary art, including artists who were not yet well known, presented in a home environment. The Barnes Foundation, created by Albert C. Barnes at Merion near Philadelphia in 1922, had a different remit. Described as 'not a Public Gallery but an education institution', and freely accessible on open days to those who earned their living 'in shops, factories, schools, stores and similar places', it aimed to hone viewers' perception and analytical skills by presenting objects in groups emphasising visual relationships. Ede so admired the scope of Barnes's 'experiment', from its programme of lectures and music to its surrounding park and arboretum, that he described it as the 'fulfilment of what I came out to see'. 25 Ede had published articles on renaissance and baroque art since 1923. In 1927, he changed tack to the artists he knew: David Jones, the Nicholsons, William Staite Murray and Eric Gill. He began making radio broadcasts on the BBC, initially reading from poetry and literature, but from 1930 presenting his own lectures and reviews. Newly returned from the United States, in November 1931, he embodied his emerging ideas on domestic spaces in a lecture entitled 'A Room to Live In', broadcast on 28 November 1931 in a series entitled 'Healthy, Wealthy and Wise'. 26 Ede advised how to create an ideal space by first clearing it 'back to its bare walls'. Light should be considered carefully, windows minimally dressed, walls distempered with a white or ivory wash, floors scrubbed, and only essential furniture introduced. (Ede preferred 'some discomfort, some shortage' rather than cluttering and spoiling the space.) Pictures must be hung sparsely, or even placed temporarily on the floor, to encourage an eagerness to look at them before they were moved elsewhere. 27 25 Ede, 'A Visit To America (The Journey Out)', quoted in Freeman, p.118. 26 Ede's lecture was published as 'Space to Live In,' The Listener, 2 December 1931, p.977, from 'Early Published Articles,' KY/EDE/4/2/1/1. 27 Ede, 'Speeches and Broadcasts: A Room to Live In,' radio talk, 28 November, 1931, typescript, Kettle's Yard Archive, KY/EDE/4/3/6/2, pp. 2, 3, 6, 7. 10

