June 2009

Barbara Taylor-Bradford's Woman of Substance Awards: In September 2009 Barbara Taylor-Bradford will be speaking at the Bronte Parsonage Museum as part of her celebrations to mark 30 years of A Woman of Substance and the release of her new novel Breaking the Rules. To coincide with the celebrations, Barbara Taylor Bradford has launched a new award to search for today's Woman of Substance. If you would like to nominate someone who you feel is deserving of the title, you can find more details on the awards website. If you would like to find out as soon as tickets for this event are available please contact jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk
 
Northern Ballet's Wuthering Heights:  Northern Ballet Theatre bring their dramatic adaptation of Wuthering Heights to the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford from Tuesday 20 to Saturday 24 October 2009. See Emily Bronte's romantic masterpiece brought to life through beautiful dancing accompanied by Claude-Michel Schonberg's (famous for Les Miserables and Miss Saigon) sweeping score played live by the Northern Ballet Theatre Orchestra.

To book please call the Alhambra Theatre Box Office on 01274 432000 or go online at www.bradford-theatres.co.uk

 
March 30 

Contemporary Arts Programme April - September 2009

The Bronte Parsonage Museum has announced a new contemporary arts programme which will take place at the museum between April and September 2009. The season will include exhibitions by major British artist Sam Taylor-Wood and renowned photographer Eamonn McCabe. There will also be literary events with Kate Atkinson and Bonnie Greer amongst others. For full details see the press release.

March 21st and 22nd 2009

Mums go free for Mothering Sunday

The Bronte Parsonage Museum will celebrate Mothering Sunday by offering free admission to mums accompanied by a child (of any age!) on both Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd March.

The Museum has had a busy start to the year with lots of new things for visitors of all ages to see and do. For the first time in over twenty years the Museum undertook a major refurbishment in January and opened with a brand new exhibition space exhibiting more of the treasures of the Museum's collection than ever before. There are also interactive displays for children and families. There's an exhibition of costumes from the latest ITV adaptation of Wuthering Heights and a new exhibition focussing on Charlotte Bronte, including items of clothing and other personal treasures as well as letters and rarely displayed art works. An exhibition of stunning contemporary paintings featuring the Brontes' handwriting magnified and reproduced in vibrant colours completes the busiest programme of exhibitions the Museum has had for some years.

For Mothering Sunday there will also be free art and craft activities for children making Mother's Day gifts.

March 9 2009

Graphologist Examines Handwriting of the Brontes to Reveal New Insight Into Their Personalities

Leading graphologist Diane Simpson has worked with The Bronte Parsonage Museum to analyse the handwriting of Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne Bronte and produce new insights into their personalities. For further details read  the full press release.

6 March 2009

Bronte Goes to Bollywood

Acclaimed theatre company Tamasha have given Wuthering Heights a vibrant new life in their latest production. Inspired by classic Indian cinema, the scorched desert of Rajasthan is the setting for this musical adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Tamasha is the British Asian theatre company behind award-winning muscial Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and a Funeral and the groundbreaking East is East. The musical production is touring the UK from March until June 2009 and includes Oldham Coliseum and the Lyric Hammersmith, London. For full tour and further details visit www.tamasha.org.uk/wuthering-heights

18 February 2009

Alter Ego exhibition

An exhibition of abstract paintings by artist Victor Buta, based on the Brontes signatures, is on show at the Bronte Parsonage Museum until 31 March. For the full press release and information on supporting activities click here.

10 February 2009

Half Term Activites at the Bronte Parsonage Museum

An exhibition of costumes from ITV's upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights, newly redeveloped exhibition room featuring new displays, interpretations and interactives for families and arts and crafts drop in sessions for families are just some of the events happening at the museum during the half term week. To see the full media release click here.

 
27 January 2009

Refurbishment Transforms Bronte Parsonage Museum 

The Bronte Parsonage Museum will re-open on  1 February 2009 following a major refurbishment. The museum's permanent exhibition, focusing on the Brontes' lives and works had been in place for over twenty-five years and although it remained popular with visitors, was in need of renewal.

The exhibition room is located in an extension to the the original Bronte house, which was added in the 1870s, nearly twenty years after the Brontes residency ended with the death of Patrick Bronte in 1861. The new exhibition, developed with  Ilkley based designers Redman,  has taken about eighteen months  to plan and will transform the space.

The new exhibition will open to the public on 1 February 2009.

Bronte Parsonage Museum receives award from National Museums, Libraries and Archives Council

The Bronte Parsonage Museum has just been awarded full accreditation status from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. The accreditation scheme award demonstrates that the Museum has achieved defined national standards relating to governance, visitor services and collections management.

The Museum houses the world's largest collection of Bronte material including letters, manuscripts, furniture, personal artefacts and artworks. The treasures of the collection are displayed within the Parsonage, which every year draws tens of thousands of general visitors and lovers of the Brontes' books to Haworth.

Andrew McCarthy, Director of the Museum, said "We are delighted to have been granted full accreditation. The Parsonage Museum has a collection which is nationally and internationally important and we should all celebrate that fact. The collection has continued to grow in recent years, and through our education and arts programmes we have offered all kinds of exciting new ways for visitors to experience the Museum and find out about the Brontes."

The Museum is offering free admission to children every weekend in December and will then close in January 2009 for a major refurbishment, which will see the installation of a major new exhibition. The exhibition will include many new acquisitions, along with fun interactives for families.

Missing Charlotte Bronte letter returns to Haworth after 80 years

An important letter from Charlotte Bronte to her publisher, William Smith Williams, has been bought by the Bronte Parsonage Museum with the help of grants from the Museum, Library and Archives Council  and the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund.

Originally written in Haworth just three months after the first publication of Jane Eyre in January 1848, the letter, signed "C Bell" (Charlotte's pseudonym) discusses reviews of the novel and provides a valuable insight into Charlotte's creavity and ideas as a novelist.

The letter was subsequently purchased by an American Bronte Society member visiting England. It then spent some eighty years in the United States, its whereabouts being unknown. Eventually it was inherited by Patti Engels of California, who has now sold it to the Parsonage Museum where it has gone on display, an exciting new addition to the Museum's collection.