The 'radical transformation' of the Red House Museum

The Huddersfield Daily Examiner has an article concerning the closure of the Red House Museum among others in the area.

Councillors will be asked to agree the sell-off of some of Kirklees museums.
A plan to create a new Huddersfield Museum and Art Gallery looks set to move forward.
But three museums may close as Kirklees aims to cut £531,000 from the £1m museums budget.
The controversial plan includes axing Tolson Museum along with Dewsbury Museum in Crow Nest Park and Red House Museum at Gomersal – a showcase venue for Kirklees’ links with Charlotte Brontë.
At a meeting on Monday, Kirklees Council’s Cabinet members will be asked to give authority to the council’s chief executive to invite expressions of interest in the sites and buildings that are no longer required.
Cabinet Member for Creative Kirklees, Clr Graham Turner, said that the proposals had been drawn up following consultation with staff and the public.
He said: “Obviously the majority of people wanted to keep all the museums.
“During our budget consultation in January, 55% of people wanted the collections where they are, but 45% felt we should display exhibitions in community and business venues.
“We have responded to this in the vision by proposing a mix of site based activities and other opportunities.
“It is clear that many residents love and value the buildings we have, but if we do not close any of the sites it will be impossible to achieve the savings we need to make.
“With a constantly diminishing budget, we have to change the cultural offer. But I believe the proposed changes will ensure that we can deliver a service for the residents of Kirklees that tells our story in a different and more up to date way.
“Changing lifestyles and increasing culture and leisure choices mean that the museum and galleries service needs to radically transform if it is to be relevant and resilient in the 21st century and make an impact on the district’s priorities.
“It is vital that Kirklees continues to support a strong cultural offer.” (Nick Lavigueur)

Closing down a museum is a 'radical transformation' indeed! If you haven't done so yet, click here to sign our petition.

What'sOnStage has a video of rehearsals for the Villette play on stage at West Yorkshire Playhouse.

We popped into rehearsals for Villette at West Yorkshire Playhouse to chat to director Mark Rosenblatt and find out more about the radical reimagining of Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre.
On the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë's birth, this new adaptation by Yorkshire writer Linda Marshall-Griffiths celebrates her unique genius. (Ben Hewis)

Selected Shorts features Reader, I Married Him.

Guest host Cynthia Nixon presents a celebration of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
To mark the 200th anniversary of the classic novel, the writer Tracy Chevalier was approached to create an anthology, inviting contemporary writers to pen stories inspired by it.  The result was Reader, I Married Him:  Stories Inspired by Jane Eyre.  We invited Chevalier and some of her authors to a special evening at Symphony Space.
On this program, you’ll hear Tony Award winner Joanna Gleason (“Into the Woods”) read from the original.  Then, a rebuttal from Rochester, in Salley Vickers’ “Reader, She Married Me.”  Vickers’ novels include Miss Garnet’s Angel, Mr. Golightly’s Holiday, and The Cleaner of Chartres.  Reader Chris Sarandon’s films include “Dog Day Afternoon,” “The Princess Bride,” and “Fright Night.” On television he’s appeared in “Orange is the New Black,” “The Good Wife,” and “Law & Order: SVU,” among other shows.
Our final story is by Audrey Niffenegger, who chose to look at an earlier period in Jane Eyre’s difficult life: her time at the orphanage.  But typically for the author of fantasy-tinged novels The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, and a favorite story of ours, “The Night Bookmobile,” this Jane has been transported to a dystopian world that is not Eyre’s London.   “The Orphan Exchange,” is read by Tovah Feldshuh, whose long career on stage, film and television includes roles in “Golda’s Balcony” and “Yentl,” “Holocaust” and “Law & Order,” and most recently “The Walking Dead.”

Click here to listen to the podcast.

Impact wonders whether Mr Rochester is a sinner or a saviour.

Charlotte Brontë’s Edward Rochester is a troubled, complex character, burning with a sense of pain and melancholia at his deranged wife’s condition, and his duty to tend to her lunacy by cocooning her in the attic of his manor.
This is, of course, the main point of contention between those who see Rochester as a sympathetic Samaritan and those who consider him a cruel captor. (Olivia Nichole Kittle) (Read more)

Virtue Online remarks on the fact that

Victorian literature does not shy away from exploring the tension between representation and reality. Charles Dickens, Elisabeth Gaskell, and the Brontë sisters, in particular, focus on the ways in which the middle-class family could be troubled or unhappy or broken. (Jules Gomes)

A.V. Club reviews Meat Cake Bible by Dame Darcy.

What is Meat Cake about? Women, mostly, and girls, who inhabit a claustrophobic neo-Victorian landscape that seems to have been constructed out of jumbled memories of a kid stuck home with a fever for a week and binging on the Brontë sisters. (In 2006 Darcy illustrated an edition of Jane Eyre, surely one of the most perfect such pairings imaginable.) (Tim O’Neil)

This list of '11 Desk Accessories Every Book-Lover Needs In Their Working Space' compiled by Bustle is highly tempting. One of the items has a direct Jane Eyre reference:

7. A Literary Candle
Who doesn't want their room to smell like their favorite book? Now your very own desk can have the scent of Sherlock's study, Jane Eyre's rose garden, or Alice's mad tea party. These soy candles are based on locations in literary classics, and they're perfect for creating a relaxed work atmosphere.
Literary Candles, $16.00, Uncommon Goods (Charlotte Ahlin)

Straits Times reviews the music album Pigeonheart by DM Stith and finds that,

Each song usually begins quietly, without fanfare, before it unfurls its myriad shades.
"What would I do with your love right now/forehead to the door, keep you pounding outside," begins Sawtooth, with him babbling like a silly, lovelorn Heathcliff over incongruously bouncy disco beats. (Yeow Kai Chai)

Many sites date the publication of Jane Eyre as the 26th September 1847 but the actual date is 16th  October. BookRiot celebrates the 169th anniversary of its publication on the wrong date but the selection of '16 beautiful Jane Eyre book covers' is truly lovely regardless.