ABSTRACT
Contemporary art interventions in heritage sites constitute an intertwining of history, art making, curatorial practices, tourism, visitor expectations, meaning making, memory, and phenomenological encounters. This chapter discusses as its case study the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire; it is a fascinating case study which intersects with this wide range of discourses. This museum is the former home of world famous but long dead writers Emily, Anne, and Charlotte Bronte. To understand better the expectations of visitors to this site, it is necessary to understand the importance of the Brontes and the nature of the museum as a ‘biographical’ representation of their life story. Many contemporary visitors write in the comments book that their visit to the museum has been a long-awaited pilgrimage to this Bronte ‘shrine’. Aspects of ‘being transported’, according to Latham, involve ‘the felt qualities’, including a sense of shifting time, and narrowing of focus which might create a sense of being alone in the space.
