Jane Austen’s House, Chawton
Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, will celebrate throughout the year with brand new exhibitions
and a special events programme. Admission tickets for the entire year have been
released.
The anniversary programme will launch in October 2024 with the opening of a brand-new permanent exhibition, Jane Austen and the Art of Writing, which will celebrate and centre Jane Austen as a ground-breaking and ambitious writer in the very house where she created her six beloved novels. This inspirational exhibition will directly link Jane Austen’s creative process with the domestic space from which it came. Drawing on the House’s extraordinary collection, it will celebrate Jane Austen’s creative genius and show how seriously she took her craft, animating and sharing the physical and mental processes she used to develop her novels – from her earliest teenage writings to her adult novels, inspirations, pioneering techniques, and publication. It will showcase the museum’s unique collection of manuscript letters and first editions and use facsimiles of surviving manuscripts to provide a hands-on experience for visitors and to explain Jane Austen’s writing process. Jane Austen and the Art of Writing will open in October 2024 and will be free with House admission.
The celebrations will continue throughout 2025 with additional exhibitions, partnerships and events. As well as the regular events programme of Guided House Tours, Book Clubs, Guided Village Walks and Virtual Tours, Jane Austen’s House will host a series of mini festivals throughout the year to celebrate this special anniversary. Each themed festival will feature a programme of special events, walks, talks and tours, late-views, screenings and performances. Online events will enable fans of Jane Austen’s works around the world to join in the festivities.
The first festival of the year will run from 23-28 January, focusing on Jane Austen’s best-loved novel Pride & Prejudice. This event will build on the success of the museum’s annual Pride & Prejudice Day on 28 January, the anniversary of the novel’s publication.
The spring festival will run from 1-11 May, focusing on Jane Austen’s first-published novel, Sense & Sensibility. A summer festival will run from 12-20 July, focusing on Jane Austen’s “perfect” summer novel, Emma.
In the autumn, visitors will enjoy a festival from 12-21 September focusing on Jane Austen’s last completed novel, Persuasion, with its autumnal themes. From 13-21 December the House will run a Christmas festival, featuring traditional Georgian decorations, scents and recipes, and offering visitors the chance to explore the House by candlelight and to enjoy musical performances and readings. Special festivities on 16 December will celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, including the museum’s popular annual Virtual Birthday Party – this event is regularly attended by hundreds of guests from around the world who gather at the virtual event to toast the author.
Event tickets for January-March will go on sale at www.janeaustens.house/visit/whats-on/ in September 2024. Full festival line ups, further news and details of additional exhibitions and events will be revealed in due course.
Lizzie Dunford, Jane Austen’s House Director says: “2025 is a landmark year for Jane Austen and for Jane Austen’s House. Two and a half centuries after her birth, her star shows no sign of dimming, and her ground-breaking writings continue to inspire and console readers across the world. We are so looking forward to celebrating this extraordinary woman and her unequalled legacy from the home that fostered her genius – and beyond!”
Jane Austen’s House has once again worked with world-renowned design agency Pentagram to create a new visual identity for the celebratory year. The design is inspired by Jane Austen’s love of nature and the outdoors and references a number of key plants and objects, including the beautiful Blush Noisette rose which frames the doorway of the House and was introduced to Europe in 1817, the year of Jane Austen’s death. The design also includes an oak leaf and acorn, referencing a Wedgwood dinner service owned by the Austen women at Chawton which Jane mentioned in a letter to her sister Cassandra in 1811:
‘On Monday I had the pleasure of receiving, unpacking & approving our Wedgwood ware. It all came very safely & upon the whole is a good match, tho’ I think they might have allowed us rather larger leaves, especially in such a Year of fine foliage as this.’ Jane Austen, 6 June 1811
The oak leaf in the design is also a nod to an oak tree in the museum garden which is a descendent of one planted by Jane Austen over 200 years ago. Also referenced in the design is the ‘Chawton Leaf wallpaper that hangs in the Dining Room, where Jane Austen’s writing table sits. The wallpaper was recreated from a fragment of historic wallpaper discovered in the Dining Room in 2018, that has been dated to the time when Jane Austen was living at the House.
