Holding Space
The exhibition, HOLDING SPACE, features 56 cinematic photographs that blend historical research, artistic interpretation, and evocative storytelling.
Working with institutions such as The Mark Twain House, the Alice Austen House, the Emily Dickinson House, Gillette Castle, the Edward Gorey House, the Florence Griswold House, the Edward Hopper House, and the Pollock-Krasner Home and Studio, Adrien Broom has crafted a body of work that not only captures the spirit of these places but reimagines the creative forces that once inhabited them.
Holding Space: The Historic Homes of Artists and Writers Interpreted by Adrien Broom at The Mark Twain House & Museum is sponsored by The Maximilian E. & Marion O. Hoffman Foundation with additional support provide by Webster Bank; the Connecticut State Legislature, administered by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts; and Baboo Fine Art Printing.
Step into a world where historic houses, living actors, and cinematic light all share the same frame. Holding Space is a photography exhibition by Connecticut based artist Adrien Broom that reimagines the homes of iconic writers and artists, including our own Mark Twain, as sites where creativity still lingers in the air. Featuring fifty six large scale photographs, the series blends historical research, set design, and narrative storytelling to bring these storied rooms vividly to life.
Over more than seven years, Broom immersed herself in the actual spaces where these figures lived and worked, collaborating with museums and historic sites to understand their histories from the inside out. She then cast actors, designed sets, and staged scenes that weave together fact and imagination, creating images that feel like memories you might have had, or dreams you might have once forgotten.
At The Mark Twain House & Museum, rooms visitors may know from our tours appear transformed. A conservatory becomes a dream bright stage, a library seems to hold its breath as a character steps into the light. Throughout the series, Broom explores themes that echo across all of these homes: the public “alter ego” that many creatives adopt, the tension between what is preserved and what is lost, and the unique power of being in “the real place” where the work was made.
The Historic Homes Featured
Holding Space was created in partnership with a constellation of museums that steward the legacies of artists and writers. Participating sites include:
- The Mark Twain House & Museum (Hartford, CT), home of Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, where he wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and other masterpieces.
- Emily Dickinson Museum (Amherst, MA), where the poet composed over a thousand intense, compact poems within the quiet frame of her family home.
- Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center (Nyack, NY), childhood home of the painter whose work is synonymous with light, solitude, and American streetscapes.
- Pollock Krasner House and Study Center (East Hampton, NY), the barn studio and home where Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner changed the course of modern art.
- Alice Austen House (Staten Island, NY), home of pioneering photographer Alice Austen, whose images of New Yorkers and her own circle feel strikingly contemporary.
- Edward Gorey House (Yarmouth Port, MA), the Cape Cod home of author and illustrator Edward Gorey, filled with his offbeat imagination and love of animals.
- Florence Griswold Museum (Old Lyme, CT), the center of the Old Lyme Art Colony and a landmark of American Impressionism.
- Gillette Castle State Park (East Haddam, CT), the theatrical hilltop retreat of actor and playwright William Gillette.
Together, these places form a kind of imaginative map, tracing how physical spaces, daily routines, and personal histories shape creative lives.
About the Artist
Adrien Broom is a fine art and commercial photographer known for atmospheric, often fantastical imagery that feels poised between childhood story and adult memory. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions including the Florence Griswold Museum, the Hudson River Museum, and the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. In Holding Space, she combines photography, set building, and performance to create immersive visual stories that invite viewers to linger and look again.
Experience Holding Space In Person and Online
Holding Space is included with admission to The Mark Twain House & Museum and with Museum Center only tickets. Visitors can explore the exhibition in our galleries, then continue the experience from home through our online resources.
Take the Virtual Tour: Step into the gallery and move through the exhibition room by room in our interactive Matterport tour. Please note you may have to use a different Internet browser.
We invite you to wander, wonder, and consider your own relationship to the places that shape your imagination.