For 2026, our theme is Maps, Travel & Journeys. Throughout the year, we will consider the theme both literally and conceptually: tracing the physical routes that shaped the lives of those connected to this house – David Parr, his granddaughter Elsie Palmer and their families, as well as the F. R. Leach firm and the Leach family themselves – while also exploring how journeys, mapping of events, real and imagined, inspire and inform creative practice today. Through our programme of exhibitions, projects and guided walks, we uncover historical and social dialogues between past and present, examining how travel, movement and the intergenerational retracing of steps have left their mark on both the house and the people who called it home and connect the Parr and Leach stories with wider communities.

This year, our focus turns to the natural world, inspired by the motifs and values of David Parr and the wider Arts and Crafts Movement. In the face of an urgent climate crisis, we explore how art can educate, inform, and reimagine our relationship with nature. From commissioning climate-resilient garden design from Anna’s Flower Farm made possible with support from The Wolfson Foundation to Freddie Yauner’s Pollen Paintings, we examine new ways to engage with and find refuge in the natural environment, embedding Arts and Crafts values in daily life. 

Last year ‘Letter, Word & Text’ honoured David Parr’s painted schemes and Cambridge’s rich tradition of sign painting and text decoration. The programme featured an exhibition of selected works from The Rampant Lions Press, exploring its use of blackletter typefaces and connections to Parr’s designs. House Guests: Words to Live By; Words to Live With invited artists to reflect on the enduring power of words and consider the texts they would choose to live with and by.

The programme launched in 2023 with Textiles as the central theme, drawing inspiration from Mary Jane Parr, David’s wife, who worked as a ‘doubler’—a textile worker spinning cotton threads from home to create new yarns. This theme launched House Guests, an annual series of artistic interventions where contemporary creatives respond to the house’s heritage. Through textile-based works, we explored themes of making, domesticity, and the stories woven into the fabric of the house.