Petit Fours
(27 April, 2026)
🧢 This week’s ‘Top Pick’ @WeightmanPR: Going viral at David Parr House
It’s been called a hidden gem among small museums, but last week David Parr House’s Visitor Experience and House Manager, Bob Hewis posted this about 186 Gwydir Street - with its quietly remarkable Arts & Crafts interior, lovingly preserved across generations - on Instagram and Tik Tok… And everyone’s now wondering whether it’s ever going to be possible to call David Parr House a “hidden gem” ever again! Views on Instagram alone amounted to a very respectable (“TV-sized audience”) level of around 300,000. And well over 20,000 of those were prompted to engage and add their own comments. Decorative artist David Parr spent over 40 years transforming his family home, taking his work with decorative firm F. R. Leach & Sons home with him and adorning his walls in hand painted Arts & Crafts designs. Walls, ceilings, furniture and surfaces all reflect his skill and dedication, created in the hours outside his day job. David Parr House is open for visits and tours.
🧢 The Year of Wright is proving to be very influential
In recent months, Visit Derby has been in conversation with a wide range of travel “influencers”, to identity a select few with the right follower interests, reach, and who also want to develop ongoing collaborative efforts. As a result, a number of highly respected influencers have been invited to Derby, and to the National Gallery in London, to gather together material to produce reels and content focusing on the world-renowned 17th century artist Joseph Wright. At its heart, Wright of Derby: From the Shadows is a major exhibition which ends on 10 May in London, before travelling to Derby Museum and Art Gallery for its opening there on 13 June. One of the key messages of the year is that in order to know Wright, you also need to know Derby. But the influencers involved in this carefully constructed campaign will also be looking at other - historic, and contemporary - reasons why now is as good a time as any to discover this city. Posts, reels, blogs and links will be shared during 2026, and up to the end of the Wright of Derby exhibition in Derby, on 1 November.
🧢 Derby’s newest Indian restaurant hotlisted in the ‘Curry Oscars’
Derby’s newest Indian restaurant, complete with beer garden, is wowing diners with its authentic tapas-style food. More than 1,000 people have already rated House Boat on St Peters Street on Tripadvisor and Google as ‘excellent’, making it the best Indian restaurant in Derby city centre. Johns Geo, who runs House Boat with his friends, said he was thrilled that Derby people are rating the restaurant and the food so highly. He said: “We were so happy to be shortlisted among the best in the UK by the Asian Restaurant and Takeaway Awards (ARTA). We were also in the running for Regional Restaurant of the Year in the East Midlands region. Last month, a TV crew from India filmed New Year celebrations at House Boat. They recorded Vishu, the Malayalam New Year festival, which will be broadcast across Indian TV news channels.
🧢 Putting Pictures for Schools on the walls of David Parr House
Opening ahead of the summer holidays, this exhibition in the Studio Gallery at David Parr House, Cambridge, explores the legacy of Pictures for Schools, the famous post-war initiative founded by artist and educationalist Nan Youngman. Between 1947 and 1969, the scheme enabled schools to purchase original artworks by contemporary artists, placing museum-quality art directly into classrooms and corridors. The 2026 summer exhibition from 1 July to 8 August, drawn from the collection of Robjn Cantus, brings together paintings, drawings and prints that once shaped the visual environment of British schools. These works - often modest in scale but rich in imagination - reflect the belief that art should be part of everyday life. The exhibition also marks the launch of a new annual Pictures for Schools series at David Parr House.
