We are thrilled to welcome our new Director, Dr Steven Parissien to Gainsborough’s House.

If you see Steven around, please do say hello!

I am delighted to join the Gainsborough’s House team and help promote the invaluable resource of the National Centre for Thomas Gainsborough locally, nationally and internationally. The museum – and Sudbury – has an exciting future and I am thrilled to be part of it.

Dr Steven Parissien is Interim Director at Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury, and Director of Studies for Architectural History at Oxford University. Born in London and raised in Chesham in Buckinghamshire, he obtained both his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from University College, Oxford.

Steven has worked as a senior manager and CEO in the heritage, arts and education sectors for over thirty years, including six years as Deputy Director at Yale University’s Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London and ten years as Director/Chief Executive at Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park in Warwickshire. He has written extensively on art, architecture and cultural history and his latest book, Building Britannia: A History of Britain in 25 Buildings, will be published in October 2023.

The museum’s glorious renaissance over the last year is demonstrated by our growing audience. While many of the UK’s cultural offers are struggling in these precarious post-Covid times, visitor numbers at Gainsborough’s House have been most encouraging. June and July were our best-ever months for visitor numbers; and this is only the start.