A County Durham museum has received a grant of more than £250,000 which it will use to develop new gallery spaces.
The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle is one of 33 museums and galleries in England which has received a share of the £4 million pot from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Wolfson Foundation. The museum, which has been open to the public since 1892, is packed with art, fashion and design exhibits, with one of the best known the Silver Swan automaton which contains more than 2,000 moving parts and dates back almost quarter of a century.
The museum is expected to use its £254,900 grant to develop four new gallery spaces in order to bring more of its collections to the public. In 2019, conservators at the museum discovered a 16th century painting of a nativity scene hidden beneath a 400-year-old painting depicting the beheading of Saint John the Baptist.
