ONE of the region's best-loved museums has appointed a director to raise the profile of the historic attraction.

The announcement that Adrian Jenkins will take on the role of director at the Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle, County Durham, follows the appointment, in August, of a board of trustees to lead the museum into the 21st Century.

Mr Jenkins, 35, will join the management team at the museum from his post as senior keeper of fine and applied art, at Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, where he has worked since 1996.

In 1998, he led a campaign to raise £1.5m in six months, to keep a painting by Bolton landscape artist Thomas Moran from being exported to the US.

Staff at the Bowes Museum hope he can pilot a series of innovative exhibitions in the 19th Century chateau-style building, which houses an acclaimed collection of fine art and antiquities.

Dr Anne Allen, marketing officer at the Bowes Museum, said: "Adrian is used to leading high-profile projects in the public eye, and his appointment completes the first major phase of the trustees' plans to strengthen the museum's senior management team."

Mr Jenkins will succeed Elizabeth Conran, who will be retained as a senior consultant.