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The Bowes Museum has decked the halls with festive cheer as we aim to help you relax and unwind and make it easier for you to get prepared in the run up to Christmas. 

With everything from a fun late night shopping event, a yuletide festive lunch with Carols to Santa being in residence and our ever-popular Christmas Market there's something for everyone this year at The Bowes Museum.

The Museum shop is open from 10 to 5 everyday for unique sparkly decorations and other gift ideas and Cafe Bowes serves seasonal locally produced food and drinks daily from 10 - 4.30 daily.

 

The Bowes Museum will be closing the main vehicular gates overnight from 26th October.

The Museum has to do this to comply with Arts Council England guidelines to secure government indemnity insurance for loans from Museums across the globe and to enhance the security of the collection.  Arts Council England is a core funder of the Museum.

This means that the Museum can build on its acclaimed exhibition programme by being able to continure to borrow high quality art and objects which draw visitors to the area.

The pedestrian gates will remain open allowing people access to the parkland when the main vehicular gates are closed from 5pm until 8am nightly.  There is parking both behind and in front of the Museum grounds, close to pedestrian gates, for people wanting to drive to enjoy the gardens.

Witch's brooms, creepy crawlies and spooky fun are all in the air at The Bowes Museum this Halloween.

There's lots to do to keep everyone out of mischief over the October half term holidays.

From the return of the incredible ZOOLAB, to making your LEGO® models come to life, there's even the chance to see magic in action at the Halloween Party.

 

The Bowes Museum is honoured to be holding the first major retrospective of works by one of the most loved artists from the North of England.

Norman Cornish: The Definitive Collection, will open almost 100 years to the day after the artists birth in Spennymoor.

There will be more than 60 works on show including, pastels, charcoals and oil paintings from both public and private collections, some of which are previously unseen.

Cornish was a magnificent chronicler of everyday life, recording the social environment and industrial landscape in which he lived and worked; painting the community he knew with integrity, providing a documentary of a bygone era.

Judy Hurst returns to The Bowes Museum with another selling exhibition of intricate illustrative works.  

She specialises in the historic and traditional technique of painting on vellum (calfskin). 

Her work is inspired by her knowledge, respect and deep love of nature and the patterns that she believes are fundamental to existence.

The prints in the exhibition will be available to buy in the Museum shop along with a selection of smaller prints and cards.