Museum turns up the dial on pioneering art collector Joséphine Bowes Frenchwoman ‘had a bigger role than we’ve ever made visible’, says curator at County Durham’s Bowes Museum.
“We would not be stood here if it were not for Joséphine Bowes,” said Vicky Sturrs, a curator, in a stupendously grand building that has one of the most enviable collections of art, ceramics and fashion to be found outside the UK’s capital cities.
Sturrs, the museum’s director of programmes and collections, said the name of Joséphine Bowes needed to be shouted louder.
“In the coming years we are going to turn up the dial on who Joséphine was, why she built the museum, why she chose the things that she chose, why she collected what she collected and why she did it here.”.
“The works in the show feel authentic to the person we think Joséphine was … she would be championing these works.
