A MUSEUM director has bene flying the flag for the UK in China this week.

Adrian Jenkins, director of The Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle, is one of only two English regional museum directors to present a paper to the International Forum of Museum Directors, held over four days in Nanjing.

It has been organised by the Louvre in Paris.

Mr Jenkins' paper is on the subject of the museum founders and entitled The Creation of The Bowes Museum: A French Museum on English Soil, highlighting and explaining the changing tastes in France during the era of the Museum founders, John and Joséphine Bowes.

He will also detail how the founders’ own tastes developed as they moved forward from the purchase of the traditional to modern art for their collections.

“The international treasures that John and Joséphine Bowes were collecting were very avant-garde for the time,” he said.

This will be Mr Jenkins’ second trip to China, as the country continues to absorb and enjoy how the Western cultural world ticks.

His visit follows on from a visit to the United Arab Emirates by the museum’s exhibitions manager, George Harris, as part of the UK-Gulf Exhibition Programme led by the British Council.

The aim of the visit was to explore opportunities for collaboration on the Museum’s expanding touring exhibition programme.