UNDER the chairmanship of Lord Eccles, the new board of trustees of one of the region's top museums held its first meeting. The eight men and four women will lead the renaissance of the Bowes museum under its new independent charitable status.

In their business plan they identified seven key priorities for the next five years, including attracting more visitors, enhancing the visitor experience, carrying out a major programme of repairs to the fabric of the building, refurbishing the display galleries, developing a programme of exhibitions, developing educational programmes and ensuring the financial stability of the Bowes.

The new trustees are:

l Judy Caplin: a practising ceramics artist and artist in residence at a school in Barnard Castle. She founded the Teesdale organisation Artworks and has a long association with the Bowes, having organised and run many workshops.

l Peter Dixon: brought up in Barnard Castle, Mr Dixon is an international property developer with the Taylor Woodrow group. He is a former marketing director and chairman of the Castle Players, who are well known for their open air theatre productions in the museum grounds. He has conducted a market survey into the viability of developing a cinema and performance space in Barnard Castle. He lives in Lartington with his wife and two children.

l Lord John Eccles: Succeeding his father, David, as viscount in 1999, Lord Eccles has had a distinguished career in the public and private sector. He spent 25 years on Teesside with Head Wrightson and served as chief executive of the Commonwealth Development Corporation. From 1983-91 he was chairman of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, which he saw through to independent trust status. Locally he has had a long and happy association with the Georgian theatre royal in Richmond. He lives near Scotch Corner.

l Sir William Gray: Sir William is an architect in private practice, specialising in restoring older properties. A strong supporter of the museum, he lives in Eggleston Hall.

l Richard Jagger: business adviser to the Prince's Trust, Mr Jagger has a background in international sales and marketing. He is an experienced manager operating at board level within blue chip companies and currently runs a consultancy practice specialising in business planning. He also manages a £3m investment portfolio.

l George Laing: professional engineer and director of the Darchem group in Darlington and former chairman of the museum Friends under whose leadership the museum was saved from closure in 1998.

l Santina Levey: a former textile researcher at the Victoria & Albert museum in London, and visiting lecturer at Loughborough college and Manchester Metropolitan university, Ms Levey is currently working on a major catalogue of 16th century embroideries at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. She is vice-president of an international society of textile historians and a trustee of the Textile Conservation Centre Foundation.

l Mr John McDonnell: former assistant private secretary to one-time prime minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Mr McDonnell went to the Bar in 1971 and now practises in the Chancery division. Appointed to the Queen's Counsel in 1984, he is now a bencher of Lincoln's Inn and a governor of the Inns of Court school of law. He specialises in the law of trusts, charities and companies and is married with three children.

l Coun Bob Pendlebury: deputy leader of Durham County Council, Coun Pendlebury is also a deputy lieutenant of the county and one of the authority's representatives on the Association of North-East Councils and the regional assembly. He sits on the Local Government Association, is a member of the tourism executive and the County Council Network.

l Sandra Pollard: a tutor in art history for both Leeds and the Open universities and a former chairman of the Darlington and district branch of the NSPCC, Ms Pollard serves as representative of the County Durham health authority on the Darlington primary care group and is a governor of Barnard Castle School.

l Joanna Tait: principal of Bishop Auckland college, Ms Tait has been an active member of the Friends. Originally from Edinburgh, her educational career has taken her to London, Brighton, Newcastle and Bilston. She now plays a significant role in County Durham's economic and lifelong learning initiatives and serves as chairman of the Wear Valley learning partnership.

l John Wearmouth: a professional town planner and former deputy director of environment at Durham County Council, Mr Wearmouth was closely involved in the recent redesign of the entrance gates to the museum in his current role as chairman of County Durham environmental trust. He lives in Hamsterley.

Temporary exhibitions currently on display at the museum and included in the admission price are: North Country Quilts, until January 7; Roman Holiday, until January 14; The New Generic, until January 7; Elijah Yeoman 1849-1930, photographic artist, until January 14; demonstrations by Teesdale quilting group every Thursday and Sunday until December 7, and also Thursday December 14.

Special events (prices include admission to the museum during opening hours): ladies' day, November 22, £20 including coffee, lunch and wine; The Lost World by North Country Theatre, November 30, £8 including wine, 8-16yrs £5; carol concert, December 8, £6 including wine and mince pies; Cobweb Orchestra, December 9, performance free with museum admission; A Christmas Carol, December 10, adults £4.50, concessions £3; quilting lecture by Dorothy Osler, December 12, adults £5; craft market, December 16; Victorian Christmas family day, December 17, activities free with museum entrance; Barnard Castle band, December 17.

Anyone wishing further details can contact the museum on Teesdale 690606, by e-mail at bowesmuseumtry Theatre, November 3