March 18, 2015
Summer Movies, Concerts at National Sporting Library and Museum
The National Sporting Library & Museum (NSLM) in Middleburg, Virginia has announced a summer program of free movies and concerts, with Museum galleries remaining open during the events. Movies are shown on Saturday afternoons from March to December 12. Concerts will take place every fourth Friday from April through September. The summer series features popular sporting movies, regional musical performers, craft beers, and local wineries. Guests are invited to stroll through the Art Museum to enjoy changing exhibitions and permanent collections or to spread out picnic blankets and lawn chairs for the open-air concert. During the Open Late events, the Museum will be open until 8:00 p.m. Library and Museum facilities will also remain open late on the first Friday of April, May, June, July, August and September. Melanie Mathewes, Executive Director of the National Sporting Library & Museum explained, “We’re very excited to announce that this year, on the first Friday of April, May, June, July, August and September, our facilities and our campus will be open late to allow the public to visit and enjoy our treasures. We’ve planned these events with young families in mind and with the hope that those passing through Middleburg after work will join us.” Open Late is free and open to the public; picnics are welcome and a cash bar will be available. Events will be held rain or shine, and no outside alcohol will be permitted on premises. Movie CalendarMovies will be shown free of charge in the Library’s Founder’s Room at 1:00 pm. Popcorn Monkey of Middleburg will sell popcorn onsite to accompany the films. March 14 – War HorseApril 11 – International Velvet May 9 – Into the WestJune 13 – Black Beauty July 11 – A River Runs Through It August 8 – Running Free October 10 – The Black Stallion November 14 – SecretariatDecember 12 – Sylvester Open Late Concert CalendarConcerts are free and open to the public; picnics are welcome; and a cash bar will be available. Events will be held rain or shine, and no outside alcohol will be permitted on premises. April 24 – Middleburg Hunt Point-to-Point NightDifficult Run Jazz BandSouth Street Brewing | Three Fox Vineyards May 22Tara Mills Band3 Brothers Brewing | Naked Mountain Winery June 26 – Virginia Tech Alumni NightPiedmont Symphony OrchestraForge Brew Works | Cana Winery July 24 – George Mason Alumni NightGeorge Mason University Jazz EnsembleHardywood Park Craft Brewery | Otium Winery August 28Reckless IslandMad Fox Brewing Company | Boxwood Winery September 25 – Friends and Family NightFoxcroft School, The Hill School,Middleburg Academy, Middleburg CommunityCharter School, and Wakefield SchoolLisa Lim BandLegend Brewing | Market Salamander The National Sporting Library & Museum is dedicated to preserving, promoting and sharing the literature, art and culture of equestrian, angling and field sports. Founded in 1954, NSLM holds thousands of books on sporting topics including hunting, angling, equestrianism and horseracing, among others. The Library collection dates from the 16th-21st centuries. The Museum houses exhibits of American and European animal and sporting fine art. Information is shared through exhibitions, lectures, seminars, publications and special events. The NSLM is open to researchers and the general public. Regular Museum Hours: Wednesday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m Posted march 18, 2015
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Country Pursuits: The Mellon Collections
Country Pursuits: British, American and French Sporting Art from the Mellon Collections in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, by Malcolm Cormack, Published by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in association with the University of Virginia Press, 2007, 474 pages, illustrated, $62.00What a debt we all owe the late philanthropist Paul Mellon, whose love of horses and horse sports was expressed through the fabulous art collections that he so generously shared with us.
The Eclipse Award-winning breeder saddled legendary Thoroughbreds Sea Hero, Arts and Letters, and Mill Reef, just to name a few. His first British art purchase, in 1936, was a painting of a racehorse, "Pumpkin with a Stable-lad" by George Stubbs, said to be his favorite painting by one of his favorite artists. Pumpkin won sixteen out of his twenty-four races at Newmarket turf in the late 1770s and was described as an excellent runner.
“It was my very first purchase of a painting,” Mellon recalled later, “and could be said to be the impetus toward my later, some might say gluttonous, forays into the sporting art field.”
That Stubbs painting was donated to his alma mater, Yale, but the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was another lucky recipient of Mellon’s “gluttonous” obsession with sporting art. Mellon’s donations are explored in Country Pursuits: British, American and French Sporting Art from the Mellon Collections in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts by Malcom Cormack. Cormack was the Paul Mellon Curator at the VMFA in 1991 until his retirement in 2004. He also once served as the Curator of Paintings at the Yale Center of British Art established by Mellon.
