F. Turner Reuter, Jr., curator and board member, and Jaquiline B. Mars, vice-chairman of the board and gala co-chairman / Nate Jensen photoMore than four hundred people gathered to celebrate the Museum opening at the National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg, Virginia on Saturday, October 8, 2011. Festivities surrounding the opening included a sporting art exhibit, a dinner-dance on the NSLM campus, a three-day coaching event, and a luncheon at beautiful Llangollen.
The exhibit, Afield in America: 400 Years of Animal and Sporting Art, features over 150 paintings and sculptures on loan from museums and private collectors across the country. Curator and board member F. Turner Reuter, Jr. met with guests and spoke about several of the fabulous pieces that grace the rooms of the renovated and expanded 1804 mansion. The works of Bierstadt, Audubon, Remington, Homer and Troye join that of lesser-known artists to illustrate how American animal and sporting artists have developed a unique national style, an idea explored in greater depth in a handsome illustrated catalog with scholarly essays.
Moving down a path past the boxwood gardens to a three-story high tent on the crest of the grounds, guests entered a stunning environment created by Virginia Fout of VProductions, Los Angeles. A native of Middleburg, Fout is a prominent event planner well-known for producing Elton Johns’ Oscar parties. Glorious bouquets were composed of two thousand roses, gifts from Ambassador Ivonne Baki, Ecuador, and Ambassador Luis Moreno, Columbia, facilitated by NSLM board member Hector Alcalde. Gigantic reproductions of illustrations from rare books in the Library’s collections hung from the ceiling to the ground in the reception area and draped over the dance floor. Large screens showed time lapse video of Museum construction as well as key images from the NSLM collections and history.
Jacqueline B. Mars, vice chairman of the board, and Anjela Guarriello served as the gala co-chairs.
Coaches and luncheon at LLangollen / Nate Jensen photoThe three-day Coach Event included a Presentation of the Coaches at the Upperville Colt and Horse Show grounds in Upperville where over twenty historic coaches were on view for a large appreciative crowd.
Executive Director Rick Stoutamyer has overseen the construction of the new Museum which was designed by Virginia architect Hardee Johnston. Stoutamyer is enthusiastic about the Museum and sees it as a logical extension of the National Sporting Library which was founded in 1954 by George L. Ohrstrom, Sr. and Alexander Mackay-Smith. The mission of the National Sporting Library and Museum is to preserve, share, and promote the literature, art, and culture of equestrian and field sports.
Manuel H. Johnson, chairman of the board, welcomed guests with the observation that, “It is quite an accomplishment to create an environment that preserves historic works of art and reflects the character it seeks to protect.”
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Posted October 18, 2011