Middleburg's beautiful new National Sporting Museum will officially open to the public October 11th with an exhibit curated by F. Turner Reuter, Jr. entitled "Afield in America".

According to Reuter who is Chairman of the new museum's management, exhibitions and collections committee, land preservation and enthusiasm for country sport have always been fundamentally linked. In a time when preserving countryside and the environment are much to be desired, the National Sporting Library's Museum is destined to make an important contribution to the culture of the country.

Protecting the land and its animals and preserving the traditions of country life have always been a way of life for Reuter who grew up in Virginia's hunt country. "It is our sincere hope that our exhibits will create a broader understanding and deeper appreciation of the history and cultural impact of field sports and agrarian culture," he explained. "If we are correct, the museum will be a tremendous asset to environmental preservation, something of which we could all be very proud."

Designed to attract the widest possible audience, Afield in America will depict 400 years of Animal & Sporting Art created between 1585 and 1985.

"It is an exceptional exhibition," according to Reuter, "and one that could have only been accomplished with the imagination, scholarship and hard work of a creative team that believed in its idea."

Over one hundred and fifty outstanding works of fine art representing every category of the genre have been selected to show how American animal and sporting artists developed a unique national style reflective of the diversity of our people, the rich variety of our wildlife, and the breadth of our national landscape. Paintings and sculpture have been drawn from the NSLM's permanent holdings, as well as from private collections, museums, and other institutions throughout the United States.

"Works by iconic American artists such as Albert Bierstadt, Winslow Homer, Alfred Jacob Miller and Fred Eric Remington will be included. As well as work by recognized masters of the animal and sporting art genre including John James Audobon, Edward Troye, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait and William Tylee Raney."

The works of additional American artists who, until recently were often overlooked by art historians will also be an important focus of the exhibit. This group includes: William Herbert Dunton, Herbert Haseltine, Thomas Hewes Hinckley, Anna Hyatt Huntington, Alexander Pope, Ogden Pleissner, Percival Rousseau and John Martin Tracy.

Reuter's book "Animal and Sporting Artists in America," published by the National Sporting Library in 2008, has been reprinted in time for the exhibition, and he has also edited an illustrated color catalogue to accompany the exhibition.

The catalogue includes critical essays that explore larger interpretations of these works with the objective of defining the remarkable role animal and sporting artists have played in the history of American art. Essayists include: William H. Gerdts, Ph.D, art historian and author of Art Across America; Adam D. Harris, Ph.D, Curator of the National Museum of Wildlife Art and author of Wildlife in American Art; Daniel J. Herman, Ph.D, historian and author of Hunting and the American Imagination; and Robin R. Salmon, author and Vice President for Collections and Curator of Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens.

The new National Sporting Museum, is a logical extension of the National Sporting Library that was founded in 1954 by George L. Ohrstrom, Sr. and Alexander Mackay-Smith. Ohrstrom and his good friend Mackay-Smith were avid sporting book collectors who wanted their collections and those of their friends to remain intact and available for use after their death.

Over the ensuing years, the NSL has collected over 17,000 fine books and manuscripts that are highly prized by scholars and researchers the world over. During that time, sporting art collectors also made donations of their work to the Library. Today, The Library's sporting art collection requires much more public wall space than the limited exhibition space the Library can provide, hence the initiative to build the Sporting Art Museum. Collectors have indicated that they would like to leave their sporting art collections to the library, have already said how pleased they are to know that the new museum will soon open.

"We have already mounted important exhibitions at the Library, Reuter continued. These have included shows from private collectors, such as, Joan Irvine Smith and Elizabeth D. Clark as well as loans from museums like the Yale Center for British Art and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

"Our new museum will allow us to display artwork in a space designed for optimal viewing, grow our collection, and share with the public the animal and sporting imagery we regard as so important."

Visitors to the new fine arts museum are in for a real treat. The restoration of historic Vine Hill at the corner of Route 50 and The Plains Road in Middleburg, and a splendid new wing of galleries, combine to house the museum. Every square inch of space is beautifully designed and finished with impeccable taste.

Executive Director Rick Stoutamyer sees the new museum as "an opportunity to expand our appeal to a national and global audience. Sporting art exhibits will draw people to our campus and they will see the depth of our organization and the way in which the Library and Museum compliment each other. We look forward to welcoming many new visitors."

For more information about the National Sporting Library and Museum's opening celebrations, please visit www.nsl.org.