In the first two months since its opening, The National Sporting Museum has enjoyed 2,000 visitors, a great boon to Middleburg in general and absolute confirmation that the spectacular addition to the art world was needed and is widely appreciated.

"We've had other museums who brought their entire paid staff and volunteers to Middleburg to tour our Library and Museum," explained NSLM Director Rick Stoutamyer. "We give them the tour and then turn them loose to eat lunch and shop in the Village for the rest of the afternoon."

Several other individual groups have come to tour the Museum and then go into town for food or drinks.

"I have never seen so many people on the Vine Hill property in my life," added Stoutamyer.

Last week, the Swedish Embassy cultural attaché visited the Museum and suggested a show of the work of Swedish animal painter Bruno Lijefors, according to Stoutamyer.

"Our current exhibition closes January 14th, and we plan to open the Lijefors exhibit this February."

Even a rainy evening could not dampen visitors' enthusiasm for NSLM's recent open house. Three hundred people attended to tour the Museum's opening exhibition, "A Field in America: 400 Years of Animal and Sporting Art." NSLM Board Member F. Turner Reuter, Jr., curated the exhibit with the assistance of his daughter Hannah Reuter.

For more information about the National Library and Museum, please visit nsl.org.