Includes Lecture, Wine, and Museum Store Holiday Preview
Winchester, VA 11/09/10…An illustrated program about Hudson River School painting and a holiday preview of new products in the Museum Store will highlight the Friday, November 12, Galleries at Night event at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (MSV) from 4 to 9 p.m.
Along with offering visitors an evening opportunity to see the new MSV exhibition, American Scenery: Different Views in Hudson River School Painting, and the unveiling of new Museum Store products, Galleries at Night will also include a 7 p.m. presentation, “Different Views in Hudson River School Painting,” by Judith O’Toole, the director of the Westmoreland Museum in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. On view in the MSV Changing Exhibition Gallery through January 23, 2011, American Scenery was organized by the Westmoreland Museum of American Art.
The exhibition includes forty landscape paintings from one of the country’s most prestigious private collections of Hudson River School paintings, and its display at the MSV marks the first time that works from this important collection are on view in Virginia. Among the 33 artists whose works are included in the display are such acknowledged masters of this genre as Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, John Frederick Kensett, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Asher B. Durand, and John William Casilear. In her lecture, Judith O’Toole will discuss the Hudson River School and the shared themes, symbols, and subject matter embraced by three generations of its artists in the 1800s. Following the presentation, author O’Toole will sign copies of her book, Different Views in Hudson River School Painting.
This Galleries at Night event also kicks off the Museum Store’s popular Holiday Preview weekend by unveiling its new products for this holiday season. This year’s signature items are inspired by the Museum’s collections and range in price from $10 to $50. New items include a business card holder decorated with a Hudson River School painting, a magnet set with details from paintings in the Museum’s Julian Wood Glass Jr. Collection, and a new 250-page book published by the Museum, Treasures of American and English Painting and Decorative Arts from the Julian Wood Glass Jr. Collection. This handsome book is now available only in the Museum Store, making it a very special gift for any art lover; beginning in 2011, Rizzoli/Skira will distribute it nationally.
Also on Friday night, wine will be available for purchase in the Museum lobby for $5 a glass, and the café will offer a barbeque sandwich, Spanakopita (Greek spinach pie), or a chicken salad croissant sandwich for dinner. These meals will all be served with a side salad and may be purchased for just $8.25. A variety of desserts will also be available, and during Galleries at Night all dessert purchases will be served with a free cup of hot tea.
Along with the Changing Exhibition Gallery where American Scenery is on view, all of the Museum galleries will be open for Galleries at Night. In the Shenandoah Valley Gallery, visitors may learn the region’s history and view a variety of items that were made in the Valley from the mid-1700s to the present. An impressive collection of furniture and paintings by such artists as Sir William Beechey, John Constable, and Thomas Gainsborough is on display in the Julian Wood Glass Jr. Gallery, and the R. Lee Taylor Miniatures Gallery is home to a fascinating collection of furnished miniature houses and rooms.
Galleries at Night admission is free to Members and—in celebration of this year’s fifth anniversary of the MSV opening, just $5 for all others. Additional costs apply for café and wine purchases.
The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley is located at 901 Amherst Street in Winchester, Virginia. The MSV complex—which includes the Museum, the Glen Burnie Historic House, and six acres of gardens—is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. The house and gardens are open March through November; the Museum is open year-round. The historic house and gardens are not open for tours during Galleries at Night. Additional information is available on the web at www.ShenandoahMuseum.org or by calling 540-662-1473, ext. 235.
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Julie B. Armel
540-662-1473, ext. 225
armel@ShenandoahMuseum.org
