Guided Art Tours to Highlight Galleries at Night

Event Marks the Final Nighttime Opening of American Scenery Exhibition

Winchester, VA 1/10/11…Special guided art tours will highlight the Friday, January 14, Galleries at Night event at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (MSV) from 4 to 9 p.m.

Friday’s Galleries at Night will be the final evening opportunity for visitors to see American Scenery: Different Views in Hudson River School Painting, the special exhibition on display in the MSV Changing Exhibition Gallery through January 23, 2011. During the event, guided tours focused on selected works in the exhibition will be offered every fifteen minutes beginning at 6:45 p.m. Tours will also be offered in the Museum’s Julian Wood Glass Jr. Gallery every fifteen minutes beginning at 6:30 p.m. Julian Wood Glass Jr. Gallery tours will focus on American art up to the Hudson River School, and tours of American Scenery will feature exhibition highlights from the Hudson River School.

The Hudson River School is considered by many to be the first truly American school of painting. Flourishing between 1825 and 1875 but extending into the late nineteenth century, it involved three generations of painters. The movement celebrated the vast natural resources of the American landscape at a time its artists were witnessing the onslaught of industrialization that threatened it. The artists of the school were united by shared principles, including a belief in the magnificence of nature and the idea that the fresh, untamed American scenery reflected this country’s national character. Organized by the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, American Scenery includes forty landscapes by major Hudson River School artists. Among the 33 artists whose works are presented 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.

The Julian Wood Glass Jr. Gallery presents the collection assembled by one of the Valley’s most significant private collectors—MSV benefactor Julian Wood Glass Jr. (1910–1992)—and includes an impressive collection of furniture and paintings by such artists as Sir William Beechey, John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough, and Hudson River School artist Jasper Francis Cropsey.

Before or after the gallery tours, attendees may enjoy a glass of wine in the Museum lobby as well as dinner and dessert in the Museum Café. Friday’s dinner selections will include Spanakopita with a side salad ($8.50), a pork barbeque sandwich with a side salad ($8.25), chicken salad on a croissant and a side salad ($8.25), and a bowl of shrimp bisque soup from the MSV cookbook ($4.25). The café will also serve a variety of desserts. Just for Galleries at Night, the café will serve a free cup of Oolong Orange Blossom tea with each dessert purchase. Wine will also be available for purchase for $5 a glass.

Galleries at Night admission is $5 per person and free to MSV Members. For January’s event, MSV Members are invited to bring one guest at no cost.

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 seasonally; the Museum is open year-round. The historic house and gardens will open on March 1, 2011, and 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. – END –

Julie B. Armel
540-662-1473, ext. 225
armel@ShenandoahMuseum.org