| Holiday Schedule | |
As a special bonus, the museum will be open on Wednesday, Dec. 29. The site will be closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day. |
| Decorated |
 A special thank you to the Sun Light Garden Club for installing this year's lovely fresh exterior decorations. |
| End of Year Giving |
Your tax-exempt donation to the Friends of Belmont will give the gift of art year round. Perhaps you would like to choose something from our Wish List to support, such as painting and frame conservation.
Remember, gifts made on or before Dec. 31 qualify as a 2010 charitable tax deduction. Also, a Friends of Belmont membership makes a perfect gift for the art and history lover in your life.
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| Restoration Complete |
 Restoration is finally complete on our earliest surviving outbuildings: a smokehouse, used by the Melchers as a chicken coop and storage shed, and a kitchen, later used as a stable. Read more... |
| In the News |
 In this press clipping, U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland Don Beyer is shown standing in front of Belmont's In Old Virgnia. The painting was loaned through the ART in Embassies Program and hangs in the Ambassador's official residence in Bern. Read the 2009 news release. |
| Shop |
 | | Photo by K Pearlman Photography |
Secretariat Saturday's whimsical table decorations are available for purchase in the Museum Shop. Call 540/654-1844 for ordering details. |
| National Trust |
Did you know we are one of only 30 sites included in the National Trust's Historic Artists' Homes and Studios consortium? These extraordinary sites are the intimate living and work spaces of painters, sculptors, ceramicists, photographers, and furniture designers. They include superb collections and intact studios, landscapes, and homes dating as far back as the 17th century. |
 At Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont, see the richly furnished country house and working studio of American Impressionist painter Gari Melchers (1860-1932) as they appeared in the 1920s. Explore the colorful formal gardens and wooded hiking trails of the artist's 27-acre retreat. Enjoy special exhibitions of the art of Melchers and his contemporaries.
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| Exhibitions | | | | "The New Reality: The Frontier of Realism in the 21st Century"
Through Feb. 27
Friends of Belmont Preview Reception
Thursday, Dec. 2, 5:30 - 7 p.m.
 | | Kiche (Scott Castro), Silent Collaboration, 2006, oil on canvas. |
This traveling exhibition, organized by the International Guild of Realism, looks at the state of Realism painting around the world. The paintings included in this juried show comprise a wide variety of painting media, including oil, acrylic, egg tempera, graphite, and colored pencil. Each artist was asked to identify one historical painting (a small image of the comparative art work will be included as part of the wall label) to compare and contrast to their modern-day work. More.... |
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The Nativity | | | |
The Nativity: One of Melchers' Best Loved Works
 The beautiful pathos of Gari Melchers' Nativity routinely stops our visitors in their tracks. Not surprisingly, it is one of the most frequently requested images in our Museum Shop. The Nativity was painted by Melchers in two nearly duplicate versions sometime around 1891. One still resides here at Gari Melchers Home and Studio. The other, the version Melchers preferred and extensively exhibited, is privately owned. More....
Exclusive Offer
Offered for the first time, Gari Melchers' poignant painting, The Nativity, is now available as a canvas print. Reproduced in vivid color, mounted on 20" x 24" stretchers, and varnished for protection, this exclusive item is available in limited quantities only in the Museum Shop. Cost per canvas is $295.
Reproductions of The Nativity are available as 16" x 20" art prints for $15. Boxed sets of 12 cards with envelopes are available for $10, and individual cards are offered for $1 each.
All Friends of Belmont receive a special 20 percent discount on purchases until Dec. 23. For more shop items, visit the Museum Shop Blog. |
| Programs & Events | | "Decoding a Pictorial Tradition: Images of the Annunciation"
Sunday, Dec. 12, 2 p.m.
 | | Annunciation by George Hitchcock |
In an illustrated presentation, Belmont Curator Joanna Catron traces the depiction of this favorite biblical episode through art history, unlocking the doctrinal symbolism at its core.
Free
"Add Your Voice"
Saturday, Jan. 15, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
The public is invited to respond and add their opinions to "The New Reality" exhibition during this engaging, collaborative day. Visitors are encouraged to share their written or videotaped thoughts on this unique collection of modern realistic paintings that are inspired by the Old Masters. Be curator for a day!
The day's events will be shared on our Facebook page.
Light refreshments will be served in the Pavilion. This free program is appropriate for all ages. Contact Education Coordinator Michelle Crow-Dolby with questions. |
| Art Classes | |
MLK Day Art Workshop
Drawing for the Rest of Us: An Introduction to Drawing
Monday, Jan. 17, 2011, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Sixth grade through adult
 Anh Do, faculty member, Virginia State University
This workshop is an introduction to basic drawing tools, drawing warm-up exercises, and techniques that can be used to help you build a foundation that will help you experience the joy of drawing.
This program has been organized by the VMFA Office of Statewide Partnerships and is funded, in part, by the Jean Stafford Camp Memorial Fund.
Workshop Cost: $20 members; $25 non-members.To register, please contact Education Coordinator Michelle Crow-Dolby at 540/654-1851.
President's Day Art Workshop
Expressing Light
Monday, Feb. 21, 2011, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Ninth grade through adult
 Rachel Sawan White, Art and Design Faculty, Orchard House School
This workshop is an exploration of light and its effects on a piece of artwork. Looking at Impressionist and Post-Impressionist work we spend the day seeing color afresh and creating art in which light is a major factor. Participants create two still life paintings, one with the objects as they appear naturally and one with the same objects completely white. Different lighting is explored and discussed.
This program has been organized by the VMFA Office of Statewide Partnerships and is supported by the Paul Mellon Endowment.
Workshop Cost: $20 members; $25 non-members.To register, please contact Education Coordinator Michelle Crow-Dolby at 540/654-1851.
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| Wedding Sampler | | |
Third Annual Wedding Sampler
Jan. 23, 1-4 p.m.
 Join us for an intimate gathering of local wedding vendors in the beautiful Studio Pavilion overlooking the Rappahannock River. Door prizes from participating businesses will be offered. Come and tour the grounds, visit the artist's studio, and meet with vendors ready to help you plan your special day. General admission: $10; University of Mary Washington students: $5
To pre-register contact Betsy Labar at 540-654-1848. |
| Art Donated | | |
 
Two companion portraits by Gari Melchers, pastels of Detroit architect John M. Donaldson and his wife, Charlotte G. Donaldson, have been donated to the Gari Melchers Home and Studio by Donaldson's granddaughter, Joan Donaldson Weber of Ann Arbor, Mich. The portraits were painted by Melchers around 1913. John Donaldson, who studied art under Melchers' father, Julius, later became a partner in the Detroit firm, Donaldson and Mier. He designed improvements to the house at Belmont and designed Melchers' 1924 stone studio. The Donaldsons' children were Bruce and Alex Donaldson. The brothers were also intimate friends of Gari and Corinne Melchers and together celebrated many holidays at Belmont. Bruce was an art historian who headed the University of Michigan Art Department and authored an appreciation of Melchers for the 1938 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Melchers Retrospective catalog. Alex was also an architect with Donalsdon and Mier. |
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