ART SCENE

Patrick Szabo Bill and Susan Byrne are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their art gallery in downtown Middleburg.

How a Life Change Help Build Middleburg’s Art Community

BY PATRICK SZABO

In 1995, a Washington, DC-based legal administrator quit her job and sold her house to open Middleburg’s Byrne Gallery. Hundreds of exhibits and featured arti sts later, she and her brother conti nue to push ahead with more events and exhibits by renowned arti sts. Since Susan Byrne opened the gallery, she and her brother, Bill, have hosted close to 300 exhibits and has featured the artwork of more than 500 arti sts from around the world. This month, the gallery features the 17th annual exhibit of the work of Yuri Gorbachev, an internati onally acclaimed Russian arti st. Susan hatched the idea to open the gallery shortly aft er taking a new job with a law fi rm in Washington, DC. “Although it was a very good job and a very good fi rm and I was making a lot more money, I realized it wasn’t about the money,” she said. Nine months later, she quit, sold her Georgetown house and headed to Middleburg. Three elements factored into her decision to open the art gallery here: she enjoyed visiti ng the town, she had always wanted to open her own business, and her mother was an arti st who had insti lled within her a passion for the arts. In the past 25 years, the gallery has hosted hundreds of exhibits, including a dozen featuring the work of Notre Dame Academy students. With the help of her brother, the operati on expanded to off er art acquisiti on, framing, restorati on,

Patrick Szabo The Byrne Gallery owners Bill and Susan Byrne page through books of paintings by their newest featured artists, internationally acclaimed Russian artist Yuri Gorbachev.

BYRNE GALLERY

relocation and installation services for corporate and private clients, including Northrop Grumman, Apple, Kraft Foods, SONA Bank and the Salamander Resort & Spa. When Salamander opened in 2013, Susan and Bill were in charge of installing artwork in each of the resort’s 168 guestrooms. And in 2009, Susan helped launch the Middleburg Arts Council—an advisory committee to the Town Council that coordinates the town’s cultural and art events. Today, the gallery is among five in town. Those include Red Fox Fine Art, which opened in 1979, the National Sporting Library & Museum, which opened its art museum in 2010, Artists in Middleburg, which opened in 2015, and Journeymen's Treasures, which former Middleburg Arts Council Chairwoman Debbie Cadenas opened this fall. When asked why Middleburg is such a hotspot for art and artists, Susan said visitors see the countryside surrounding the town and “it inspires you.” “I think that that’s a big draw for artists,” she said. The Byrne Gallery’s current exhibit showcasing Gorbachev’s newest paintings, which are inspired by Byzantine art and feature colorful canvases in oil and gold leaf, continues through Jan. 3. Gorbachev has exhibited his work in the gallery for 17 straight years and is on a world tour with shows in Russia, Europe and the Far East. His work is featured in the Louvre in Paris, the Kremlin in Moscow and the White House in DC. Gorbachev has also designed advertisements for Absolut and Stolichnaya Vodka that have appeared in hundreds of magazines across the world and was commissioned by Stolichnaya Red Vodka in 2011 to design its new label. Those wishing to visit The Byrne Gallery to see Gorbachev’s work may stop by Mondays and Tuesdays by appointment, Wednesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 12-5 p.m. The gallery is located at 7 W. Washington St. Learn more at byrnegallery.com.