By CLINT SCHEMMER

Spring is in the air, and coming fast out of the starting gate is the Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center.

This Friday evening, strollers may enjoy the sounds of a University of Mary Washington string quartet at the museum's William Street shop.

On Sunday, "Faces at the Races"--an exhibit sure to interest anyone who enjoys portraiture or is intrigued by Virginia's centuries-old equestrian culture--opens in the museum's third-floor Mansard Gallery.

Norfolk native Glen McClure's beautiful photography chronicles owners, riders, trainers, audience members and others at the Middleburg Spring Horse Show, the Montpelier Point-to-Point, and the Upperville Colt and Horse Show--the oldest horse show in the nation.

McClure's work can be found in many collections, including the Chrysler Museum of Art, The Taubman Museum in Roanoke, the Polaroid Collection in New York and The Mariners Museum.

Self-taught since he acquired his first camera at age 19, McClure has been shooting commercial advertising for more than 30 years.

Last year, he led a portrait workshop at the Gari Melchers Home and Studio in Stafford County.

"Faces at the Races" is sponsored in Fredericksburg by local residents Joseph and Janel O'Malley and Russ and Martha Roberts, museum president and CEO Ellen Killough said.

The exhibit, on loan from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, was curated by Jeffrey Allison, the Paul Mellon Collection educator at the Richmond institution.

It appeared at the National Sporting Arts Library in Middleburg in 2008.

MEET LOCAL AUTHORS

Sunday's opening also includes a book signing by Virginia C. Johnson and Barbara Crookshanks, Fredericksburg authors of "Virginia Horse Racing: Triumphs of the Turf."

Johnson is web-content librarian at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library. Crookshanks, the Virginia Press Women's Communicator of Achievement 2010, was editor of The Fredericksburg Times magazine for 25 years.

'TAKE OUR STAND'

Next month, the museum will host an exhibit on loan from the American Civil War Center at the historic Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond.

"Take Our Stand: The African American Military Experience in the Age of Jim Crow," features images and documents reproduced from the center's John H. Motley Collection.

EVENING WITH AN EXPERT