James Madisons Montpelier We The People Spring 2015 | Page 8

WE THE PEOPLE

The Rubenstein

I N ITI ATI V E

The Montpelier Foundation took great pleasure in recognizing David M. Rubenstein as one of its newest
and most generous supporters at the 80th running of the Montpelier Hunt Races. The celebration
was hardly over before Montpelier’s dedicated team of curators, archaeologists, and interpreters
plunged into work plans and research that will serve as the operational and scholarly foundation of
the Rubenstein Initiative. This is a five-year project to accelerate and in large part complete the
refurnishing and interpretation of the mansion, while igniting a new phase in Montpelier’s development
with the reconstruction of the South Yard enslaved community site.

Montpelier’s director of museum services, Meg Kennedy, guides David Rubenstein through the South Passage, the original 1760 entrance that James and
Dolley used as an art gallery to display their large collection of paintings and sculpture. Over the next several years, Rubenstein’s gift will fund the curatorial
research needed to identify, locate, and return this important American collection to the mansion.

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