LEXINGTON, Ky., April 9, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The British Museum's famed Standard of Ur, along with over 340 other priceless Near Eastern artifacts and paintings, are on their way to the Kentucky Horse Park's International Museum of the Horse in what promises to be one of the most remarkable exhibitions ever to illustrate the rich contribution made by the horse to humans in the cradle of civilization. The exhibition's final two and a half weeks will coincide with the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games(tm) -- the world championships of eight equestrian disciplines and the largest equestrian sporting event ever held on American soil. The 2010 Games are expected to attract approximately 600,000 equestrian aficionados to the Kentucky Horse Park.
The British Museum, the Ashmolean, Oxford University, the Saudi Arabian National Museum, the Furusiyya Art Foundation, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, to name but a few, will be sending their treasures for an exhibition tracing the impact of the horse on Near Eastern civilization, and more fascinatingly on the extraordinary history of the Arabian Horse. A Gift from the Desert: the Art, History, and Culture of the Arabian Horse will open on May 29 and run through October 15, 2010.
A Gift from the Desert will be a fascinating journey from the arrival of the first domesticated horses in the Near East to the renaissance of purebred Arabian horse breeding in the Near East and worldwide today. It will also explore the impact of the horse on the development of early Near Eastern civilizations; the significance of the horse in chariot and cavalry warfare; the origins of the proto-Arabian horse and its refinement by the Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula into a true breed; the role of the horse in the success of the conquering legions of Islam and the worldwide dispersal of the Arabian horse and its impact on the creation and refinement of other breeds.
The British Museum's Standard of Ur, dating from 2300 BCE and featuring the world's earliest depiction of humans driving equids; the magnificently sculpted reliefs from Egypt and Assyria; and the bejeweled dagger, silver mess kit and desert robes of Lawrence of Arabia are just a few of the extraordinary collection of artifacts and art assembled for the exhibition.
The International Museum of the Horse, recognizing the significance of Near Eastern equestrian tradition, and of the Arabian horse's status as the world's oldest breed, determined that the most historically appropriate title sponsor would be the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the original home of the Arabian horse and one of today's leading breeders. After several months of discussions and a trip to Riyadh by exhibition organizers, the Saudi Arabian Equestrian Federation, which will participate in the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games(tm), graciously agreed to sponsor both the exhibition and an accompanying one-hour documentary film.
Award winning filmmaker Jo Franklin, a rider and breeder of Arabian horses, has been selected to create the "A Gift from the Desert" film, which will be shown in the Horse Park's theater during the exhibition. It will also be released for international broadcast and on DVD in both English and Arabic.
Ms. Franklin's recent gift of a copy of the Franklin Film Archives of the Middle East, valued at $45 million and deemed the World's Pre-eminent Film Archive of the Middle East by UCLA and experts worldwide, made headlines when it was donated to the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Saudi Arabia. One of the stated objectives of the King Faisal Center is to "enhance dialogue, understanding, and collaboration among civilizations and nations."
Formerly, Franklin served as Senior Producer of the "MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour," covering the White House, Congress, the Middle East and the Defense Department and was named "One of the Top 50 Film Producers in the U.S." by Millimeter Magazine. During the 1980s and 90s, Ms. Franklin produced four documentaries which aired on PBS: "Saudi Arabia" (1981), "The Oil Kingdoms" (1983), "Days of Rage: The Young Palestinians" (1989) and "Islam: A Civilization and its Art" (1994). Currently she is president of SeaCastle Films, a Los Angeles-based motion picture and television company. She has just completed filming in Saudi Arabia for the new film.
The Kentucky Horse Park is a working horse farm, educational theme park and equine competition facility dedicated to man's relationship with the horse. The park is an agency of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts & Heritage Cabinet that hosted approximately 900,000 visitors and campers, as well as 15,000 competition horses in more than 100 special events and horse shows in 2007. The park is home to the National Horse Center which comprises more than 30 national and regional equine organizations. Located at Exit 120, Interstate 75, just north of Lexington, the Kentucky Horse Park is open daily March 15 to October 31, and Wednesday through Sunday, November 1 to March 14.