Into the Maelstrom: The Life and Career of Mary Edmonia Lewis by Kirsten Pai Buick February 24, 2021 In the U.S., one of the earliest and most passionate discussions around the fine arts and their role in defining American identity and national aspirations took place over neoclassical sculpture. Issues of ...Read More

Sacred Geographies: Frederic Church, the Holy Land, and the Hudson Valley by Jennifer Raab January 6, 2021 During this Olana Perspectives Webinar, Jennifer Raab, Associate Professor in the History of Art at Yale, will investigate how Frederic Church’s travels through the Middle East and his paintings of Jerusalem and Petra ...Read More

Making it Last: The Art & Science of Preserving Olana’s Paper & Photographic Collections November 18, 2020 Michele Phillips is the Paper Conservator at the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (NYSOPRHP), working at the centralized conservation labs at the Bureau of Historic Sites & Parks, ...Read More

Mexican Rebozo Shawls at Olana & Beyond: From Uncertain Origins to Compromised Future October 28, 2020 This talk by one of the world’s leading scholars and advocates of Mexico’s rich tradition of textile art will focus on a little known story in Olana’s diverse collections. Marta Turok takes as her ...Read More

Looking at Frederic Church, 1975-2020 October 14, 2020 One of our country’s most prominent curator-scholars shares the unique perspective of his decades-long engagement with Frederic Church and Olana. This personal reflection looks back on how he came to know Church, to study him and his work seriously in graduate ...Read More

Partners in Design: Frederic Church, Calvert Vaux, and the making of Olana's Main House September 30, 2020 Frederic Church, America’s first international art star, returned from his travels through the Near East in 1869 filled with inspiration for the great house that he planned to build on his property near ...Read More

Sightlines on the Hudson by Mary Roberts September 9, 2020 Mary Roberts is the John Schaeffer Professor of Art History at the University of Sydney. She is a specialist in nineteenth-century European Orientalist and late Ottoman art, with particular expertise in the history of artistic exchanges and the culture ...Read More

Persia on the Hudson: Ali Muhammad Isfahani and Ceramic Production in Nineteenth-century Iran July 22, 2020 Farshid Emami is an assistant professor in the department of art history at Rice University. He is a historian of Islamic art and architecture with a focus on the early modern period and particularly ...Read More

Adding India: Lockwood de Forest’s Contribution to Olana’s Interiors July 8, 2020 Sarah Coffin is an independent decorative arts and design consultant, curator, and lecturer, who is a member of Olana’s National Advisory Committee, Most recently for over 14 years, she was Senior Curator and Head of the Product Design and ...Read More

Frederic Church’s Middle Eastern Costume Collection: Its Inspiration and Impact June 24, 2020 Hanan Munayyer is President of the Palestinian Heritage Foundation and a scholar and curator specializing in Palestinian and other Arab traditional dress. Her many exhibition credits include an important contribution as an advisor and essayist for Olana’s 2018 ...Read More