Valerie A. Balint, Interim Director of Collections and Research

“I think it would amuse you . . . to see the medley in the box-for there are rugs-armour-stuffs-curiosities . . . Arab spears-beads from Jerusalem-stones from Petra and 10,000 other things.” Frederic Church to William Henry Osborn, February 4, 1869

The word curator is derived from the Latin word “cura,” which means care. Frederic Church is a curator’s dream—he had a great passion for objects that is ever present at Olana.  He created beautiful and interesting things, whether his enviable paintings, the fantastical main house or the breathtaking landscape.  He amassed and …Read More

Amy Hufnagel, Director of Education

The contemporary British painter David Hockney says, “people tend to forget that play is serious.” To this notion I add journalist Sydney Harris’s writing “the purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” Then I feel compelled to layer a contraction of the two: Olana’s staff works daily to create “serious and playful windows” for the region’s education.

“What would Frederic Church do?” The hypothesized answers to this question often lead to programmatic decisions.  This year we wanted to link summer music and film nights to curatorial themes …Read More

Kimberly Flook, Olana Historic Site Manager

I never really grasped the scope of 80,000+ objects until I stood in a room during self-guided touring at Olana. I had worked at Olana for over three years, giving tours and moving through these spaces almost daily, yet, as I stood there, my eye caught pieces that I had never really seen before.

I have my favorites (the monkey skull in the curio cabinet), and I know our greatest hits (El Khasne, Petra) like the back of my hand, but I began to really appreciate the other pieces …Read More

An excerpt from the essay written by Andrea Wulf, author of “The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World,” for the “Capturing the Cosmos” exhibition brochure

Humboldt insisted that traveling provided the knowledge that was needed to understand the natural world. He urged scientists to leave their desks and books in order to explore. They had to look at flora, fauna, rock strata, and climates globally — otherwise they would be like those geologists who constructed the entire world “according to the shape of the nearest hills surrounding them,” he wrote in …Read More

“Because I have always enjoyed the juxtaposition of architecture and landscape, I see Olana’s carriage roads as architecture. They function the way the windows in Olana’s house do by arranging your position and relationship to the landscape. What is revealed from each window or turn in the road — the window framing, the road dividing – is all manipulated by Mr. Church.”
— Margaret Saliske, Artist and Hudson Resident

Starting in 1860 and continuing until his death in 1900, Frederic Church created Olana’s 250 acres as a large-scale composition.   Much in the way a painter …Read More

Elizabeth Schanz, Education Coordinator with Valerie Balint, Associate Curator

“We have delicious things all out of our own gardens . . . and wonderful floating islands and such with Mexican dulces with odd names, forms of guava and nougat.” Guest and author Susan Hale writing from Olana, 1884

We are what we eat. Cliché . . . I know.  However, when trying to understand a historical moment or individual we must pause to consider what was being consumed and the political and social implications of one’s cuisine.

This past summer while trying to get a better sense of …Read More

By Paul Banks, Interpretive Program Assistant

Photo by Amy Hufnagel

Did you take a tour of the house at Olana last year? If so, you’re in good company. Last year nearly 28,000 people toured the house. That’s rather impressive when you consider that’s roughly equal to all the other tours given by New York State historic sites last year. That’s right. Olana alone accounts for about half the tours given in the 35 sites in the state of New York! How do we do it? Well, we have a reservation system that streamlines …Read More

By Sean Sawyer, Washburn and Susan Oberwager President

Members of The Olana Partnership Board and National Advisory Committee gather for lunch on Olana’s Ridge Road in May 2015.

It’s great to have good friends, especially when they are brilliant, worldly, and well-placed AND willing to share their experience and expertise freely. Olana has just such a group of allies in our National Advisory Committee (NAC), who are listed below. This is an estimable assembly of national leaders in the fields of American art (art history and contemporary artists), …Read More

Amy Hufnagel, Director of Education

“Thank you for showing us Frederic Church’s estate Olana. I liked it when Mark showed us the stone wall and what it looked like before it was fixed. Ms. Amy I really liked the house tour, Church’s art, the views, and the activity when we got to make a 3D paper Olana. Thank you for helping us to understand all of Olana.” –Owen, 3rd Grade, Albany (11/5/15)

So what is a workday for someone seeking to teach awe and wonder? A recent grant awarded to The Olana Partnership and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site can help …Read More

Valerie Balint, Associate Curator

Visitors who venture in from the grey and cold for a house tour during these winter months are greeted by the warmth and cheer of a large variety of replica floral arrangements on display throughout the furnished interiors— a touchstone back to the lush, vibrant and fragrant landscape which lies just beyond the doors for most of the year. The whole of Olana can be thought of as one giant garden created in the naturalistic-style which looks so effortless, but which Church spent 40 years perfecting. But within that totality were a series of floral cutting gardens …Read More