Rachel Tice, Manager, The Olana Museum Shop

“I took Mrs. C. to New York on Tuesday . . . I bought some Persian brass work two rugs a three-tined spear, Persian, an Arabian coffee pot, an Arabian Table, a piece of Persian Embroidery, a Persian Battle Axe, a silk Turban, a Moorish plate, et cetera.” Frederic Church to Erastus Dow Palmer, Nov. 14, 1878, Collection Albany Institute of History & Art Library

As the manager and buyer for the Olana Museum Shop I often wonder what it would be like to observe Frederic Church on a buying excursion rummaging through stacks of …Read More

Mark Prezorski, Landscape Curator

It’s rare that construction for an Olana landscape restoration project fits so perfectly within one calendar year, but Olana’s Main House Environs project demonstrates what a difference 12 short months can make. The Olana Partnership had been awarded a $343,000 New York State Environmental Protection fund grant for this project, and the design phase was completed last year. The project focused on some key landscape and architectural elements around Olana’s main house. The Olana Partnership, in cooperation with the New York State Office of Parks Recreation & Historic Presentation, worked closely with our consultants at Nelson Byrd …Read More

Sean E. Sawyer, Ph.D., Washburn and Susan Oberwager President, The Olana Partnership

Next Tuesday evening, November 17, The Olana Partnership will host the Frederic E. Church Award Gala at the Metropolitan Club in New York City. This event has been a year in the planning and requires an extraordinary amount of my time and that of a number of other staff members. Why do we do it?

Well, the very pragmatic answer is that the Gala is our principal annual fundraising event, responsible for over 60% of our operating income. It supports all aspects of the …Read More

Amy Hufnagel, Director of Education

What does that title mean? If you are unsure, like me, then here is an insider view of how I learned more about Frederic Church’s 1866 moon sketches, paintings, old moons, and Crepuscular Rays with the help of my colleagues and the general public!

Few celestial sights are as arresting and beautiful as a slender crescent moon. Honestly, I can say that was about the end of my appreciation and knowledge until Karl Loatman visited Olana. Now I see the crescent moon, the history of moon phases, and Church’s moon sketches and paintings, in new terms. …Read More

Kimberly Flook, Historic Site Manager, Olana State Historic Site

When I joined as the new director, I had no questions about the artistry of Olana, but my major interests were focused on the less obvious aspects and objects of the site. Trained as a Mesoamerican archaeologist, it was the Aztec and Toltec figures in the studio, Frederic Church’s paintbrushes and palettes, and the ruins of the 18th century farmhouse that called to me rather than the Persian inspired home and its fantastic studies and paintings of American beauty.

I hardly believed that these images had basis in the real world, with their …Read More

Valerie Balint, Associate Curator

Napoleon Sarony, Jervis McEntee ((1828-1891), c. 1867, albumen silver print, The Century Association, New York

This year Hudson River School devotees have the pleasure of attending two retrospective exhibitions about Rondout/Kingston native Jervis McEntee (1828-1891)—Jervis McEntee: Kingston’s Hudson River School Artist (Friends of Historic Kingston) and Jervis McEntee: Painter-Poet of the Hudson River School (Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz). I was asked to lecture for the Friends of Historic Kingston about the association between Jervis McEntee and Frederic Church. It allowed me the chance to examine an affiliation …Read More

Mark Prezorski, Landscape Curator

There are many reasons why Groundswell happens at Olana, but these reasons may not be obvious to those who don’t know the full story of America’s great landscape artist, Frederic Church. For example, some people mistakenly think that Olana is “just a house museum”, but the reality is that Olana is much more than that. Olana is Church’s 250-acre creation, fully designed as an experience around 360-degree views. The main house is one element in Frederic Church’s larger landscape composition, which integrates native woodlands and meadows, architecture, water, landforms and – at certain times – singular atmospheric …Read More

Valerie A. Balint, Associate Curator

“The Great Book of Nature is always open and there are no blank leaves for the artist.” – Frederic Church, 1898

To be at Olana on any given day is to sense Church’s own celebratory voice for all he created here, and to feel it echoed in the contemporary artists who come here for their own inspiration.

One of the great joys of working here is witnessing artists painting within the same majestic landscape Frederic Church spent forty years perfecting. . Artists today are welcome to paint and draw throughout the property of one of the most iconic …Read More

Amy Hufnagel, Director of Education

“It feels like the artists, both the teachers and the students, are at Olana again.”
— Laurie Anderson Moserman, attendee, Deep Air Lecture Series in March

As a new addition to The Olana Partnership team last spring, I was charged to extend Olana’s relationships into downtown Hudson and with local schools. This goal was linked to the desire to strengthen Olana’s education programs through strategic constituency building and in turn increase audiences.

After nearly a year, we have made significant progress toward these goals. We have increased overall visits to the site by 3.8 percent, while tripling our student …Read More