Behind “Uninvited: the Spread of Invasive Species”

January 11, 2022

Learn more about the introduction, spread, and management of invasive species during this virtual webinar. Department of Environmental Conservation Invasive Species Forester Rob Cole and filmmaker Steve Powers will discuss Westfield Production Company’s recent documentary, Uninvited, that introduces the concept of invasive species. Their presentation will highlight some of the species threatening New York’s environment and economy, while also showing some innovative ways that New York State is combating these threats. This webinar will feature information about the documentary’s production and highlight the collaborative work of DEC and its partners. …Read More

“Deck the Halls: Female Abolitionist Societies and the Evolution of Christmas” with Ken Turino

December 21, 2021 In the mid-nineteenth century, what we think were the Christmas celebrations of today were actually just beginning. In this virtual lecture, Historic New England’s Ken Turino narrates the history of female abolitionists in America and their contributions to the development of modern American Christmas traditions. These abolitionists, including Maria Chapman and Lydia Marie Child, hosted Christmas fairs to raise money for the abolitionist cause. Turino looks at the Sewing Circles both abroad and across America that contributed a wide array of goods for …Read More

“The Land of Beautiful Flowers and Birds: The Journey of Frederic Edwin Church through New Granada” with Dr. Verónica Uribe

December 9, 2021

Frederic Edwin Church arrived in New Granada on April 28th,1853 seeking inspiration from the tropical landscape that was previously recorded by Alexander von Humboldt in Cosmos (1845). This talk will follow the trail left by Church while crossing the territory of current-day Colombia, characterized by his fascination with what he encountered and the great discomforts of navigating the complex geography and culture. Food, birds, plants, people, and astonishing views were part of his adventure and recorded through …Read More

“Behind the Butler’s Pantry: OLANA and the Lives of Irish Servants in the Hudson Valley” with Dr. Elizabeth Stack and Daniel W. Bigler

November 18, 2021

Join Dr. Elizabeth Stack, Executive Director of the Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany, and Daniel W. Bigler, Historic Site Assistant at Olana State Historic Site, for a virtual presentation and conversation about the lives of Irish American servants hired at Frederic Church’s Olana. This conversation will use the Church’s history of employing Irish immigrants as a framework to consider the network of Irish domestic servants that existed in the region during the 19th …Read More

“Animated Interiors: Frederic Church’s Experiments with Space and Light” with Julia B. Rosenbaum

November 4, 2021 As a renowned landscape painter, Frederic Church had long grappled with how to capture the vibrantly animated world around him. His paintings and drawings attest to both the heights he achieved in these efforts as well as their vexing limits. With his foray into house building in the early 1870s, Church moved into an immersive, three-dimensional format for his art, manipulating space and daylight as artistic materials. During this webinar, Julia B. Rosenbaum (Bard College) considers the first-floor interiors of his home at Olana …Read More

“Martin Johnson Heade: A Strange Art Life Brought Up To Date” with Dr. Theodore E. Stebbins

October 19, 2021 Join us in welcoming Dr. Theodore E. Stebbins, former curator at the Museum of Fine Arts and Harvard’s Fogg Museum for a virtual lecture on what he calls Martin Johnson Heade’s “topsy-turvy career.” During this virtual presentation, Dr. Stebbins will provide a glimpse at some of his own changing thoughts on the painter, the circumstances of Heade’s rediscovery in 1943, and the way Heade’s reputation has continued to grow. He will also focus on Heade’s special relationship with Frederic E. Church …Read More

“Living with Pollinators: Biodiversity and Artistic Practice in the Hudson Valley” with Lisa Sanditz, Paula Hayes, and Fox Farm Apiary

September 15, 2021

The Thomas Cole National Historic Site and The Olana Partnership at Olana State Historic Site present a discussion with artists Paula Hayes, Lisa Sanditz, and beekeeper Chris Layman from Fox Apiary. In this webinar, our guests examine the connections between art, ecology, environmental stewardship, and our role in local habitats.

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“The Natural Histories of Marianne North and Frederic Church” by Allegra K. Davis

August 24, 2021

Olana’s collection contains two paintings, boldly rendered studies of exotic flowers, that remained unattributed until research published in 2010 connected them to Marianne North (1830-1890). North, an intrepid British botanical artist who traveled the world documenting plant life and landscapes in oil, visited Olana twice and admired the art of Frederic Church. In this webinar, The Olana Partnership’s Curatorial Assistant, Allegra K. Davis, will examine the life and work of Marianne North through the lenses of Victorian gender roles and practices of imperial science, …Read More

“Fragility and Resilience: Art, Ecology, and our Contemporary Moment” with Sayler/Morris, Rachel Sussman and Dr. Scott Manning Stevens

July 27, 2021 Join artists Sayler/Morris, Rachel Sussman, and Dr. Scott Manning Stevens as they discuss the connections between art, ecology, and climate change. Sussman’s photographic series The Oldest Living Things in the World and Sayler/Morris’s video installation Eclipse are included in “Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment,” on view at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and Olana State Historic Site. Through their artwork, both Sayler/Morris and Sussman examine the fragility of life and the question of balance …Read More

a-Historical Landscapes: Olana and the Color of Freedom

June 23, 2021

Join Jean-Marc Superville Sovak, multidisciplinary artist and teaching professional and professor Myra Armstead for a virtual presentation and conversation about the lives of black Americans during the time of Olana’s creation. During this program, Sovak will introduce his series, a- Historical Landscapes, a current project which involves altering 19th century landscape engravings to include contemporaneous images borrowed from Anti-Slavery publications. Through discussion with Professor Myra Armstead, Lyford Paterson Edwards and Helen Gray Edwards and Professor of Historical Studies at Bard College, this conversation will consider how the timeline of …Read More