Olana State Historic Site, May 12 | October 27, 2024

Since 2020, global events, including COVID-19, have brought many of us face-to-face with the realities of death on the largest scale in our lifetimes. In a time of grief, reflection, and hope, Afterglow looks at how Frederic Church and his family grieved and found peace after loss in their own time.

November 19, 2023 – March 31, 2024

Spectacle: Frederic Church and the Business of Art combines immersive video technology with the wealth of Olana State Historic Site’s archival holdings to demonstrate how Church’s art responded to the most advanced scientific thought of his day and reached a broad public audience, the largest of any 19th-century American artist.

Through October 29, 2023 | Olana State Historic Site

The Olana Partnership, in collaboration with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, presents Terraforming: Olana’s Historic Photography Collection Unearthed at Olana State Historic Site. Inspired by Olana’s significant collection of nearly 2,000 19th century international photographic prints, artist and guest curator David Hartt brings Terraforming, a selection of Frederic Church’s little-known photography collection, to reflect on the ways in which human culture and activity shape the land

November 20 – March 26, 2023

The Olana Partnership, in collaboration with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, presents Chasing Icebergs: Art and a Disappearing Landscape, the first winter exhibition at Olana State Historic Site. The exhibition, shown primarily in the Sharp Family Gallery at Olana, highlights Frederic Church’s iceberg sketches from his 1859 intrepid voyage to the Arctic.

July 13 – October 31, 2022

Sacred Site presents a rare opportunity to encounter the full scale and impact of Frederic Church’s monumental canvases in the landscape he designed at Olana. The installation comprises twelve replicated works created by contemporary artist Diana Wege, who engaged with Church’s Niagara Falls, from the American Side (1867) over a decade. Just as Church’s large-scale paintings called 19^th-century audiences to wonder at nature’s awe-inspiring power, this project calls us to consider the connections between humanity, nature, public land, and personal inspiration.

June 12 – October 31, 2021

A new exhibition exploring the theme of “cross pollination” in art and the environment from the 19th century to the contemporary moment. The project stems from the artist Martin Johnson Heade’s 19th century painting series of hummingbird and habitats and includes major paintings by Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, and contemporary art by Nick Cave, Jeffrey Gibson, Paula Hayes, Maya Lin, and more.

Olana's East Lawn | May 2 - October 31, 2021

FALLEN will invite viewers to reflect on the cultural history of the Hudson Valley region and the life of the eastern hemlock tree that once stood on Olana’s East Lawn. Artist Jean Shin will create a site-specific work around the fallen hemlock that will be on view on Olana’s East Lawn from May 1 through October 31. This finished work will be part of Olana’s larger 2021 collaborative exhibition, “Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment.” Please visit Olana as this artwork develops.

Olana's East Lawn | May 2 - October 31, 2021

In her flower mandala series, Munson memorializes bird, animal, and insect life that has come into harsh contact with man, highlighting the shifting climate and the associated stresses that pollution and modern, industrialized life have on natural places and wildlife. This finished work will be part of Olana’s larger 2021 collaborative exhibition, “Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment.” Please visit Olana as this artwork develops.

Virtual | May 2 - October 31, 2021

What Is Missing? is a multi-sited memorial created by Maya Lin to raise awareness through science-based artworks about the present sixth mass extinction of species, connect this loss of species to habitat degradation and loss, and emphasize that by protecting and restoring habitat, we can both reduce carbon emissions and protect species.

Sharp Family Gallery, Olana State Historic Site | May 12 - November 3, 2019

The first phase of Olana’s main house was collaboratively designed by the artist Frederic Church and the architect Calvert Vaux, and Olana’s main house and its 250-acre landscape were designed to incorporate vast Hudson Valley views. A key space in Olana’s main house design is the “Ombra”, an outdoor room which is a transition zone between the central Court Hall and the surrounding landscape. This and the other main outdoors rooms at Olana (the Piazza, Round Veranda, and Bell Tower) remain unfurnished and have not been fully interpreted to the public.