Insider Perspective

Mark Prezorski, Senior Vice President & Creative Director “I am building a house and am principally my own Architect. I give directions all day and draw plans and working drawings all night.” — Frederic Church, 1871 “I am busy landscape architecturing!” — Frederic Church, 1887 The words of Frederic Church were highlighted in Olana’s...Read More

Valerie Balint, Interim Director of Collections and Research Last year we celebrated the saving of Olana in 1966, and its long-term successful stewardship and restoration through the collaborative efforts of New York State and The Olana Partnership. As we know, in 1953, over a decade before Olana Preservation Inc., and New York State saved...Read More

Olana’s original guides and hosts Mary Ann Bikes, Alice Gold, Kay Sterns, Ruby Funk, Ruth Karmer and Mary Mazzacano in the Court Hall, c. 1960s, Olana Collection By Melanie Hasbrook, Development and Marketing Communications Manager “Well here I am! At last – looking at a perfect Eden of picturesque beauty.” Novelist Grace King...Read More

Valerie A. Balint, Interim Director of Collections and Research A tree in its fall glory last week at Olana “When the autumn fires light up the landscape you will see Nature’s palette set with her most precious and vivid colors. . .” Frederic E. Church to fellow Hudson River School painter, Jervis...Read More

Sean E. Sawyer, Ph.D. Washburn & Susan Oberwager President, The Olana Partnership A week from tonight The Olana Partnership will hold our annual Frederic Church Award Gala in New York City. This event is absolutely crucial to our work at Olana – providing over a third of our operating income and sustaining Olana’s curatorial...Read More

Valerie Balint Interim Director of Collections and Research “It is a particularly lovely Autumn here . . . mainly soft weather toned to suit an Artist’s eye.” Frederic E. Church to painter John Ferguson Weir from Olana, October 1891 This past weekend I had the pleasure of hosting a descendant of Frederic Church’s student...Read More

Daphne Mayer Membership and Volunteer Coordinator, The Olana Partnership Do you want to help Olana?  If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you do.  We need caring and enthusiastic individuals like you to become Olana volunteers.  Fifty years ago, the fight to save Olana was led by volunteers both young and old.  Without their...Read More

Mark Prezorski Landscape Curator, The Olana Partnership Jane Smith Exhibition Co-curator, Spacesmith LLP The summer house was a feature in early American design, and examples appeared in both private and public gardens, such as New York’s Central Park. One appears in the 1886 historic “Plan of Olana” and is labeled “Summer House”. Everything on...Read More

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...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...Read More

Kimberly Flook, Olana Historic Site ManagerI 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...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....Read More