Making it Last: The Art & Science of Preserving Olana’s Paper & Photographic Collections With Michele Phillips November 18, 2020 Have you ever wondered what kind of work goes into caring for the delicate and diverse permanent collection of Olana and readying works of art ...Read More

Mexican Rebozo Shawls at Olana & Beyond: From Uncertain Origins to Compromised Future With Marta Turok October 28, 2020 This talk by one of the world’s leading scholars and advocates of Mexico’s rich tradition of textile art will focus on a little known story in ...Read More

Looking at Frederic Church, 1975-2020 With Frank Kelly, Ph.D October 14, 2020 One of our country’s most prominent curator-scholars shares the unique perspective of his decades-long engagement with Frederic Church and Olana. This personal reflection looks back on how he came to know Church, to ...Read More

Partners in Design: Frederic Church, Calvert Vaux, and the Making of Olana’s Main House With Sean E. Sawyer, Ph.D September 30, 2020 Frederic Church, America’s first international art star, returned from his travels through the Near East in 1869 filled with inspiration for the great ...Read More

Sightlines on the Hudson With Mary Roberts September 9, 2020 What kind of world is it that Frederic Church was creating in his Persian-inspired home on the Hudson? This lecture proposes some answers to this question by analyzing three of the interior sightlines within his ...Read More

Persia on the Hudson: Ali Muhammad Isfahani and Ceramic Production in Nineteenth-Century Iran With Farshid Emami July 22, 2020 Among the works kept at Olana are a group of ceramic tiles and objects attributed to Ali Muhammad Isfahani, a master of ceramic production active in ...Read More

Adding India: Lockwood de Forest’s Contribution to Olana’s Interiors With Sarah Coffin July 8, 2020 Lockwood de Forest (1850-1932), a painter and interior designer started his artistic career painting with Frederic Church at Olana. De Forest’s main contribution to Olana came after he set up ...Read More

Frederic Church’s Middle Eastern Costume Collection: Its Inspiration and Impact With Hanan Munayyer June 24, 2020 As Frederic and Isabel Church travelled in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine in 1868, they commented on the “picturesque costumed individuals” (Isabel’s diary, 1868) they saw, inspiring them to bring ...Read More

Unplanned Views: The Geological History of Olana With Robert and Johanna Titus June 10, 2020 The 250 acres of land that comprise Frederic Church’s OLANA became the canvas for his pioneering endeavors in landscape architecture. Participants will learn about the geological history of Olana and ...Read More

Olana Perspectives: After Icebergs at Cooper Hewitt With Caitlin Condell May 27, 2020 In the summer of 1859, Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900)—the most celebrated American landscape painter of his time—journeyed to Newfoundland and Labrador to study and sketch icebergs. These studies, drawn from Cooper Hewitt’s ...Read More