Start your day looking mindfully at works of art in the Sharp Family Gallery. This hour-long morning session will be led by Shirin Mazdeyasna (MA, ATR-BC, LCAT), an Iranian artist and board certified and registered Licensed Creative Arts Therapist, and will include mindfulness practices to deepen your experience of the two artworks on view.

FREE as part of OLANA Third Thursday/Tercer Jueves in connection with A Closer Look. Day-of, please meet outside the front door of the historic house to check-in. Pre-registration is required. Please email education@olana.org to register. Space is limited.

Stop by the Wagon House Education Center for free drop-in drawing led by The Olana Partnership teaching artists and educators. Each session focuses on a different artist-quality art material! Use inspiration from your visit to Olana State Historic Site to create your own works of art. 

All materials, refreshments, and drinks will be provided. FREE. Email education@olana.org for more information.

Experience learning, looking closely, and conversation as a family during this series of special museum gallery tours at Olana State Historic Site. Each month, The Olana Partnership educators will lead an exploration of two to three works of art on the second floor galleries through family-friendly dialogue and other hands-on activities. After your tour, extend your day at OLANA and head down to the Wagon House Education Center for a free drop-in program, Art Making in the Afternoon from 1-4 PM.

Designed for families with children ages 3 and up. $15 adults; children under 16 are free. Advanced registration required. Please contact education@olana.org to learn more.

Inspired by your time at Olana or looking for family-friendly fun? Participate in free, drop-in artmaking in the Wagon House Education Center from 1-4 PM and learn more about Frederic Church’s artist-designed home and studio on the Hudson.

This drop-in artmaking program is open to all ages and skill levels; all materials and warm beverages (coffee, tea, and hot chocolate) provided. FREE. No advanced registration required. Contact education@olana.org or call (518) 751-6938 for more info.

Ever wondered how Frederic Church brought his vision of the natural world to life in his art? During this virtual presentation, artist and educator Shawn Dell Joyce will lead viewers through a special exercise to help see Church’s work anew with an artist’s perspective. After examining Church studies together and exploring ideas such as composition, value, and the rule of thirds, participants will learn how Frederic Church and other “Hudson River School” painters approached landscape painting “en plein air” or outdoors. Discover how painters today draw from Church’s process and try your hand at value sketching using pencil and paper in the comfort of your own home!

Shawn Dell Joyce is a Florida-based plein air painter and founder of the Wallkill River School of Art based in Orange County, NY. As a skilled teacher, she has had a tremendous impact on the art community nationwide, teaching workshops in pastel and plein air techniques across the country. Her work has been featured in publications from the Tampa Bay Magazine to The New York Times, is represented in galleries across the country, and has been widely collected by corporations and families around the world including the Georges Pompidou Museum in France and the Museum of Modern Art in NY.

Learn more about Olana’s neighbors and get a “window into Camphill Hudson” during this special free evening community screening. For the first time in the history of Camphill Hudson, a group dedicated to creating community with people of all abilities in the City of Hudson, The Camphill Hudson Players have produced a short film. Edited by Ragnar Freidank and directed by Jody Brookes, this movie celebrates and captures the essence of the Camphill Hudson Players, an inclusive theater company that creates original productions. 

This free screening will be held in the Frederic Church Center for Art and Landscape; light refreshments will be served. Email education@olana.org for more information.

Join experts for a series of dialogues on paintings from OLANA’s collection that are worth a closer look. During each gallery conversation, experts working in fields of science, art education, ecology, and indigenous history will share what they discover within a picture’s frame. During this talk, Justin Wexler of Wild Hudson Valley will lead a discussion focusing on what we can learn by looking more closely at featured elements of cultural exchange. By investigating two works of art, this conversation will probe what we can learn about the relationship between 19th century outdoorsmen and Indigenous Peoples within the paintings’ frames.

Justin Wexler is a life-long resident of the Hudson Valley and has devoted his life to sharing his love for the natural world and for the region’s original inhabitants. He has studied regional Algonquian languages, history and folklore for over two decades, sharing discoveries with scholars and with tribal language departments. He has a BA in History and Anthropology from Marlboro College in Marlboro, VT; a Professional Certificate in Environmental Policy from Bard College and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Bard College.

This program is $15 per person or $10 for members or Columbia/Greene County residents. To become a member, visit OLANA.org/membership. Advanced registration required. Please contact education@olana.org to learn more.

Uncover the ins and outs of an artist’s archive through this dynamic conversation with Olana archivists and famed biographer Victoria Johnson. During this moderated virtual conversation, explore how writers and scholars navigate archival materials to make their own discoveries and creations. Participants will get a sneak peek into Victoria Johnson’s forthcoming biography on Frederic Church, the first of its kind, set to be released in 2026. This virtual webinar is FREE.

Ida Brier initially volunteered in various capacities at Olana. Then from 1998-2024 she worked in the curatorial and collection departments as The Olana Partnership’s Librarian/Archivist and Research Assistant, collaborating with New York State’s Collections Management staff in accessioning archival material, producing Finding Aids, and working with researchers. Previously, Ida worked as a Budget Analyst for the NYS Department of Social Services, a medical librarian at NYS Library, a Reference Librarian at Bard College, and received her graduate degree in Library and Information Science.

Clare Flemming is the Research Archivist for The Olana Partnership where every day is a new discovery into current scholarship about Frederic Church, his life, his land, and his legacy, as well as the exciting records of the Partnership and its visionary predecessors. Clare has served as archivist in a wide range of collections from Philly to Albany, mostly in natural-history settings, from tiny historic societies to huge government archives and as an adjunct professor in the Archives Management tract at SUNY, University at Albany.

Victoria Johnson is Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College, CUNY. She is the author of American Eden, a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award in Nonfiction and the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in History. Her forthcoming biography of Frederic Church, Glorious Country, will be published by Scribner in April 2026.

Start your day looking mindfully at works of art in the Sharp Family Gallery. This hour-long morning session will be led by three local art therapists and will include mindfulness practices to deepen your experience of one to three artworks on view.

FREE as part of OLANA Third Thursday/Tercer Jueves in connection with A Closer Look. Day-of, please meet outside the front door of the historic house to check-in and register. Day-of, please meet outside the front door of the historic house to check-in. Space is limited, pre-registration is required. Please email education@olana.org to register.

Stop by the Wagon House Education Center for free drop-in drawing led by The Olana Partnership teaching artists and educators. Each session focuses on a different artist-quality art material! Use inspiration from your visit to Olana State Historic Site to create your own works of art. 

All materials, refreshments, and drinks will be provided. FREE. Email education@olana.org for more information.

Experience learning, looking closely, and conversation as a family during this series of special museum gallery tours at Olana State Historic Site. Each month, The Olana Partnership educators will lead an exploration of two to three works of art on the second floor galleries through family-friendly dialogue and other hands-on activities. After your tour, extend your day at OLANA and head down to the Wagon House Education Center for a free drop-in program, Art Making in the Afternoon from 1-4 PM.

Designed for families with children ages 3 and up. $15 adults; children under 16 are free. Advanced registration required. Please contact education@olana.org to learn more.

Inspired by your time at Olana or looking for family-friendly fun? Participate in free, drop-in artmaking  in the Wagon House Education Center from 1-4 PM and learn more about Frederic Church’s artist-designed home and studio on the Hudson.

This drop-in artmaking program is open to all ages and skill levels; all materials and warm beverages (coffee, tea, and hot chocolate) provided. FREE. No advanced registration required. Contact education@olana.org or call (518) 751-6938 for more info.

Join to learn more about Marianne North, the groundbreaking female botanical painter who travelled extensively across the globe in the late 1800s and even made her way to Olana. During this presentation, Dr. Lynne Howarth-Gladston will focus on North’s self-styled gallery at Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew (United Kingdom) which was designed to house over 800 of her botanical paintings. The Marianne North Gallery depicts more than 900 species of plants, displaying panoramic educational zones North captured during her trailblazing international travels. Dr. Howarth Gladston will discuss how North, assisted by the amateur architect James Fergusson, designed and built this self-styled gallery, making curatorial decisions and devising fashionable interior design troupes to blend aesthetics and scientific observation in one unique space.

Dr. Lynne Howarth Gladston is a writer, curator, designer, artist and independent academic, with numerous publications on the subjects of Chinese Contemporary art, and curatorial practice. Her most recent book, Marianne North: A Victorian Painter for the 21st Century, was published by Lund Humphries and Kew Publishers in 2024. Howarth Gladston is trained as a botanical Illustrator at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and is a practicing artist who has exhibited in the UK, China, and Australia. Her Doctorate was in Critical Theory, at the School of Philosophy, Nottingham University.

Join experts for a series of dialogues on paintings from OLANA’s collection that are worth a closer look. During each gallery conversation, experts working in fields of science, art education, ecology, and indigenous history will share what they discover within a picture’s frame. Investigate Church’s intimate forest paintings with Marc Wolf, Director of Horticulture and Environmental Stewardship at Mountain Top Arboretum in the Catskills. During this conversation, Marc will explore Church’s ecological eye in three different forest scenes, illuminating the artist’s observations of humanity’s environmental impact.

Marc Wolf is Director of Horticulture and Environmental Stewardship at Mountain Top Arboretum in Tannersville, NY. Marc received his BA from Williams College, is a graduate of New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture and interned at Chanticleer Garden. Marc studied with the noted landscape architect Darrel Morrison and worked as his field assistant on projects at New York Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden and for private clients. As a writer and performer working in theatre, film and television, Marc received OBIE and National Endowment for the Arts Awards, among others.

This program is $15 per person or $10 for members or Columbia/Greene County residents. To become a member, visit OLANA.org/membership. Advanced registration required. Please contact education@olana.org to learn more.

Inspired by your time at Olana or looking for family-friendly fun? Participate in free, drop-in artmaking in the Wagon House Education Center from 1-4 PM and learn more about Frederic Church’s artist-designed home and studio on the Hudson.

This drop-in artmaking program is open to all ages and skill levels; all materials and warm beverages (coffee, tea, and hot chocolate) provided. FREE. No advanced registration required. Contact education@olana.org or call (518) 751-6938 for more info.

The Olana Partnership established the Frederic Church Award to honor individuals who, through their vision, commitment and grasp of creative trends, make extraordinary contributions to American art and culture.

Get your binoculars ready for this special spring migration bird walk at Olana State Historic Site! Join the Alan Devoe Bird Club and The Olana Partnership on an exploration of Olana’s artist-designed landscape and learn more about visiting birds and the species that call this region home during the peak of spring migration. Open to birders of all levels. This program will take place in the landscape along Olana’s historic carriage roads.

FREE. Advanced registration required. For more information, please contact education@olana.org or call (518) 567-2170.

Image credit: Suzy Allman

Inspired by your time at Olana or looking for family-friendly fun? Participate in free, drop-in artmaking  in the Wagon House Education Center from 1-4 PM and learn more about Frederic Church’s artist-designed home and studio on the Hudson.

This drop-in artmaking program is open to all ages and skill levels; all materials and warm beverages (coffee, tea, and hot chocolate) provided. FREE. No advanced registration required. Contact education@olana.org or call (518) 751-6938 for more info.