Ongoing Programs

Thursdays-Sundays
12-4pm
Olana on the Move Backpacks
Museum Shop (also at the Wagon House Education Center on Weekends)
Free
*Vehicle use fee applies
Explore the Olana landscape with self-guided activities to enrich family visits. Take your sketches home, or donate them to our ongoing public exhibit. Must leave a photo ID until backpack is returned.


May Programs

Sunday, May 1, 2pm
The Trees of Olana
Wagon House Education Center
All ages | Free
*Vehicle use fee applies
In honor of Arbor Day, please join landscape curator Sarah Price for a tree tour of Olana. You will learn about the Olana landscape and Frederic Church's passion for trees. We will look at trees that Frederic Church planted around his first home on the property, Cosy Cottage. Then we will follow a carriage road through the woods, completing our tour at the house and looking at both mature and recently planted trees that are part of our most recent restoration project, the Fern Bed. Please wear sturdy walking shoes for a one-hour walk on the property. Please pre-register by Friday, April 29th by calling (518) 828-1872.



Saturday, May 8, 11:30am
Family Tour at Olana
Vistor Center
Families
*Vehicle use fee applies
Explore the house, its paintings and treasures from a child's perspective. Take the family tour and then borrow a backpack full of activities to do on the grounds - a family day at Olana couldn't be more perfect! Tours are geared for families with 6-12 year-olds, but all ages are welcome. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Reservations are required by 4pm the preceding Friday. Call (518) 828-0135 for information.

Friday, May 13, 11am, 1pm and 3pm
Superstitions!
Visitor Center
Do you believe a broken mirror brings seven years bad luck? Do you throw spilled salt over your left shoulder? Do you think a red sky in the morning is reason to take warning... even if you're not a sailor? Skeptics and believers alike are welcome at Olana to hear stories of the superstitious practices our ancestors used to ward off evil. You might be surprised! Come join up to 13 others on a tour through Frederic Church's home and history. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Reservations are required by 4pm the preceding Friday. Call (518) 828-0135 for information.

Saturday, May 14-Sunday, May 15, 10am, 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm
Saving Olana: 21st Century Preservation and Conservation
Visitor Center
*Vehicle use fee applies
 Celebrate New York's 2011 Statewide Heritage Weekend with a special tour of Olana that focuses on the preservation work undertaken by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and The Olana Partnership over the last several years. Topics include restoration of Frederic Church's historic landscape, stencil conservation and inpainting, textile reproduction, restoration of second floor bedrooms including reinstallation of a staircase removed in the 20th century, reproduction of Olana's historic wallpapers, and the installation of fire suppression and HVAC that necessitated the house's closure in Fall 2005-Spring 2007. Call (518) 828-0135 for information.

Saturday, May 21, 5-7pm
Olana Annual Members' Reception and Private Exhibition Preview
Olana's East Lawn
Current members and invited guests
Free
 Current Olana members are invited to attend a private, members-only sneak preview of Olana's 2011 Exhibit, Rally 'round the Flag: Frederic Edwin Church and the Civil War, and enjoy a festive reception on the East Lawn. RSVP required at rsvp@olana.org or by calling (518) 828-1872 x 103. Support generously provided by Crossroads Brewing Company and Vertigris Tea.

Sunday, May 22, 2pm
Public Lecture: Rally 'round the Flag: Frederic Edwin Church and the Civil War
Wagon House Education Center
All Ages
Free
*Vehicle use fee applies
Join us for this lecture by Dr. Kevin J. Avery, senior research scholar at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and adjunct professor in the Art Department of Hunter College, City University of New York. Dr. Avery will share his research into Church's reaction to the conflict as an artist and how events involving his friends and colleagues affected him personally. Lecture is free to the public. Space is limited so please call (518) 828-1872 x 103 or e-mail rsvp@olana.org no later than May 22nd 11:00am to reserve your seat.

Sunday, May 29, 3pm
Free at Last: A Dramatic reading and discussion of A True Story by Mark Twain
Presented at the Hudson Opera House
Free
Co-sponsored by the Hudson Opera House and The Olana Partnership.
Presented by Dr. John Cooley with Carline Murphy and Azouke Legba, A True Story was told to Mark Twain and his family in 1874 by their cook, Mary Ann Cord. They were so moved by Mrs. Cord's slave narrative of cruelty, family loss, and survival, that Twain reconstructed it on paper, "repeated word for word as I heard it." A True Story was published in Atlantic Monthly magazine in November, 1874. Mary Ann Cord, born into slavery in Virginia in 1798, came to Elmira, New York after the Civil War, and worked at Quarry Farm, the Clemens' summer home, until her death in 1888.

Thursday-Sunday, May 26-October 30, 11am-4pm
Rally 'Round the Flag:
Frederic Edwin Church and the Civil War
Evelyn and Maurice Sharp Gallery
All Ages
*Vehicle use fee applies
Two weeks before the scheduled debut of Hudson River School landscape painter Frederic Church's masterwork The Icebergs, Fort Sumter was bombarded marking the start of the American Civil War. Instead of cancelling the unveiling of the painting at Goupil's Gallery, Church re-titled his masterpiece: "The North" Church's Picture of Icebergs showing his support for the northern cause. Church also pledged exhibition fees to assist the Union's Patriotic Fund for the families of Union soldiers. Less than a month later, in further support, and in response to the patriotic fever that swept the North, in May 1861 Church painted Our Banner in the Sky -- a sunrise resembling a Union Flag. The image became a popular chromolithograph issued by Goupil and Company. 2011 will mark the Sesquicentennial of the fall of Fort Sumter and the start of the Civil War. Olana's exhibition will examine Church's reaction to the conflict as an artist and how events involving his friends and colleagues affected him personally. The exhibition will include: 4 oil sketches by Church; 2 pencil sketches by Church; 2 chromolithographs after Church; and works by Isaac Hayes and John Jameson.

Saturday, May 28-Monday, May 30, 10am-4pm, last tour starts promptly at 4pm
Memorial Day Weekend Tours
Visitor Center
All Ages
*Vehicle use fee applies
Join us as we remember the impact of the U.S. Civil War on Church's life and career with theme tours highlighting our 2011 Exhibition, Rally 'Round the Flag: Frederic Edwin Church and the Civil War.

*Vehicle use fee: On weekends and holiday Mondays, April through October 31, there is a $5 entry fee per vehicle from 10AM-4PM; (Vehicle entry fee is waived for current members of The Olana Partnership and holders of the Empire State Passport.)