Past Exhibitions
November 19, 2023 – March 31, 2024 Sharp Family Gallery | Olana State Historic Site Organized by The Olana Partnership 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... Read More
Through October 29, 2023 Olana State Historic Site To learn more, click here. 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,... Read More
November 20 – March 26, 2023 The Olana Partnership, in collaboration with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, presents the first winter exhibition at Olana State Historic Site, Chasing Icebergs: Art and a Disappearing Landscape. The exhibition, shown primarily in the Sharp Family Gallery at Olana, highlights Frederic Church’s iceberg... Read More
June 12 – October 31, 2021 Presented at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and Olana State Historic Site 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... Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
June 12 – October 31, 2021 Presented at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and Olana State Historic Site 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... Read More
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. Read More