Come celebrate the changing of the seasons during this special community day. Join us for a series of free opportunities to experience the Hudson Valley‘s beautiful winter landscape and explore some of the cultures and countries that inspired the artist Frederic Church and his family!
Did you know Church was deeply inspired by winters in Mexico, his travels to Jamaica and South America, and visits he and his family made to countries in the Middle East? Welcome the winter season and learn more about Olana’s global influence during this special community celebration!
- Enjoy free access to Olana’s historic interiors.
- Watch the sunset and purchase refreshments from Frankie’s nomadic coffee shop as you warm up around a bonfire.
- Drop in for free activities and games led by Olana educators and partners.
- Listen to live music by Heard World Jazz.
- Visit with everyone’s favorite miniature donkey, Hank, back by popular demand!
This event is sponsored by 
Join us for a series of short indoor performances in the main house with Heard World Jazz to start the day’s celebration. During each short performance, participants will get the chance to enjoy a live short performance from the main house interiors and take in Heard World’s vibrant sound incorporating influences from West Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean and beyond. Due to space constraints, each performance will be limited to 12 people and will include 2-3 songs. FREE; performances at 1:00, 1:15, 1:30 and 1:45
Registration Required and space extremely limited.
Celebrate the New Year with expansive views and your best friend! Channel 19th century artist Frederic Church’s taste for exploration during a special pup-friendly hike of the winter landscape at Olana State Historic Site. Learn more about Olana’s special winter exhibition, Spectacle: Frederic Church & The Business of Art, as you explore Olana’s 250-acres with your furry friend in tow. Please note, all dogs must be kept on a leash during their time at Olana and the site is a carry in carry out facility.
Begins at the Wagon House Education Center at the historic farm complex at the bottom of the site and covers about 1 mile with an uphill portion; please wear weather-appropriate apparel and comfortable footwear.
Check out other #DogsofOlana on our Instagram at @OlanaFredericChurch. Hot beverages (coffee, tea, and hot chocolate) and sketching materials will be provided in the Wagon House Education Center from 1-3pm as part of Artmaking in the Afternoon if you are inspired during your adventures.
FREE, registration required. Dogs must be on a 6 foot leash. For more information, please contact education@olana.org or call (518) 751-6938.
Celebrate the New Year by exploring expansive views at Olana State Historic Site! Channel 19th century artist Frederic Church’s taste for exploration during this special hike of the winter landscape and learn more about Olana’s special winter exhibition, Spectacle: Frederic Church & The Business of Art, as you explore Olana’s 250-acres. Hot beverages (coffee, tea, and hot chocolate) and sketching materials will be provided in the Wagon House Education Center from 1-3pm as part of Artmaking in the Afternoon if you are inspired during your adventures.
Begins at the Wagon House Education Center at the historic farm complex at the bottom of the site and covers about 1 mile with an uphill portion; please wear weather-appropriate apparel and comfortable footwear.
FREE, registration required. For more information, please contact education@olana.org or call (518) 751-6938.
First Day FREE Artmaking in the Afternoon
Inspired by your time at Olana or looking for family-friendly fun on the First Day of the New Year? Participate in free, drop-in sketching in the Wagon House Education Center from 1-3pm 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.
Private Exhibition Tour for Members
Members are invited to join Allegra Davis, Associate Curator of The Olana Partnership, for a private gallery tour of our winter exhibition SPECTACLE: Frederic Church and the Business of Art.
Space is very limited, so please RSVP to Lauren Miller by emailing lmiller@olana.org by January 10th.
The noted painter Charles Ethan Porter (1847–1923), was born in Connecticut and at times maintained a studio in Frederic Church’s hometown of Hartford where he exhibited locally. He became associated with the area and was described in local newspapers as “the Hartford artist.” During this virtual webinar, learn more about Porter’s accomplished still life and landscape paintings that were collected by prominent figures like Church and Mark Twain. Join curator Erin Monroe as she examines the challenges Porter faced navigating racial inequality and prejudices as a Black artist working in the post-Civil War era. Combining new research and archival resources, this presentation will explore Porter’s life and legacy in Hartford and connect his story to a wide range of topics, from changing American taste to the abolitionist movement.
Erin Monroe is the Krieble Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. She has led the department since 2016 and oversees an extensive collection encompassing colonial portraiture, nineteenth-century landscapes, neoclassical sculpture, modernism/surrealism, and mid-century abstraction. Drawing upon the strengths of the museum’s holdings, she has curated Andrew Wyeth: Looking Beyond; Gorey’s Worlds; and Paul Manship: Ancient Made Modern, the first museum exhibition on the artist in thirty years. She served as the in-house curator for Milton Avery, organized by the Royal Academy of Arts, and Frederic Church: A Painter’s Pilgrimage, organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts. Monroe holds an M.A. in art history from Hunter College (CUNY), and obtained a B.A. in art history from Northwestern University, with a minor in African studies.
Traveling to the Heart of the Andes
The Andes are the world’s most complex, unexplored and biodiverse mountain range. Across an enormous variety of ecosystems, from the driest deserts to some of the wettest forests, 10% of the world’s plant species are found in these mountains, and many more are still to be discovered. For centuries, explorers, researchers and artists have felt fascination for these mountains, which still guard countless mysteries and are a continuous source of inspiration. The Heart of the Andes, by Frederic E. Church (1826–1900), is an exquisite representation of the biological richness of these breathtaking landscapes, inviting curious eyes to explore every inch of this fabulous painting. During this virtual webinar, Dr Mauricio Diazgranados will guide viewers through a journey traversing Church’s painting, sharing his photographs, adventures, and knowledge with over 30 years’ experience hiking and exploring the flora of these mountains.
Doctor Mauricio Diazgranados leads the strategic positioning and planning for Science at New York Botanical Garden. He directs and oversees the activities of the various components of the International Plant Science Center (IPSC), including the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium; the Institute of Economic Botany; the Institute of Systematic Botany and the Graduate Studies program, among others. In his previous position (2016–2023), Dr. Diazgranados was a Research Leader at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and led the Nature-based Solutions Initiative, aiming to provide solutions to address environmental and societal challenges for the benefit of both society and nature. Before that, he served as Director for Science at the Bogotá Botanical Garden (Colombia). Dr. Diazgranados has more than twenty years of teaching experience, has published numerous papers, books, and extinction risk assessments for plants. His research develops plant and fungal diversity approaches to support communities in locations and economies where nutritional, income and biodiversity issues are of paramount importance. His projects focus on studying utilized, neglected and under-utilized plants, their main threats and conservation status, and their sustainable use, primarily in the Tropics.
Coffee Extravaganza: 19th Century Displays of Abundance and the Art of Coffee Drinking
Like many Americans, artist Frederic Church was an avid coffee drinker, preferring it to tea and favoring beans from Latin America, a frequent destination for his travels. During Church’s lifetime, the United States became the largest importer of coffee in the world, sourcing most of their product from Brazil. Striking World’s Fair exhibits and other celebratory imagery obscured shortsighted agricultural methods and exploitative labor practices upon which this industry relied. During this virtual webinar, Caroline Gillaspie will explore Brazil’s impressive agricultural exhibit at the 1876 U.S. Centennial exhibition alongside other artworks depicting coffee drinking in the United States as they reflected the developing taste for the beverage in the 19th century.
Caroline Gillaspie is the Assistant Curator of American Art at the Brooklyn Museum. She received her PhD in Art History from the CUNY Graduate Center where she completed a dissertation titled, “‘Delicious Libation’: The Art of the Coffee Trade from Brazil to the United States, 1797-1888.” Much of her research is focused on ecocritical approaches to art history with a particular focus on landscape painting across the Americas. She was a proud docent at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site for six seasons, and subsequently went on to teach art history courses at universities in New York City.
Displaying Marianne North: Reexamining the Relevance of The Royal Botanic Gardens
During this virtual webinar, learn more about Marianne North, the trailblazing female painter and 19th Century visitor to Olana, and the unique ways she showcased her rich botanical work. Dr. Lynne Howarth-Gladston, artist, curator and scholar, will examine the display of North’s work in a self-named gallery at the Royal Botanic Garden. By sharing more about North’s work and legacy, Gladston will examine how the Marianne North Gallery at Kew gardens has both clear connections to the history of 19th-century gallery design and relevance to contemporary exhibition models like installation art.
Dr. Lynne Howarth-Gladston is an artist, curator and scholar with a PhD in critical theory from the University of Nottingham. She has exhibited her painting internationally and was lead curator of the exhibition New China/New Art: Contemporary Video from Shanghai and Hangzhou, which was staged at the University of Nottingham’s Djanogly Gallery in 2015. She was also an expert contributor to the BBC4 documentary, Kew’s Forgotten Queen: The Life of Marianne North (2016). Lynne is currently teaching at the University of New South Wales.
The Olana Partnership programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
