Current Exhibitions & Events
Sunday Salon
Thomas Cole in
Kanonshionni’onwè:ke tsi ionhwéntsare
Sun, Feb 23 at 2 pm
Join us for a Sunday Salon talk in the New Studio with Elizabeth W. Hutchinson, Associate Professor of American Art History, Barnard College & Columbia University. Dr. Hutchinson will discuss the complex meaning of Native Americans in Cole’s art.
Sunday Salon
Cultivated Scenery:
Thomas Cole and the Art of Design
Sun, Mar 15 at 2 pm
Join us for a Sunday Salon talk in the New Studio with Jean Dunbar, leading historic interiors expert overseeing the restoration of Thomas Cole’s Main House. Dr. Dubar will will reveal new sources for Cole’s designs.
The Scholars’ Dinner
Mon, Apr 6 at 6 pm
The Century Association, NYC
Join us for the second annual Scholars’ Dinner featuring the leading American Art scholars of today and the emerging American art scholars of tomorrow. Cocktails will begin at 6 pm followed by a seated dinner at 7 pm and remarks by the featured scholars at 8 pm.
Sunday Salon
Sun, Apr 19 at 2 pm
Join us for a Sunday Salon talk in the New Studio with Dorothy M. Peteet, Adjunct Research Scientist Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University. Dr. Peteet will illuminate the ecology of our contemporary landscapes in connection with our 2020 exhibition, Cross Pollination, which will be presented in partnership with Olana and Crystal Bridges Museum of Art.
Cross Pollination
Heade, Cole, Church & Our Contemporary Moment
May 9-November 1, 2020
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 hummingbird and habitats and includes major paintings by Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, and contemporary art by Nick Cave, Maya Lin, and more.
Created by Thomas Cole National Historical Site, The Olana Partnership at Olana State Historic Site, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. Its tour is organized by Crystal Bridges.
COMING SOON
Hudson River Skywalk
See America’s first canvas with a new scenic walkway connecting the Thomas Cole Site with Frederic Church’s Olana across the Hudson River.
Past Exhibitions
SHI GUORUI:
Ab/Sense-Pre/Sense
Curator: Kate Menconeri, Thomas Cole Site Curator
Sep 22-Dec 15, 2019
The exhibition features a new series of large-scale landscape photographs by the international contemporary artist Shi Guorui that pay homage to the landscapes and legacy of Thomas Cole. The exhibition is part of our annual series OPEN HOUSE: Contemporary Art in Conversation with Cole.
Thomas Cole’s Refrain:
The Paintings of Catskill Creek
Curator: H. Daniel Peck, John Guy Vassar, Jr., Professor Emeritus of English, Vassar College
May 4-Nov 3, 2019
The exhibition illuminates Thomas Cole’s Catskill Creek paintings, considered for the first time as an integral series.
The Art of Emily Cole
Curator: Amanda Malmstrom, 2019 Cole Fellow
March 2- Aug 11, 2019
The first solo exhibition of Emily Cole’s artwork on both paper and porcelain, revealing her exquisitely painted botanicals. Emily Cole was Thomas Cole’s daughter and the only one of his children to
become an artist.
Emily Cole, Untitled (detail), n.d., watercolor and pencil on paper, 7 5/16? x 10 5/16?.
Landmark
Curators: Kate Menconeri and Kathy Greenwood, Director, Art & Culture Program, Albany International Airport
Sep 29-Feb 25, 2019
The Thomas Cole Site and the Albany International Airport present a new multidisciplinary exhibition that features 10 contemporary visual artists and 7 writers whose works explore our relationship to the natural world, and share common ground with Thomas Cole’s greatest written work, Essay on American Scenery. The gallery is open daily from 7 am to 11 pm.
Lisa Sanditz, Fumigation Tents, 2016, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 54 x 70”, photograph courtesy the artist
SPECTRUM
Curator: Kate Menconeri, Thomas Cole Site Curator
Aug 14 – Nov 18, 2018
A contemporary art exhibition installed throughout the historic site as part of the ongoing series OPEN HOUSE: Contemporary Art in Conversation with Cole. The exhibition grew out of conversations between the Cole Site curator Kate Menconeri, the artist Kiki Smith, and exhibiting artists.
Painting: Place (Place), 2017, Jackie Saccoccio. Oil and mica on Linen, 79 x 90 in. Courtesy of the artist and Van Doren Waxter,
Picturesque and Sublime: Thomas Cole’s Trans-Atlantic Inheritance
Curators: Tim Barringer, Paul Mellon Professor in the History of Art at Yale, Jennifer Raab, Associate Professor in the History of Art at Yale, Sophie Lynford, Ph.D. candidate at Yale and Nicholas Robbins, Ph.D. candidate at Yale
May 1 – Nov 4, 2018
Photo © Peter Aaron/OTTO
KIKI SMITH / “From the Creek”
Curator: Kate Menconeri, Thomas Cole Site Curator
Aug 12 – Nov 19, 2017
“Sanford R. Gifford in the Catskills”
Curator: Kevin J. Avery, Ph.D., Senior Research Scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Apr 30 – Oct 29, 2017
Photo © Peter Aaron/OTTO
“Thomas Cole: The Artist as Architect”
Curator: Annette Blaugrund, Ph.D., Independent Scholar, Author and Curator, and former Director of the National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
May 1 – Oct 30, 2016
JASON MIDDLEBROOK: “Nature Builds / We Cover”
Curator: Kate Menconeri, Thomas Cole Site Curator
Aug 14 – Oct 30, 2016
“River Crossings: Contemporary Art Comes Home”
Curators: Stephen Hannock, Contemporary Artist and Jason Rosenfeld, Ph.D., Distinguished Chair and Professor of Art History at Marymount Manhattan College and Senior Writer and Editor-at-Large for the Brooklyn Rail
May 3-Nov 1, 2015
Photo © Peter Aaron/OTTO
Stanley Maltzman / “Thomas Cole’s Honey”
Curator: Kate Menconeri, Thomas Cole Site Curator
July 26- Oct 2, 2014
“Master, Mentor, master – Thomas Cole & Frederic Church”
Curators: John Wilmerding, Ph.D., Sarofim Professor of American Art, Emeritus, at Princeton University and former Senior Curator and Deputy Director of the National Gallery of Art
Apr 30 – Nov 2, 2014
“Albert Bierstadt in New York and New England”
Curator: Annette Blaugrund, Ph.D., Independent Scholar, Author and Curator, and former Director of the National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
May 1 – Nov 3, 2013
“Worlds Between: Landscapes of Louis Rémy Mignot”
Curator: Katherine E. Manthorne, Ph.D., Professor of American and Latin American Art at the CUNY Graduate Center, and former Research Center Head at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Apr 29 – Oct 28, 2012
Robert S. Duncanson “the spiritual striving of the freedman’s sons”
Curator: Joseph D. Ketner II, the Henry and Lois Foster Chair in Contemporary Art Theory and Practice at Emerson College, Boston
May 1 – October 30, 2011
“Remember the Ladies”
Curators: Nancy Siegel, Ph.D., Professor of Art History at Towson University and Jennifer Krieger, Managing Partner of Hawthorne Fine Art and Academic Scholar
May 2- Oct 31, 2010
“River Views of the Hudson River School”
Curator: Nancy Siegal, Ph.D., Professor of Art History at Towson University
May 2- Oct 31, 2009
“Thomas Cole’s Sketch Paintings: An Exploration of the Creative Process”
Curator: Elizabeth B. Jacks, Thomas Cole Site Executive Director
May 3 – Oct 26, 2008
“Asher B. Durand: Intimate Observations”
Curator: Lee Vedder, Ph.D., Independent Curator and former Henry Luce Curatorial Fellow in American Art at the New York Historical Society
May 20 – Oct 28, 2007
“Jasper Cropsey: Interpreting Nature”
Curator: Elizabeth Stevens, former Thomas Cole Site Curator
May 7 – Oct 29, 2006
“George Inness: Paintings”
Curator: Elizabeth Stevens, former Thomas Cole Site Curator
May 1 – Oct 30, 2005
The Program Endowment that supports educational programs at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this the programs do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
