Digital Content & Outdoor Experiences
Spring Lights
Fri, Sat & Sun
April 16-May 9
Free Community Fridays every week
“Spring Lights” is a new outdoor nighttime walk-through event inspired by the artist Thomas Cole (1801-1848) and his love of nature. Visitors with timed tickets will explore a one-way looping path to encounter a building-wide projection by the contemporary artist Brian Kenny and immersive light and sound environments designed by Clerestory Light.
The Pollinator Pavilion
by Mark Dion & Dana Sherwood
Open Now-Fall 2021
Visit the new outdoor public artwork designed specifically for the site by internationally renowned artists. The pavilion provides a fantastical architectural setting to encounter hummingbirds while exploring a nurturing relationship with nature.
Cross Pollination
Heade, Cole, Church & Our Contemporary Moment
June 12-October 31, 2021
Presented at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and Olana State Historic Site
A new collaborative exhibition of 19th-century and contemporary art exploring the theme of “cross pollination” in art and the environment.
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.
Grounds Explore Guide
Visit the historic grounds and building exteriors now using our “Explore at Your Own Pace” digital educational guide.
Hudson River School Art Trail
Step into a landscape painting with our program, the Hudson River School Art Trail, which provides maps and directions to visit the places in nature that Thomas Cole and other Hudson River School artists painted.
Walk along Catskill Creek
Visit the Mawignack Preserve down the road and discover new outdoor interpretation we created with Scenic Hudson, Greene Land Trust, Greene County Historical Society, the Mohican Nation Stockbridge-Munsee Band and the Hudson River Valley Greenway.
Visit Cole’s Gravesite
The gravestones of Thomas Cole, his wife Maria Bartow, and their family are located in the Catskill Village Cemetery, just down the street and walkable from the historic site.
360 Explore
Virtually explore Thomas Cole’s historic Main House and Old Studio. Venture into the artist’s bedroom to spot his traveling trunk and linger in front of his painting easel in the studio. You have the buildings all to yourself.
“Cross Pollination” Catalogue
Now available for purchase
Our newest publication is available now in the shop. The book accompanies our collaborative 2020-2022 national exhibition coming to the Hudson Valley in 2021. Discover original essays by the curators, gorgeous 19th-century paintings and major contemporary art.
Digital Library
Sunday Salons, Beecher Lectures, Curator’s Talks, Artist Interviews, Fellows Presentations & more
Learn about American art and landscape from leading scholars and artists.
Virtual Gallery
Explore Thomas Cole’s paintings and writings with scholar analysis on our website explorethomascole.org.
Teacher Resources
Programs, lesson plans and activities for K-12 students that use American art to teach American history.
Thomas Cole’s Story
Read Thomas Cole’s Story by the Penguin Random House author and illustrator Hudson Talbott.
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.
Recent Press
Thomas Cole’s message is connecting with people today. Read about the artist and our recent activities in the news.
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
Support provided by the Henry Luce Foundation, U.S. Small Business Administration, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the Bay & Paul Foundations, Willow Springs Charitable Trust, the Enoch Foundation, Empire State Development’s I LOVE NEW YORK program under the Market NY initiative, Art Bridges Bridge Ahead Initiative, the Brown Foundation, the Gilder Foundation, a Humanities New York CARES Grant with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the federal CARES Act, Terra Foundation for American Art, Tianaderrah Foundation, and the Kindred Spirits Society of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site.
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.
