Exhibitions, Programs & Events

Grounds Open for Free Every Day

First Look Inside the Cole Center

Preview the new interior illustration of the Cole Center, learn about our 2024 exhibitions and consider joining us for an exciting year with a variety of naming opportunities.

Learn more

Private Guide Tours

Dec-Apr

Book a Private Guide to experience the historic interiors, museum collection and immersive digital experiences. Private Guide tours are available by appointment only, Wednesday through Friday.

Reservations

The Sunday Salons

Jan-Apr

Our annual Sunday Salons present new ideas in American art with innovative thinkers. The events take place once a month from January through April in the New Studio building on campus.

Coming Soon

Winter Tours

Book a Guided Tour on select weekends in January, February and March.

Coming Soon

Collection Highlights

Browse our online Collection Highlights, a selection from over six hundred objects and two research archives. Many collection items are on view throughout the Cole Site interiors, in historic rooms, as well as within the rotating exhibition Mind Upon Nature: Thomas Cole’s Creative Process.

Browse

Thomas Cole Paintings on View

Spectacular original paintings by Thomas Cole are on view in the artist’s home this season.

Preview

Digital Immersive Experiences

Discover digital immersive experiences throughout the authentic historic interiors of the artist’s home. Experiences include paintings that come to life, audio soundscapes, letters that appear on desks and 270-degree floor-to-ceiling projections.

Preview

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.

Choose Your Destination

Walk along Catskill Creek

Visit the Mawignack Preserve – Cole’s favorite walking spot – just down the road and discover new outdoor interpretation organized by the Greene Land Trust in partnership with the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Greene County Historical Society, Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation, and Scenic Hudson.

Information

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.

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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.

Information

Virtual 360 Explore

Virtually tour Thomas Cole’s historic Main House and Old Studio. Discover pop-out videos and find the artist’s original letters.

Explore

Perspectives

Digital content presenting new perspectives from curators, artists, and community leaders on Thomas Cole’s life and art from the 19th century to today.

Watch Videos & Listen to Podcasts

Teacher Resources

Programs, lesson plans and activities for K-12 students that use American art to teach American history.

Learn more

Virtual Gallery

Explore Thomas Cole’s paintings and writings with scholar analysis on our website explorethomascole.org.

Visit

Thomas Cole’s Story

Read Thomas Cole’s Story by the Penguin Random House author and illustrator Hudson Talbott.

Read the Story

Guide Book

Free Web Version

This abbreviated web version of the Guide Book will lead you from space to space. A printed copy of the Guide Book is available in our gift shop and online, here.

Explore

Each year, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site presents special exhibitions of historic and contemporary art that debut here and travel the country. Browse past exhibitions

What other art will you see on a visit? Browse Thomas Cole paintings on view and Collection Highlights.

The Thomas Cole Site programs and operations are supported by the National Park Service, a grant awarded to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site by New York State’s Empire State Development and the I LOVE NY Division of Tourism, Warner Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, David Bury and The Bay & Paul Foundations, Enoch Foundation, The Manitou Fund, The Educational Foundation of America, The J. M. Kaplan Fund, 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.

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