Digital Content & Outdoor Experiences
Outdoor Explore Kits
Fri, Sat & Sun
Visit and explore with our new Outdoor Explore Kits, now available for contactless pick-up. Kits come in “Basic” and “Family” and are designed to enhance your visit to the grounds.
A Virtual Summer Party Pic-Nic
Sun, Aug 30 at 5 pm
While enjoying a special picnic safely delivered to your home, we will come together for a live virtual event with a special guest speaker and a fireworks display.
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.
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.
Grounds Explore Guide
Visit the historic grounds and building exteriors now using our “Explore at Your Own Pace” digital educational guide.
Remote Learning Activities
Learn at home with curriculum-based lesson plans for schoolchildren using American art to teach American history.
Writing Prompts
Consider how a landscape changes over time with curriculum-based writing prompts and a drawing activity designed for K-5 and grades 6-12.
Virtual Views & Coloring Activity
Explore Cole’s favorite view at his home. Consider how a landscape changes over time and color your own landscape art.
Slow Looking Activity
Slow down and discover all the details hidden within Thomas Cole’s epic landscapes with a new guided activity for all ages.
Thomas Cole’s Story
Read Thomas Cole’s Story by author and illustrator Hudson Talbott.
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 Event: 2020 Cole Fellows’ Research Presentations
Join Alex, Hampton, Anne, and Marissa as they present their year-long research presentations on zoom. The original presentations took place over zoom on Friday, May 15.
Staff Pick
Curator’s Talk
Follow the link to read our Visitor Center Manager and in-house designer, Rachel Stult’s, recommendation for this Curator’s Talk with Kevin Avery that we hosted in 2017 for the opening of our exhibition, “Sanford R. Gifford in the Catskills.” Keep checking back for more staff picks from our online videos.
Staff Pick
Artist Talk
Follow the link to read our Curator, Kate Menconeri’s, recommendation for this Artist’s Talk with Thomas Nozkowski that we hosted in 2015 on the occasion of our joint exhibition “River Crossings.” Keep checking back for more staff picks from our online videos.
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 painted.
Virtual Gallery
Explore Thomas Cole’s paintings and writings with scholar analysis on our website explorethomascole.org.
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.
The Scholars’ Dinner Digital Program
Spring 2020
Join us for a digital experience with written remarks from featured scholars, videos, and information about upcoming projects in American art. The in-person event in NYC was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recent Press
Thomas Cole’s message is connecting with people today. Read about the artist and our recent activities in the news.
Cross Pollination
Heade, Cole, Church & Our Contemporary Moment
Jun 12-Oct 31, 2021
Presented at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and Olana State Historic Site
A new exhibition exploring the theme of “cross pollination” and communities working together in art and nature 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.
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 Bay & Paul Foundations, Willow Springs Charitable Trust, The Enoch Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, The Tianaderrah Foundation, Art Bridges Bridge Ahead Initiative, Manitou Fund, Terra Foundation for American Art, a Humanities New York CARES Grant with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the federal CARES Act, and Empire State Development’s I LOVE NEW YORK program under the Market NY initiative.
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.
