Current Exhibitions
Each year, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site presents special exhibitions of historic and contemporary art that debut here and travel the country.
What other art will you see on a visit? Browse Thomas Cole paintings on view and Collection Highlights.
Alan Michelson
Prophetstown
Jul 20-Dec 1, 2024
Artist Alan Michelson (Mohawk, Six Nations of the Grand River) presents a site-responsive exhibition throughout the historic artist’s home and landscape including the first complete American display of Prophetstown, 2012; the first New York display of Hanödaga:yas (Town Destroyer), 2018; and video and other mixed media installations.
Current Traveling Exhibitions
Native Prospects
Indigeneity and Landscape
Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT
November 16, 2024-February 9, 2025
Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
March 7-July 6, 2025
Our new exhibition juxtaposes an Indigenous approach to the articulation of land with the American landscape paintings of Thomas Cole. Curated by Dr. Scott Manning Stevens, PhD / Karoniaktatsie (Akwesasne Mohawk).
The Pollinator Pavilion
at The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park at Newfields, Indianapolis, IN
Designed by internationally renowned artists Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood, the Pavilion provides a fantastical architectural setting to encounter birds year-round while exploring a nurturing relationship with nature. The installation at Newfields will include plantings indigenous to Indianapolis, complementing the work Newfields has done through the Wild Birds Unlimited Native Pollinator Meadow and other efforts to support pollinator populations and expand native species.
About Historic Exhibitions
Each year, The Thomas Cole National Historic Site invites a guest curator to bring a new perspective to Thomas Cole’s work by creating a new exhibition of nineteenth-century art in Thomas Cole’s reconstructed New Studio. The exhibitions bring together artwork from museums and private collections across the country.
About Contemporary Exhibitions
OPEN HOUSE: Contemporary Art in Conversation with Cole is an annual series of curated contemporary artist installations located within, and in response to, the historic home and studios of artist Thomas Cole. Operating from the concept that all art is contemporary, the program activates conversations between artists across centuries. Exhibitions and artworks have ranged from those that literally reference Thomas’s iconic works to those that expand on issues and themes relevant to him, including art, landscape, history, and balancing the built and natural worlds. OPEN HOUSE projects shed light on the connections between nineteenth century American art and our contemporary moment.