Cole Fellowship 2025–2026 | Call for Applicants

The Thomas Cole National Historic Site (TCNHS) is now accepting applications for the Cole Fellowship, a one-year, residential fellowship at the historic artist’s home and studios of Thomas Cole (1801–1848). Cole Fellows participate in the research and interpretation of the artist’s work, home, studios, landscape, and the continued relevance of the Site today. This includes conducting primary research under the direction of the museum and opportunities to work closely with TCNHS staff on site-wide programming that may include work on exhibitions, collections, education, publication, visitor engagement, and more.

Four candidates will be invited to join the Site from June 4, 2025 – May 25, 2026. Through a combination of research, interpretation, and hands-on projects, Fellows conduct significant research and gain professional museum experience. Selected candidates are provided the opportunity to:

• Conduct in-depth primary research that leads to a major project, presentation, and paper based on their work. Topics are tied to current initiatives at the site and may span research on the artists who lived and worked here, histories of the land and the people who once lived and worked here, and/or engaging best practices in our current moment that address museum and educational innovation today.
• Work closely with the Chief Curator, Director of Engagement, and TCNHS staff on projects that may include collection care and research, exhibitions, educational programs, and other special events.
• Interact with visitors at the site, lead guided tours, and have full engagement with interpretive programming.
• Attend an intensive one-week seminar with leading Cole scholar and professor, Dr. Alan Wallach.
• Receive public speaking coaching and participate in ongoing sessions with award-winning Broadway director and TCNHS Board Member, Warner Shook.
• Participate in site-wide activities and staff meetings to learn about the structural, strategic, and creative decisions involved in the day-to-day operations of a historic artists’ house and museum.
• Attend monthly field trips and educational site visits to relevant museums and cultural venues.
• Benefit from professional development including resume review and next step career planning based on individual goals.

Additional Compensation: Free on-site housing is provided in the fully furnished Fellow’s House, which includes a private bedroom, shared kitchen, living room, 1.5 baths, yard, and utilities (electric, water, heat, internet, and garbage removal). Additionally, Fellows receive a monthly stipend of $700.

Qualifications: TCNHS seeks self-motivated recent graduates, graduating college seniors, and graduate students who have expressed a commitment to pursue careers in art, history, museums, material culture, decorative arts, collection and exhibition management, and/or education. Applicants should be flexible, collaborative, organized, energetic, have a passion for art and ideas, and an affinity for working with the public. A car is helpful, but not required.  Participation in the entire program is required. Work week is Wednesday–Sunday for most of the program and when the Site is open to the public.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:

Applications will be accepted through February 7, 2025, with priority consideration given to applications received by JANUARY 27, 2025. Applications must include:

• Brief letter of introduction describing your interest in the Cole Fellowship, relevant experience, and career goals
• Resume
• References – Include the name, title, and full contact information for 3 people (professors, teachers, employers)
• Writing sample (2 to 4 pages MAX)

* Please send your materials as a single PDF file/s and title it with your name and content, for example “Sarah_Cole_Application”

Please EMAIL your application (PDF files only) to: hpalmer@thomascole.org

For more about the Thomas Cole Site visit www.thomascole.org.

Cole Fellow Projects have included curating the first solo exhibition of Emily Cole; expansion and redesign of the Hudson River Art Trail; publishing the first book dedicated to the Cole Site Collections, launching new educational programs, and more. This has included conducting new research for W/Hole History and being a part of the planning team working now to rethink the histories of land and the people who lived and labored at the Site. Fellows focused on curatorial practices have worked closely with the TCNHS curatorial team to realize contemporary and art historical exhibitions and publications, including the nationally touring exhibitions Women Reframe American Landscape; Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment; as well as Picturesque and Sublime: Thomas Cole’s Trans-Atlantic Inheritance; and contemporary art installations sited in the historic artists home and studio such as Kiki Smith: From the Creek, Shi Gourui: Ab/Sense-Pre/Sense, Marc Swanson: A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco, and Mark Dion + Dana Sherwood’s Pollinator Pavilion. Fellows have also edited publications and transcribed original writing by Thomas Cole, proposed and written new tours, and curated projects from the collection, including reinstalling collections in Mind Upon Nature: Thomas Cole’s Creative Process.

Primary Research by Year

2024:

• Behind the Curtain: The Bartow Sisters of Cedar Grove (1820–1904), Catherine Augustyn
• Theodore A. Cole: Remembering a Legacy Through Art, Land, and Prose, Michaela Ellison-Davidson
• Labor’s Small Steps: Seeing the Cole Site Through Two Hired Laborers of the Bartow/Thomson Family, Ryan Munasinghe

2023:

• To Obscure and To Equalize: Josephus Thomson, Black Life and Unacknowledged Labor in the Hudson Valley, Sofia Thieu D’Amico
• The Land Where We Are Standing: The Indigenous Peoples of Catskill, New York, Vicente Cayuela
• Sarah Cole: Illuminating the Life and Work of a Hudson River School Painter, Kristen Marchetti
• Cedar Grove Foundations, Demerara Exploits, and Catskill Beginnings, Beth Wynne

2021-2022:

• A History of Land Protections and Sustainable Actions to Support Ecological Habits Today, Isabelle Bohling
• “Hurry, Noise and Restlessness”: River in the Catskills and Industry in Catskill Beyond Thomas Cole, Brooke Krancer
• Regarding the Free, Black woman documented as a Cedar Grove resident, 1840 Census, Adaeze Dikko

2020:

• Experiencing the History of America Through Art: On-Site & On-Line Adventures, Anne Comer
• Changing Hands, Changing Lands: The History of the Cedar Grove Property, 1848–1961, Marissa Hamm
• Ten Thousand Fires: Thomas Cole’s Environmental Anxiety, Alex McCarty
• Last Indian—Dead Hemlock: Thomas Cole and the Imagined Indian, Hampton Smith

2019:

• Thomas Cole and the World: A Search for Perspective in the 1840s, Peter Fedoryk
• The Gendered Landscape: Revisioning a Women’s History of the Hudson River School and Cedar Grove, Amanda Malmstrom
• The Great Outdoors: The Importance of Place, Nature, and Outdoor Experiences, Maeve McCool
• Below the Surface: Understanding the Mineral Collection of Thomas Cole, Katie Pratt-Thompson

2017-2018:

• The Onsite and Online Classroom: Students as Artists, Writers and Environmentalists, Madeline Conley
• Painted by Miss Cole”: Bringing to Light Women Artists of Cedar Grove, Rowanne Dean
• Real and Imagined: The Landscapes of Thomas Cole, Adam Grimes
• “An Act of Love”: Cedar Grove’s Development from Home to Museum, Michael Quituisaca

2016:

• All Time is Now: Developing Audience Engagement Through Exhibitions and New Media – Leila Farrer,
• Empowering Children: The Historical and Cultural Legacy of Thomas Cole and Catskill – Kathleen Brousseau
• “Nature is a sovereign remedy”: Expanding the Hudson River School Art Trail – Casey Monroe
• Design, Interaction, and the Visitor Experience at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site – Claire Pohl

2015:

• The Appreciation of ‘Pure, Simple Nature’: Friends and Patrons of Thomas Cole – Amy LeFebvre
• Traveling Through Time with Thomas Cole: Creating an Engaging Web Experience – Elena Ostock
• The Social Importance of Art: Imagining Thomas Cole’s East Parlor – Keith Lebel

2014:

• Catskill Calling: Thomas Cole’s 1825 Hudson River Journey – Rita Carr
• Making Commitments: Revisiting the letters, poems, and journals of Thomas Cole, 1835-1836 – Kathryn O’Dwyer
• Then and Now: Tracing the Histories of Thomas Cole’s Paintings – Jennifer Morales

2013:

• A Worthy Pupil: The Relationship between Thomas Cole and his most celebrated student, Frederic Edwin Church – Kelsey Hoffman
• In their Own Words: Central Themes in Thomas Cole’s Art and Writing and Their Continued Relevance Today – Catherine Popovici
• “An Alter [sic] onto Mammon” – Thomas Cole, Industrialization, and Reverent Editing – Anne Rich

2012:

• Thomas Cole’s Paintings at Home: 1836-1848 – Margot Mache
• Thomas Cole: Art & Tourism in the 1820s – Amara McMann
• From Passion to Painting: Thomas Cole & the Visual Representations of his Intellectual World – Madeline Turner

Testimonials from Cole Fellows:

The Cole Fellowship was a transformative experience. It enriched my interest and ability in conducting research, gave me the space to openly discuss new ideas, and to address and reintroduce the lives of people whose histories were once lesser known, while encouraging us to be critical of the histories that canonically receive the most amount of spotlight.

Beth Wynne, 2023

Working as a Cole Fellow this past year has been a rich and highly rewarding experience. I have gained direct experience in a variety of museum specialties, from curatorial work to interpretation, and collaborated with art historians, artists, museum professionals, and scholars who have expanded my thinking about art spaces today.

Kristin Marchetti, 2023

The Cole Fellowship opened my eyes to the world of American Art and how a museum can highlight the continued relevancy of an historic art movement in the present-day. As a fellow, I had the opportunity to partake in every aspect of the historic site’s operations while also making my own contribution to the organization’s goals with my research project. There is no other opportunity like this for recent undergraduates and its impact on my life and career will be long-lasting.  

Marissa Hamm, 2020

The Thomas Cole Fellowship provides the infrastructure for recent graduates to grow into future leaders and thinkers. It gives a unique space to condense years of learning into action—to develop unique ideas about the future of museums, the environment, and art history. From working on a year-long research project to giving multiple tours to diverse audiences, one leaves the program with the ability to scale challenges across personal and professional silos. With a dynamic staff and loving community, I cannot recommend the Thomas Cole Fellowship enough.

Hampton Smith, 2020

Being able to devote so much of my attention towards education was tremendously useful; the fellowship is so well designed in that you can highly specialize in an area of interest while never feeling boxed in. [ … ] I was regularly awed and honored by how much responsibility I was entrusted with during my time as a fellow, but not only that, how much support I was given to carry out these responsibilities. … This meant, for example, that I was able to go into classrooms and present to students on Thomas Cole, and while I always had support, I was given the freedom to lead these workshops independently. This also meant I was included in important meetings and decision-making, and got to do much of that important decision-making myself. This was so critical and transformative. I’ve been afforded so much confidence from both the responsibility and support this fellowship offered

Madeline Conley, 2018

Working at the Cole site was an amazing opportunity because I was able to be a part of a wide variety of projects across disciplines—public programming, exhibition design, curation, and marketing. I got to design my own experience as I entered the Fellowship, following my own interests and influencing the creative direction of the museum. The professional development, mentorship, and site visits provided structure, but I felt free to explore my own passion for history and public engagement. Plus, I learned a ton about Thomas Cole and the Hudson River School directly from the experts and had the history at my fingertips everyday.

Leila Farrer, 2016

The most rewarding aspect of being a Thomas Cole research fellow is being able to wear many different hats. As Cole Fellow, you are not confined to one department of a museum, but get to play a pivotal role in all the different facets of the Site

Kathleen Brousseau, 2016

For me, it was my personal connection to Thomas Cole. To know that I was working in his home, living in his backyard, and watching the sunset from his porch was a priceless feeling—a feeling I had longed for since I first discovered the Hudson River School and the work of Thomas Cole.

Casey Monroe, 2016

The success of my endeavors at the Cole Site were due in part to the structure of the Fellowship that required contributions to a number of diverse independent and cooperative projects. …As a Cole fellow I executed research and exhibitions from which I derived pride and a higher level of professionalism. Guiding house tours and presenting my research formally elevated my public speaking skills. Participating in the Cole Fellowship is such an informative experience for anyone who is considering a career in the museum world!

Kathryn O’Dwyer, 2014