Event Calendar

The Coachman’s House is open for exploration when you visit Olana. Once the home of the Church’s carriage driver, the space is now home to a reading room, peaceful spot where you can learn and relax while you wait for a tour or program to start. There are comfortable chairs, lots of books and articles, and even some cool activities for children. Stop by during your visit out this season, and leave time to read about Church and Olana. Coachmen’s House is located adjacent to the Visitor Center.

Historic Landscape Tours give visitors new views and celebrates Frederic Church’s legacy which is Olana in its entirety. The Olana Partnership is launching the 2018 season with more regular public tours and specialty tours of Olana’s historic site.
Tours are offered every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday
Walking Tour 10:30, Electric 12:30 and Electric 2:30; Specialty Landscape Tours Monthly at 4pm
Meet near Visitor Center, signage marks starting place.
Reservations are strongly encouraged, please visit the Book a Tour page on www.olana.org. Walk-ins welcome, but not guaranteed.

The Olana Partnership is putting Frederic Church’s landscape masterpiece in a frame in a scenic spot where Church’s first artist studio was set onsite. The installation encourages cellphone art making, selfie compositions, and family portraits and suggested that people view the landscape through various frames both literal and metaphorical. Plan a picnic and a portrait of landscape art making session. Frame is located near Church’s old art studio. All Ages.

The Wander Society’s Adventure Lab in the Landscape
The Wander Society is a secretive underground organization who believes in the intrinsic power of wandering to transcend the problems of modern society, access a higher plane of consciousness, and participate in direct experiences of life. The Wander Society’s Adventure Lab is a mobile unit that functions as a secret portal into the operations and activities of the underground organization. Designed as a space to facilitate exploration the lab is complete with various wandering tools, images, a random assignment machine, and a wandering library.

In the 1860s when the Churches were traveling in the Middle East, Isabel Church said she “loved the tent life” while they were traveling in remote areas by caravan. They also tented in the Adirondacks, Maine, and on many of Church’s remote painting expeditions. The family’s library is filled with tales from adventurers, travel books, and particularly William Prime’s Tent Life in the Holy Land. Installed in parallel with this season’s exhibition, conceptual artist and NYT’s best-selling author Keri Smith created the Adventure Lab and in turn pays homage to the tent and adventuring from the Church’s 19th century experiences, while layering the past with contemporary participatory adventures for visitors to Olana. Designed for all ages, come explore the lab, and make your own adventures. Free and open 8:30am to sunset daily. Opens July 14th and closes on December 1, 2018. Located near Church’s old art studio. All Ages.

FD is Pairing with Valley Variety for a limited time POP UP Store featuring showroom samples, vintage, luxury pillows, and accessories

Seed bead weaving is a wonderful way to add bold colors and graphic patterns to your craft knowledge repertoire. Some beading projects can take forever but these fun, quick rings are a great way to get a taste of this new skill. Workshop will cover how to create simple patterns in traditional flat weave peyote stitch, as well as finishing techniques and an overview of different types of suitable beads and supplies for the project. Tania will have an extensive palette of colors to play with during class. All needles, thread, and other supplies will be provided.

Artists offer a unique lens with which to “read” an artist’s home & landscape. This season TOP partners with the Institute for Arab and Islamic Art in NYC to bring a dynamic mix of contemporary artists to Olana to layer their perceptions of Middle Eastern influences in Church’s home of American landscape painting. During this series, artists use many disciplines and “poetic license” to talk about Olana and the exhibition Costumes & Customs with concepts and connections that are unique to the guide. This is not a traditional house tour! Artist-led tours are accompanied by TOP’s Director of Education and end with a glass of wine and a snack on the piazza near sunset. Ages 10

A distinguished group of international writers and translators currently in residence at Art Omi will read from their works. Following the event, Art Omi invites visitors to gather for a barbecue feast and reception with the writers, for which donations are appreciated.

$10 for Single Raffle Tickets
$50 for 6 Raffle Tickets
$100 for 15 Raffle Tickets
Need not be present to win!
One Lucky Winner will receive: gift certificates to local restaurants and gifts to farms and shops in the Hudson Valley

6pm doors

Explore both traditional and out of the box applications of this often overlooked handcraft. In this two and a half hour workshop with artist Becca Van K, students will learn a simple rug making technique using a latch hook and mesh canvas, and then focus on the creative possibilities — color, composition, shape and texture.

Award-winning architecture and interiors photographer Pieter Estersohn is joined by art director David Byars (who designed the book and is also deputy managing editor of Vogue), to present an insider’s view of majestic historic houses along the Hudson River.

Life Along The Hudson: The Historic Country Estates of the Livingston Family was written and Photographed by Pieter Estersohn, with a foreword by John Winthrop Aldrich, and art direction and design by David Byars. The book is published by Rizzoli 2018.

Nature and health are intrinsically linked and the partnership between TOP and CMH brings innovative education programs to Olana to aid you in your wellness. Join Columbia Memorial Health’s Nutritionist & Dietician gives you tips for eating healthy with holiday season approaching and will give you an easy and nutritious recipe to make at home. Participants will experience a 20-minute talk, followed by a short walk with the expert on Olana’s carriage roads. Snacks will be served. All ages. Rain or shine.

In this two-hour workshop, you’ll create your own stunning floral centerpiece, learn how to make a vase out of any vessel you love, gain skills on structuring an arrangement for stability, discuss concepts of composition, and find ways to source flowers and keep them looking fresh. You’ll also get a list of flowers as they grow by season, and if time permits we’ll learn how to make a hand-tied bouquet, perfect for a gift.

6pm doors

Master storyteller Tom Lee has spent the winter writing and tracking the adventurous travels of Frederic Church through the Middle East to prepare stories for inside the main house at Olana. Lee uses art, objects, history and interactivity to help young people (and grown-ups!) fall in love with museums. This is a program designed to introduce youth to the magic of a historic house museum. Ages 5

The Question Tour inverts the traditional house tour model and seeks to layer historic fact with audience perceptions. What happens when your questions about Olana get layered with personal experience, myths, stories and more questions? Deep inspired observation and learning! Master storyteller and museum educator Tom Lee has twenty years’ experience performing in museums and libraries; and his tours are the perfect blend of entertainment and information. Ages 10

Explore Olana’s activities and Thomas Cole’s home and studios during their Community Day and trek between the two high above the Hudson on the pedestrian path of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. Exploring both museums and walking between Olana and TCNHS will certainly be a fun and a unique Hudson River Valley afternoon. The NYS Bridge Authority and specifically the Rip Van Winkle Bridge is celebrating an initiative to transform the Bridge with viewing platforms of the stunning Hudson River Valley and connect pedestrian pathways between The Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill and Olana State Historic Site in Greenport. Join in – rain or shine. More details to follow. Begin either at OLANA of TCNHS or at the RVW Bridge pedestrian parking lot. All Ages.