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 Olana State Historic Site5720 Route 9G Hudson, NY 12534 Phone: 518-828-0135 www.olana.org The mission of The Olana Partnership is to support the preservation and enhancement of Olana and its viewshed, to sponsor educational programs, and to foster scholarly research on the artist and his property. The private, 501(c) (3) organization works cooperatively with New York State in the operation of Olana. Through membership dollars, grants and other sources we have completed or are engaged in the following work:
The Olana Partnership relies on a large number of supporters-individuals, foundations, companies and public sector sources-to fund our work. This support is essential to Olana's educational, outreach and public programs. It enables us to care for the collection, and to fund loans and exhibitions. For more information on how you can help please visit us at www.olana.org/give.php  OLANA: THE HOUSEThe stone, brick, and polychrome-stenciled Persian-style villa is the best known element of Olana. Church designed the main house as the family home for his wife and four children, as well as a multidimensional work of art. The exotically furnished interior remains much as it was during Church's lifetime, decorated with an eclectic mixture reflecting his aesthetic sense, objects from Church's extensive travels, and paintings by the artist and his friends. The Olana Partnership in conjunction with New York State has raised millions of dollars to support the renovation of the exterior and much of the interior of the house as well as the installation of fire suppression and climate control systems. OLANA: THE COLLECTIONS Visitors to Olana will see the paintings, sculptures and furnishings Frederic and Isabel Church acquired over the course of their lives, which surrounded them and their children in their daily life at Olana. The collection was described by a nineteenth-century guest as, "a museum of fine arts rich in bronzes, paintings, sculptures and antique and artistic specimens from all over the world." The sheer richness and depth of the collection speaks to Church's life-long interest in acquiring intriguing objects from around the world. OLANA: THE LANDSCAPE  During the last forty years of his life, Frederic Church created a 250-acre designed landscape at Olana. Church wrote of his work on the grounds at Olana, "I can make more and better landscapes in this way than by tampering with canvas and paint in the studio. Today Olana is known as one of the most important surviving Picturesque landscapes in the United States. Produced during the same period with the same aesthetic and ideological motivations, the landscape at Olana has been compared to Central Park, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. The ultimate aspect of Church's designed landscape is the view from the main house. There, the ground drops away sharply, the Hudson River widens to two miles across, and the Catskill Mountains rise up steeply. Like Church's painted views of Niagara Falls, Canadian icebergs, and South American volcanoes, this scene captures the majesty of nature. The Olana landscape is in the first stages of a major restoration. The utility wires have been brought underground. Restoration of over five miles of carriage drives was completed in the spring of 2010, and the restoration of the historic views has been started on Ridge Road. Future plans include extensive plantings of the grounds, restoration of the historic Kitchen Garden and orchards, and additional viewshed restoration. OLANA: EDUCATION PROGRAMS The Olana Wagon House Education Center is the new home to classes for all ages, workshops, lectures, special events, meetings, children's summer programs, performances and exhibitions. The amazing space, with large glass windows open to the Olana landscape, is the perfect location for programs offered to students pre-school to adult, ranging from landscape painting for beginners to advanced lectures on landscape architecture in a contemporary world. Olana's professional development programs offer teachers the opportunity to immerse themselves in Olana's rich history, artwork and environment through house and landscape, providing new ways to incorporate Olana's resources in the classroom. Visit the Olana calendar for programs at www.olana.org/ Both on-site and outreach school programs are available by advance reservation. For more information, contact the education department at (518) 828-0135 ext. 305. OLANA: THE EVELYN AND MAURICE SHARP GALLERY In 2009 The Olana Partnership inaugurated the new Evelyn and Maurice Sharp Gallery at Olana with an exhibit of Church's sketches of the Hudson River from Olana. With tens of thousands of items in the Olana collection that are primarily in storage, the new gallery was established to provide a venue for annual exhibitions focusing on Olana's art and decorative art collections enhanced by loans from private and museum collections. The current exhibition is "Fern Hunting among These Picturesque Mountains: Frederic Edwin Church in Jamaica". The exhibition features paintings and sketches revolving around Church's visit to Jamaica in 1865. Future exhibitions include the American Civil War and the Hudson River School, and Frederic Church and his contemporaries painting in Maine. OLANA: COACHMAN'S HOUSE Visit the newly renovated Coachman's House for a free photography exhibition by Larry Lederman. Larry Lederman is a photographer and writer who has traveled to many of the locations Frederic Church visited. This exhibition displays photographs of a number of sites that Frederic Church painted and seeks to evoke his artistic vision and explore his art. The photographs affirm that many of the wilderness enclaves Church painted still exist, preserved as part of our heritage because of the beauty that he and other nineteenth-century painters captured. Autographed copies of the photos will be available for sale in the Olana museum store and at the online store at www.olana.org/  VISITING OLANA:House Tours Tuesday through Sunday and holiday Mondays, April through October, 10AM-5PM; the last tour starts promptly at 4PM. The house is only available by guided tour. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling 518-828-0135. The Evelyn and Maurice Sharp Gallery Thursday through Sunday, through October 31, 11AM-4PM. This year's exhibit is entitled Fern Hunting among These Picturesque Mountains: Frederic Edwin Church in Jamaica. The Coachman's House Open daily, through October 31, 10AM-5PM This years exhibit will display, In the Footsteps of Frederic Church: Contemporary Photography by Lawrence Lederman. |
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