The Olana Partnership Celebrates Frederic Church’s 200th Birthday with Free Public Event at Olana

In addition, this festive celebration will feature free access to Olana’s historic interiors and guided landscape tours, Pollinator walks, tours of the mingled flower garden, activities with master gardeners, farm-based and hands-on activities for all ages, inspired by the artist’s love of art, nature, and global travel.

Partner organizations including Cornell Cooperative Extension, Hawthorne Valley, The Sylvia Center, Fox Farm Apiary and Columbia-Greene 4-H will lead interactive experiences celebrating the natural world that deeply inspired Church’s work. Additional support is being provided through a Market New York grant awarded by Empire State Development and I LOVE NY, New York State’s Division of Tourism.

Additional highlights include family-friendly fun such as a free photobooth, visits with small friendly farm animals, and giveaways from regional favorites including Stewart’s Ice Cream, the best ice cream maker in New York State who supports regional farms today, Bjorn Qorn homegrown non-GMO popcorn, and Hudson Valley Seed Company growing organically, sourcing locally and preserving crop diversity, available while supplies last. A selection of local food vendors will offer refreshments for purchase.

The day will conclude at 5:00 PM with a special book talk by Victoria Johnson, author of the first biography of Frederic Church timed with his 200^th birthday titled, Glorious Country: How Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World, presented in the Frederic Church Center for Art & Landscape. The talk will explore Church’s far-reaching impact and global perspective, followed by a book signing. This program is free and open to the public; seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

This birthday celebration is part of the broader Frederic Church 200 initiative, a yearlong commemoration that offers a comprehensive reappraisal of Church as a prominent public figure concerned with the key issues of the 19th century, from new scientific thinking to slavery and the preservation of green spaces for public good.

Olana will also be a stop on the free shuttle for the Hudson Children’s Book Festival happening next door at Columbia-Greene Community College.

Frederic Church’s 200^th birthday party generously supported by funding from Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program. For a full schedule and ongoing updates, visit OLANA.org/birthday/.

About Frederic Church

Frederic Church (1826-1900), is the most famous American landscape artist of the mid-19th century.

Church’s large-scale and immersive paintings of the natural world captivated a global audience, bringing him critical and financial success and international recognition for American art. Church stood apart from his contemporaries by looking beyond European models to seek inspiration in contemporary scientific and environmental thinking. Each painting was an adventure, taking him to South America to paint volcanoes and rain forests, to Labrador and Newfoundland to capture icebergs, and to the Middle East to depict the geology and landmarks of the ancient world.

Today, Church’s paintings can be seen in more than 70 public art museums across the United States and in Europe, and Olana, a New York State Historic Site and National Historic Landmark, stands as the greatest testament to his vision. Olana is the most important artist’s home, studio, and designed landscape in the United States. Church designed Olana as a holistic environment integrating his advanced ideas about art, architecture, landscape design, and environmental conservation. Olana’s 250-acre artist-designed landscape with five miles of carriage roads and a Persian-inspired house at its summit embraces unrivaled panoramic views of the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains and welcomes more than 170,000 visitors annually. The landscape is open for guided touring, and reservations are highly recommended. The landscape is open daily 8 AM-sunset.

Olana State Historic Site, administered and operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, is a designated National Historic Landmark and one of the most visited sites in the state.

About Olana Partnership

The Olana Partnership is the primary programming entity at Olana State Historic Site responsible for all public and educational programs including comprehensive tours of the historic landscape and architecture, preservation and viewshed protection advocacy. The Olana Partnership’s mission is to restore and enhance Frederic Church’s Olana, elevate its significance, and welcome diverse, contemporary audiences for learning and enjoyment. The Olana Partnership is a cooperative nonprofit partner of New York State Parks at Olana State Historic Site, a National Historic Landmark and a public work of art, architecture, and landscape.

About Art Bridges Foundation: Art Bridges Foundation is the vision of philanthropist and arts patron Alice Walton. The mission of Art Bridges is to expand access to American art in all regions across the United States. Since 2017, Art Bridges has been creating and supporting programs that bring outstanding works of American art out of storage and into communities. Art Bridges partners with a growing network of over 220 museums of all sizes and locations on nearly 700 projects across the nation, impacting over 4.1 million people, to provide financial and strategic support for exhibition development, loans from the Art Bridges Collection, and programs designed to educate, inspire, and deepen engagement with local audiences. The Art Bridges Collection represents an expanding vision of American art from the 19th century to present day and encompasses multiple media and voices. For more information, visit artbridgesfoundation.org.