New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Thomas Cole National Historic Site

Thomas Cole Site Hosting Volunteer Info Open House

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Thomas-cole-houseThe Thomas Cole National Historic Site is opening its doors for an Information Open House on Sunday, February 15 at 12:30 pm for a one-hour program for all those interested in volunteering as a tour guide.

The Thomas Cole National Historic Site, located in Catskill, New York, is currently seeking volunteers to conduct tours of the house and studio. The organization is also recruiting Art Trail guides for their popular hiking program on the Hudson River School Art Trail where the views in 19th-century landscape paintings can be seen today in the Catskill Mountains. Volunteers are also needed for gardening and helping out at events. [Read more…] about Thomas Cole Site Hosting Volunteer Info Open House

Thomas Cole Site 2015 ‘Sunday Salon’ Preview

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NOZKOWSKI_Untitled_9-25_ Sams PointTo begin their second decade of “Sunday Salons”, Thomas Cole National Historic Site’s 2015 schedule will focus on connections to the immediate present, in conjunction with the exhibition, River Crossings: Contemporary Art Comes Home, that opens in May 2015 at both the Thomas Cole site and Olana.

Sunday Salons feature wine, cheese and mind-opening presentations once per month on Sundays at 2 pm. Tickets are $9 per person or $7 for members of either the Thomas Cole site or Olana. Tickets can be obtained online or at the door. [Read more…] about Thomas Cole Site 2015 ‘Sunday Salon’ Preview

Community Day At Thomas Cole Historic Site Sunday

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Photograph: Thatcher KeatsThomas Cole Historic Site will host a Community Day featuring free access to the site, live music, refreshments and family activities on Sunday, September 28th, from 1 to  4 pm, rain or shine.

Open for free visits will be Thomas Cole’s home and studio plus three art exhibitions: Master, Mentor, Master, featuring the 1845 period paintings of Thomas Cole and his young student Frederic Church; Postcards from the Trail 2014; and Thomas Cole’s Honey, Stanley Maltzman’s drawings of our 200-year-old Honey Locust tree. [Read more…] about Community Day At Thomas Cole Historic Site Sunday

Stanley Maltzman Exhibition at Thomas Cole Historic Site

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Stanley Maltzman Thomas Cole House_2014The Thomas Cole National Historic Site has announced a summer exhibition and birthday celebration for a very special tree that turns 200 years old this year.

The exhibition entitled Thomas Cole’s Honey with new artworks by the beloved artist Stanley Maltzman will open July 26 with a reception that is free and open to the public from 4:30 to 6 pm. The exhibition will run through October 2, 2014.

A special selection of approximately ten new artworks by Stanley Maltzman will be on view at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site from July 26 – October 2, 2014. All made between 2013 and present, Maltzman’s watercolors, pastels, and drawings pay homage to the towering, 200 year old Honey Locust tree that stands across from Thomas Cole’s front door. [Read more…] about Stanley Maltzman Exhibition at Thomas Cole Historic Site

Master, Mentor, Master: Thomas Cole and Frederic Church

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church-catskillcreek-1847-washingtonctymusThe new exhibition of landscape masterpieces by Frederic Church and Thomas Cole is now open at the Thomas Cole Historic Site, featuring twenty artworks from 1844-1850, focusing on the early work of Church when he began studying with Cole in Catskill, New York.

The exhibition, on view through November 2, 2014, includes plein air studies by Church when he was an 18-year-old apprentice as well as large, highly finished and stunningly skillful paintings that were completed just a few years later. Compare Church’s work to Cole’s from the same time period as they covered the same territory together. [Read more…] about Master, Mentor, Master: Thomas Cole and Frederic Church

Lecture: Thomas Cole, Frederic Church And Science

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unnamed(2)The Hudson River School artists worked at a time when great revolutions were sweeping through science. This Sunday January 12, at 2 pm at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, The husband and wife science team Johanna (biologist) and Robert (geologist) Titus will offer an in-depth look into the interactions of Thomas Cole and Frederic Church with the scientists of their time.

Highlights include the Titus’ discovery of the local mountain that Cole used as a model for the famous centerpiece of his series “The Course of Empire.” The Titus’ will sign copies of their new book, The Hudson Valley in the Ice Age, after the talk. [Read more…] about Lecture: Thomas Cole, Frederic Church And Science

Exhibit: Albert Bierstadt in NY, New England

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2013-04-28 GalleryThe Thomas Cole National Historic Site has set record attendance numbers for their 2013 exhibition: Albert Bierstadt in New York & New England, which remains on view through November 3, 2013. As of the middle of July, attendance income was more than double the number from the previous year and has exceeded all previous records. The Thomas Cole site has recently announced plans to hire more touring staff to keep up with the demand. [Read more…] about Exhibit: Albert Bierstadt in NY, New England

Art Historian Barbara Novak Being Honored Sunday

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Barbara NovakBarbara Novak is one of America’s premier art historians.  Breaking into the world of American art history in the 1950s, when few professors taught the topic, Dr. Novak spent the next 40 years creating a foundation for the study of American art history through her seminal books and teaching.

Now the Helen Goodhart Altschul Professor of Art History Emerita at Barnard College and Columbia University, Novak has inspired generations of students to pursue careers in academic and museum life. Six speakers from a range of fields will offer personal stories of the wide sweep of Dr. Novak’s influence as a scholar and mentor. Dr. Novak will offer her remarks at the end of the event. [Read more…] about Art Historian Barbara Novak Being Honored Sunday

The Immigrant Thomas Cole and NY State Tourism

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View of Fort Putnam (Thomas Cole)Thomas Cole (1801-1848) , English immigrant, is regarded as a father of the Hudson River School, the first national art expression of the American identity in the post-War of 1812 period. It was a time when we no longer had to look over our shoulder at what England was doing and could begin to think of ourselves as having a manifest destiny. Cole also was very much part of the birth of tourism which occurred in the Hudson Valley and points north and west. [Read more…] about The Immigrant Thomas Cole and NY State Tourism

Call to Artists: Hudson River School Art Trail

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To celebrate the many talented artists who continue to be inspired by the landscapes along the Hudson River School Art Trail, the Thomas Cole Historic Site has issued a “call to artists” to submit a new postcard-sized artwork for an exhibition and sale entitled “Postcards from the Trail” that will take place on Sunday September 23, 2012. [Read more…] about Call to Artists: Hudson River School Art Trail