2026
by James Panero, September 2026
It is impossible not to feel a…shudder when stepping onto the porch of the 1815 Main House of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. The view to the west peers down to Catskill Creek and extends all the way up to the misty ridgelines of Kaaterskill High Peak and Round Top. It looks like a painting, and for good reason. Thomas Cole (1801–48) observed and depicted this vista of the Catskill Mountains more often than any other…. Read the full article here.
by Joe Donahue, August 19, 2026
The exhibition brings together the work of Thomas Cole with artists he was in direct contact with, including Frederic Edwin Church, Jasper Francis Cropsey, and Asher B. Durand; artist-members of the Cole family, and later painters who were shaped by his legacy and considered part of the artistic movement Cole founded…. Maura O’Shea, Executive Director of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, joins us this morning…. Listen to the episode here.
by James D. Balestrieri, Antiques and the Arts Weekly, July 31, 2026
Cole’s importance and influence rests on the breadth of his interests: the natural (and super-natural); the real and the ideal; the biblical and the cyclical; the primordial and the historical; the realistic and the oneiric; the emotional and the intellectual. His major works, like the four-painting sequence, ‘The Course of Empire,’ embody all of these dialectical, philosophical pairs. Artists who follow him pick up on one or more of these strands and run with them…. Read the full article here.
by Washington Post Staff, July 15, 2026
A decade-by-decade look at the books, music, art and ideas that shaped society…. Read the full article here.
by Megan Pidcock, July 13, 2026
First by train, then by car, and finally by foot, I witnessed one of the most beautiful places in the country this past Fourth of July weekend: the Hudson River Valley… Read the full article here.
by M. H. Miller, June 15, 2026
Of all the artists who spent their careers searching for a utopian ideal, my favorite is Thomas Cole… Read the full article here.
by Rhea Nayyar, June 12, 2026
This national historic site, where Thomas Cole resided and worked from his marriage until his death, calls on visitors to reflect on the Hudson River School movement and its persisting influence…. Read the full article here.
by Lambeth Hochwald, June 9, 2026
Emma Davidson Tribbs, the recently appointed board chairwoman of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, feels completely at home amid the historically preserved sites that dot the Hudson Valley…. Read the full article here.
by William Jaeger, June 6, 2026
All of this, in his own house, makes Cole’s life more tactile, believable, and ever present…. Read the full article here.
by Kim Beil, visuals by Tony Cenicola, May 25, 2026
The American art scene changed indelibly when Thomas Cole took a sketching trip to the Hudson Valley in 1825. Cole’s finished paintings were unusual. His subjects weren’t the saw-toothed Alps, nor the Italian countryside decorated with ancient ruins. Suddenly, the Catskills’ stair-step skyline, its emerald forests, its silver-mirror creeks, its waterfalls and awesome clouds were art. This, finally, was American landscape art. … Read the full article here.
by David Ebony, May 4, 2026
Thomas Cole (1801–1848) is widely regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School of painters, whose eco-conscious, Romantic outlook seems to be growing in influence exponentially with every passing year, especially among younger generations of artists, writers and thinkers… Read the full article here.
by WSJ Arts in Review Staff, May 2, 2026
“Thomas Cole: An American Visionary” (Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, N.Y. through Dec. 2026): The inaugural exhibition at the institution’s new Richard Sharp Gallery presents paintings, drawings and working materials of the great American artist, who in the 19th century was instrumental in crafting the celebrated image of the nation…. Read the full article here.
2025
by Ted Reinstein,
by Sarah Cascone & Brian Boucher & Eileen Kinsella & Min Chen,
More than a century separates Thomas Cole and Georgia O’Keeffe’s careers, but, as this exhibition argues, their practices blossomed on similar ground…. Read the full article here.
Intricately painted porcelain and works on paper by botanical artist Emily Cole, the daughter of Hudson River School founder Thomas Cole, are placed in conversation with…. Read the full article here.
Host Mark Gustavson is joined by co-host Sylvia Hasenkopf on a visit to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, NY.Maura O’Shea (Executive Director of the site) and Jennifer Greim (Director for Advancement) host Best Kept Secrets…. Listen to the episode here.
Intricately painted porcelain and works on paper by botanical artist Emily Cole, the daughter of Hudson River School founder Thomas Cole, are placed in conversation with…. Read the full article here.
by William Jaeger,
If there is a theme unifying the two key shows at the Thomas Cole House, it is the world of plants: the trees of Thomas Cole and Georgia O’Keeffe and the flowers of Emily Cole. It’s all about nature — or rather, Nature…. Read the full article here.
by Joe Donahue,
This morning, we talk about the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill and their new exhibition of artwork by Emily Cole, Thomas Cole’s daughter….. Read the full article here.
by Jennifer Huberdeau,
On a white porcelain plate with gilded edges, the life cycle of the magnolia flower blossoms, from early blooms to furry seed pod. Crafted from careful study and painted with a professional hand…. Read the full article here.
Hilarie M. Sheets, May 1, 2025
Ann Agee, Valerie Hegarty and Francesca DiMattio were inspired to make new works, while Jacqueline Bishop, Courtney M. Leonard, Jiha Moon, Michelle Sound and Stephanie Syjuco made site-responsive installations. These are all in lively conversation throughout the house and studio with Emily Cole’s china wares (originally produced and exhibited in the same studio where her father once worked)…. Read the full article here.
Sarah Cascone, April 16, 2025
The exhibition at Thomas Cole National Historic Site showcases her porcelain paintings alongside work by contemporary women artists…. Read the full article here.
2024
Priya Chhaya, October 15, 2024
Guests at the Main House where Thomas Cole (1801-1848) and wife Maria Bartow Cole (1813-1884) lived and died have often reported strange occurrences over the years—often in the bedroom. The room contains several objects connected to the couple’s life and guests report that the room often smells of old, fragrant roses…. Read the full article here.
Jennifer Kabat, October 4, 2024
At the historic house of Hudson River School–founder Thomas Cole, contemporary works by Indigenous artists present alternative worldviews of landscape and place…. Read the full article here.
Sierra Holt, September 27, 2024
Although the artist’s work will always hold this oversight, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site at Cole’s nineteenth-century home and studio, Cedar Grove, in Catskills, New York, seeks to bring Indigenous perspectives into the museum’s gallery space. One such initiative is Alan Michelson: Prophetstown, an exhibition on view until December 1…. Read the full article here.
Nick Mafi, September 27, 2024
Cole immortalized the American landscape during a time when the industrial revolution was plundering natural resources. Cole’s paintings, including Kaaterskill Falls, can be viewed as manifestos in which the artist poses a question to all Americans: Is the divine power of nature or the manmade prophecy of capitalism the viable path for our young nation? … Read the full article here.
August 26, 2024
Taking its title from the Shawnee community founded in 1808 in resistance to settler colonialism, this exhibition weaves together works by Alan Michelson (Mohawk member of the Six Nations of the Grand River) in a textual, fictional, historical, and visual tapestry of Indigenous relationships to land…. Read the full article here.
Ralph Gardner Jr, August 10, 2024
What may be the final piece of the Thomas Cole Historic Site puzzle fell into place in recent weeks with the opening of a new visitor’s center. You’re familiar with new car smell. Well, I’m here to tell you there’s also such a thing as spanking new building smell. The facility somehow manages to be modest, modern and majestic at the same time and like any such self-respecting public structure these days boasts its environmental bonafides…. Read the full article here.
Joe Donahue, August 2, 2024
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site has a new visitors center that transforms how people experience the national historic landmark, orienting them toward the Catskill Mountains that so inspired the artist and early environmentalist Thomas Cole…. Listen to the full episode here.
Alia Akkam, July 31, 2024
On July 22, a ceremonial ribbon-cutting unveiled the Cole Center, the landmark’s stand-alone visitor hub designed by AD100 interior and architectural designer Stephen Shadley. The multipurpose space will host visitor orientation and a gift shop and is designed to accommodate events, talks, student groups, and creative activities. Shadley, a member of the board of trustees of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, drew inspiration from Cole’s architectural designs when devising the new structure…. Read the full article here.
Murray Whyte, July 12, 2024
In the spring, the Museum of Fine Arts announced that it had commissioned Alan Michelson, a Mohawk member of the Six Nations of the Grand River, to craft a sculptural response to “Appeal to the Great Spirit”… those seeking a notional preview can consult this solo exhibition of Michelson’s at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in the Catskills…. Read the full article here.
July 3, 2024
At once bold and graceful, “Native Prospects: Indigeneity and Landscape,” an exhibition pairing Thomas Cole’s work with that of Indigenous contemporary artists, serves as a corrective as well as a provocation… Read the full article here.
William Jaeger, June 26, 2024
What really brings the spirit of the show forward are the contemporary works by Indigenous artists, some directly addressing the exclusion of Indigenous people from the land (scape)…. Read the full article here.
Scott Manning Stevens, June 13, 2024
Unlike European Christian notions regarding human dominion over all of creation, the Haudenosaunee belief is that our relationship with the earth is one of responsibilities…. Read the full article here.
Steven Weinberg, May 26, 2024
An exhibition curated by Scott Manning Stevens moves Native peoples to the forefront of historical depictions of the Hudson Valley and elsewhere…. Read the full article here.
Sarah LaDuke, May 7, 2024
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York has opened a new exhibition titled “Native Prospects: Indigeneity and Landscape.” It juxtaposes an Indigenous approach to the articulation of their homelands and the environment with the American landscape paintings of Thomas Cole, which are rooted in European tradition… Listen to the full episode here.
Haley Somolinos, April 12, 2024
When thinking of painters and trees, Bob Ross may be the first to come to mind. However, painters were charmed by “happy little trees” for centuries before Ross…. Cole wrote that “Trees are like men, differing wildly in character… they exhibit striking peculiarities, and sometimes grand originality.”… The 200-year-old honey locust that towers over his home is no exception, with its distinctive three-branched thorns. Planted at the entrance to the Main House, the honey locust appears in an 1868 painting of the site… Read the full article here.
Malea Martin, Winter 2024
Early 19th century artist Thomas Cole is widely considered America’s first great landscape painter, known for his intricate oil depictions of sweeping natural views in the Catskills, where he lived and worked. But Cole wasn’t a “one-man band,” says Betsy Jacks, executive director of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. “Thomas Cole didn’t do everything—he didn’t grind his pigments and make the tea and take care of the children and plant the garden. It took a whole household to make that happen.”…Read the full article here.
2023
Murray Whyte, October 20, 2023
WOMEN REFRAME THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE On view through the end of the month at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, N.Y., this exhibition moves to the New Britain Museum of American Art for the winter… Read the full article here.
Travis Diehl, August 30, 2023
An exhibition at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site shows the extent to which the idea of landscape has been rethought….. Read the full article here.
2023 Cole Fellow Kristen Marchetti, August 12, 2023
Sarah Cole (1805–1857) was an accomplished American artist known for her paintings, etchings, and drawings. Like her brother Thomas Cole, an influential figure in the Hudson River School, she worked in the earliest years of the Hudson River School movement. She exhibited and sold her work nationally while living periodically at Cedar Grove, the property we know today as the Thomas Cole National Historic Site…. Read the full article here.
Jessica Skwire Routhier, August 11, 2023
The visual appeal of the works draws you in and creates a space where you can begin to question why you have never seen some of them before, or why you respond as you do to seeing them in this place…. Read the full article here.
Zachary Small, July 27, 2023
The exhibition at the Thomas Cole site pulls double-duty, restoring Barstow’s reputation as a pre-eminent American landscape painter while putting her in conversation with contemporary artists who also incorporate nature into their work. The roster of artists shown alongside the 19th-century painter is formidable…. Read the full article here.
Philip Kennicott, July 24, 2023
CATSKILL, N.Y. — Susie Barstow is said to have walked 10 to 12 miles a day and sometimes more than twice that. She climbed all the major peaks of the Adirondack, White and Catskill Mountains, traveled the country from end to end, spent time in Europe staying current with developing art trends, and ventured as far as India, China and Japan. She was a successful artist, with an established studio in Brooklyn and elite clients and students. At a time when art was a men’s club, Barstow built not only a commercially successful career, but a formidable reputation as a landscape artist. … Read the full article here.
Erika Gaffney, July 6, 2023
Last weekend marked my first-ever visit to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site (TCNHS) in Catskill, New York. The English-American painter after whom this museum is named founded the Hudson River School, a movement traditionally associated with male artists. But in recent years, art historians, curators, dealers and other stakeholders have begun to shine a light on the women artists of the Hudson River School…. Read the full article.
Sarah Cascone, July 4, 2023
The result is a two-part exhibition pairing work by Barstow—who already had one piece in the Cole house collection—and other women of the Hudson River School, with that of contemporary women artists responding to the landscape. It’s a collaboration between Siegel, who handled the historic material (and also wrote a new monograph about Barstow), and Thomas Cole National Historic Site chief curator Kate Menconeri and assistant curator Amanda Malmstrom, who enlisted the show’s living artists. … Read the full article.
William Jaeger, June 28, 2023
The problem begins if you think women don’t usually paint landscapes. OK, you admit, they do now — women do everything now — but what about in the 1800s? “Women Reframe American Landscape” at the Thomas Cole House gives proof that women did everything then, too. And women are growing our understanding of the landscape into the 21st century. … Read the full article.
Cultured Magazine, June 27, 2023
Go back in time with a visit to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, which houses the home and studio of Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole. On view is a two-part exhibition examining female artists’ treatment of the landscape: first, a survey of the work of lesser-known Hudson River School painter Susie M. Barstow, and second, a show of contemporary interpretations of the landscape motif by artists including Kay Walkingstick, Jean Shin, and Teresita Fernández. … Read the full article.
Chadd Scott, June 26, 2023
Barstow (1836-1923) receives the first retrospective of her career one century following her death… Read the full article here.
Lauren Levato Coyne, May 12, 2023
“Women Reframe American Landscape: Susie Barstow & Her Circle / Contemporary Practices” is a two-part exhibition that exemplifies what the Cole Site does best—placing contemporary artists in dialogue with painters from the Hudson River School. … Read the full article here.
Joe Donahue, May 5, 2023
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York presents a two-part exhibition titled “Women Reframe American Landscape” May 6 to October 29, 2023. … Listen here.
Jennifer Huberdeau, May 5, 2023
With so many artistic offerings on the horizon, we’ve put together a list of eight museum exhibitions that we feel are “must-see” shows this summer — exhibitions that reinsert women artists into Hudson River School movement; explore form, function and design; celebrate collections and careers and highlight individual artists in new ways. … Read the full article here.
2022
Mellisa Manno, Nov 20, 2022
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site, home to the Hudson River School and birthplace of the American art movement, has broken ground on a $1.8 million renovation project that will launch a new comprehensive visitor center…. Read the full article here.
Scott Heller, November 8, 2022
For his eerie installation, “A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco,” the artist looked to Maggie Nelson, Hollywood glamour and upstate New York. Read the full article here.
Murray Whyte, November 3, 2022
NORTH ADAMS, Mass., AND CATSKILL, N.Y. — Marc Swanson works on a rural property nestled in the Hudson River Valley that 200 years ago inspired a school of painters who found in its pristine waters and leafy glades the presence of the divine. Lately, for Swanson, it’s been as much a ringside seat to a climate apocalypse as a bucolic refuge. “A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco,” his sprawling exhibition that spans a pair of large galleries at Mass MoCA in North Adams and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, N.Y., is his response to it. … Read the full article here.
Lauren Levato Coyne, Nov/Dec Issue
Marc Swanson’s “A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco” offers a queer elegy for our collective climate futures. The two-venue exhibition tackles… Read the full article here.
Haley Somolinos, October 21, 2022
Artists have always drawn inspiration from the changing of the seasons, and fall is often the perfect time to visit historic artists’ homes and studios to see how the shifting landscapes provided creative influence for their works. … Read the full article here.
Lucas Willard, October 21, 2022
A conversation with Thomas Cole National Historic Site Executive Director Betsy Jacks and The Best of Our Knowledge host Lucas Willard about the new digital education prototype that transforms Thomas Cole’s 1843 painting River in the Catskills into a digital world that students can enter and navigate. Listen here.
Jamie Larson, August 28, 2022
The Olana State Historic Site, located just outside Hudson, New York, and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, across the Hudson River in Catskill, live in perpetual conversation with each other. The best way to engage in the dialogue between Olana, the home of Hudson River School of painting master Frederic Church, and that of Church’s teacher and mentor Thomas Cole, is to visit them both. That’s easy enough to do, given the sites are conveniently—and intentionally—connected by the scenic Hudson River Skywalk that spans the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. … Read the full story here.
Natasha Chuk, August 13, 2022
At the famous painter’s home in Catskill, Swanson’s exhibition is in dialogue with Cole’s landscapes and fondness for the natural environment, offering an update to Cole’s 19th century concerns and idealized mountain views, which were created to critique the exploitation of land for the benefit of industry. … Read the full article here.
Joe Donahue, August 11, 2022
A new exhibition of art installations by Catskill-based artist Marc Swanson is now at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. The exhibition — titled “Marc Swanson: A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco” — is the second part of a two-part exhibition of his work that is also on display at MASS MoCA. The exhibition is inspired by the work of Thomas Cole and his warnings about environmental damage. … Listen here.
Barrymore Laurence Scherer, July 19, 2022
This intimate show tantalizes in unexpected ways. By juxtaposing finished works spanning his career with others in progress, it enables us to peer insightfully into Cole’s visual imagination and working methods…Ultimately, this moving show emphasizes the tragedy of a flourishing artistic existence cut short. … Read the full article here.
William Jaeger, June 23, 2022
We might wish that Thomas Cole’s New Studio in Catskill had somehow survived from the 1840s until now, with all its vintage wood and rippled glass. We could then feel, maybe, what Cole experienced that one final year he worked there, 1847.
But we are left with a richer narrative, a story about loss, about cultural amnesia and then about an awakening and a kind of redemption…. Read the full article here.
Joe Donohue, May 10, 2022
We’ll learn about the new exhibition “Thomas Cole’s Studio: Memory and Inspiration,” which explores the creative directions of the painter’s last years, the rich and diverse group of works left in his studio at his death, and how his example so powerfully affected the evolution of art in America…Listen here.
Karen Croke, April 16, 2022
Thomas Cole was already the most famous landscape painter in America when he died unexpectedly at the age of 47 in 1848. One of the Hudson River School painters, Cole lived and worked in Catskill. His death shook the American art world, according to Franklin Kelly, senior curator of American paintings at the National Gallery of Art… Read the full article here.
Tracy Ziemer, April 16, 2022
Having lived in the U.S. between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War — a period of great political and societal change — Cole writes about then-emerging industries and technologies, such as the railroad and the daguerreotype, and offers incredible details about hikes in the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains. … Read the full article here.
Jennifer Huberdeau, April 8, 2022
The influences and inspirations of the past and present—the nightclubs of his youth, the woods of today, the works of Thomas Cole, the impact of climate change, the similarities of the initial non-responses of the White House to AIDS and COVID-19—are ever present, as they mix and mingle throughout A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco…. Read the full article here.
April 7, 2022
Marc Swanson discusses his new exhibit and how his work examines the relationship between humans and the natural world. Watch the video here.
Sarah Rose Sharp, March 3, 2022
It is hard to say where Cole’s multitudinous interests would have taken him, if not for his early demise at the age of 47 in February of 1848. But a new exhibition opening on April 30 at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York, promises to give viewers an idea of the creative directions of the painter’s last years with a selection of works left in his studio at his death. … Read the full article here.
2021
Peter Terzian, November 9, 2021
The village of Catskill doesn’t seem particularly Catskilly. That’s partly because it’s located on the Hudson River, several miles to the east of the mountains that give the region its name. Still, you can see those mountains, a bumpy band of grayish lilac, from the house of Thomas Cole, where my husband, Caleb, and I found ourselves one recent afternoon. Read the full article here.
James D. Balestrieri, November/December 2021
A potent contribution to the relatively new notion that artists like Cole, Church and Heade were proto-environmentalists whose art brought them close to the natural world they loved and, as a consequence, made them frontline witnesses to its devastation. Read the full article here.
Ralph Gardner Jr., October 9, 2021
With the exception of a few stragglers, hummingbirds have departed the Hudson Valley for their winter homes in southern Mexico and Central America. Most of those that remain can be spotted at an exhibition called “Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment.” Read and listen to the full article here.
Kate Menconeri and William L. Coleman, October 7, 2021
Cross Pollination … is an exploration of systems of pollination in both nature and ecology, as well as a metaphor for the interplay of art and science, and relationships among artists across generations. Read the full article here.
Sarah Rose Sharp, October 5, 2021
There is a definite poignance to this exhibition, which pits the nascent awareness of human impact on wild spaces evident even in the 19th century to our present-day urgency around climate change and the need for meaningful revision of our relationship with consumption of natural resources. Read the full article here.
Jason Rosenfeld, September 2021
Cross Pollination addresses an element of the work of the Hudson River School (or First New York School) and its present inheritors upstate (or Third New York School) … that is, the ecological emergency that humanity has brought on itself and now must face in our fraught Anthropocene, as intuited in the works of our 19th-century forebearers. … Read the full article here.
Dodie Kazanjian, September 15, 2021
Shara Hughes and Austin Eddy also escaped the city, renting a house in the Catskills this spring. It was directly across the street from the historic home of Thomas Cole and a short walk across the bridge to Frederic Church’s estate Olana, on the opposite bank of the Hudson River. Eddy went specifically to investigate plein air painting—he brought a bike and a portable easel. … Read the full article here.
August 16, 2021
Cross Pollination is an enterprising endeavor that makes for a thrilling visit to the region, filled with insights running back and forth between past and present…. Read the full article here.
August 5, 2021
A round-up of this year’s best outdoor sculpture exhibitions…. Read the full article here.
William Jaeger, July 30, 2021
Have a hankering to see a show that is muscular, multi-faceted, and tightly integrated into our regional lore and landscape? Head to Catskill and Hudson for the double-edged “Cross Pollination: Heade, Cole, Church & Our Contemporary Moment.” … Read the full article here.
Shrishti Mathew, July 28, 2021
The section of the Hudson River that flows between the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill and The Olana Partnership in Hudson is wide, and some would say so are the barriers that divide some arts institutions. The tourism history of both historic homes that also serve as art exhibit spaces – as befits the spirits of the original occupants – has traveled widely diverse paths to arrive at the present.
But now here they are, finding shared goals and making their now-three collaborations with each other a fluid success…. Read the full article here.
Debra Bruno, July 30, 2021
The region is rich in timeless scenery and American history, and as more downstate New Yorkers have moved to the area, all kinds of places to go and things to do have opened up or expanded: new restaurants, well-marked hiking trails, river cruises, art galleries and museums that celebrate the Hudson River School painters. … Read the full article here
An exhibition traces the impact of Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, and Martin Johnson Heade on contemporary environmentalism.
The Art Angle Podcast with Andrew Goldstein, July 30, 2021
Right now there is a powerful, highly ambitious, and deeply relevant art show in New York that weaves together the histories of conservation and American art in a way most people haven’t seen before… on either side of the river are the historic homes of the famed Hudson River School painters Thomas Cole and Frederic Church in New York’s Hudson River Skywalk Region. … Listen to the podcast here or wherever you get your podcasts
Joe Donahue, July 8, 2021
Olana and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site are collaborating on a major exhibition, titled “Cross Pollination: Heade Cole, Church, and Our Contemporary Moment.” It addresses the continuing influence of the Hudson Valley on American art and the cross pollination that is taking place across centuries. … Listen to the full interview here
W.A. Demers, June 4, 2021
When the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced that the Thomas Cole National Historic Site was among 30 finalists for the 2021 National Medal for Museum and Library Service — one of just 15 museums nominated across the United States to be selected as a finalist for the award — the site’s executive director Elizabeth “Betsy” B. Jacks, was understandably elated. …. Read the full article here
May 5, 2021
The home and studio of Thomas Cole, founder of the renowned 19th-century Hudson River School of American painting, has been painstakingly preserved and refurbished. Also known as Cedar Grove, it’s now a National Historic Landmark with trails, gardens, and gorgeous views of the landscapes that Cole cherished and depicted in numerous paintings. …. Read the full article here
Cassie Hudson, April 20, 2021
For 20 years the Thomas Cole National Historic Site has been sharing the beauty of the painter’s home and studio with the community. This spring, people are welcome to enjoy a new community event called Spring Lights… Watch the full video here
Ariel Zangla, April 18, 2021
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site has more than one reason to celebrate this year… Watch the full video here
Tresca Weinstein, April 12, 2021
Created with 450 glowing orbs, the immersive installation conjures up a magical space filled with life and warmth. The sound score by composer Greg Hanson integrates Cole’s writings (as voiced by the actor Jamie Bell) and sets an emotional narrative that is reflected in the lighting design by Chris Bocchiaro and Megan Kinneen…a film by artist Brian Kenny, projected on the wall of the Old Studio… Read the full article here
2020
Robert and Johanna Titus, October 16, 2020
We like to think that we are good citizens of the Catskills and the Hudson Valley. Of course, we do a lot of writing hereabouts, but also, we belong to a number of our region’s historical, artistic, and conservation groups…. Read the full article here
By Barrymore Laurence Scherer, October 7, 2020
Museums may represent the final destination of an artwork, but the artist’s studio is its birthplace. Therefore, historic studios can offer an unparalleled experience of closeness to the creative act—even when visited digitally.
Among the most venerable in the U.S. is Cedar Grove in Catskill, N.Y., now revered as the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, home of the painter and founder of the Hudson River School of landscape painting. …. Read the full article here
By The Editors, September 4, 2020
The Pollinator Pavilion, at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site: Though the Thomas Cole National Historic Site’s interior remains closed to visitors, those passing through the Hudson Valley this autumn might want to stop by anyway to enjoy the open grounds…. Read the full article here
By Sara Trafton, Columbia Greene Media, August 24, 2020
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site announced the installation of an electronic vehicle charging station, the first in Catskill. The charging station, which was made possible by a donation from local residents and environmentalists Sara and Tom de Swardt, features two charging ports and allows two vehicles to charge at the same time… Read the full article here
August 7, 2020
This Friday, August 7, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York, unveils The Pollinator Pavilion, a new public artwork by internationally renowned artists Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood… Read the full article here
By Artnet News, August 4, 2020
Husband and wife artists Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood have teamed up once again, this time on a new public artwork designed to attract hummingbirds—yes, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird can be found in New York—and other pollinators… Read the full article here
By Howard Halle, July 31, 2020
We recommend making a weekend getaway to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, NY. There, you’ll find Pollinator Pavilion, an interactive outdoor art installation by artists Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood, which is described as a “fantastical architectural setting that offers miraculous moments in which individuals can encounter hummingbirds”… Read the full article here
By Nicki Donohue, July 29, 2020
In Catskill, the Thomas Cole House’s interior remains closed to the public but guests can explore the estate grounds by reserving an “Outdoor Explore Kit,” which includes souvenirs, walking directions to Catskill Creek, and a guidebook… Read the full article here
By Laura Beach, June 23, 2020
Largely overshadowed by the visible frustration and fatigue of the past few months, creativity is on the rise. With everything from the museum blockbuster to the summer vacation season effectively upended, we are reassessing our engagement with the material world… Read the full article here
By Robert Titus, PhD, and Johanna Titus, May/June 2020
We are scientists: Robert is a geologist and Johanna is a biologist. Ours are the two leading sciences of the landscape. We are also resident’s of New York State’s Catskill Mountains… Read the full article here
By Charles Desmarais, April 27, 2020
What books have you chosen for quarantine reading? I would not have thought first of a travel guidebook. But a new one that arrived in the mail last week carried me across the U.S. on a tour so absorbing, I hardly noticed that the trip was made entirely by armchair…. Read the full article here
Story and Photography by Pete Muller, April 2020
As New York’s Hudson Valley was cleared to make way for agriculture and feed a thriving tannery industry, the 19th-century painter Thomas Cole lamented the destruction of his beloved forests…Read the full article here | See an excerpt here.
April 16, 2020
In 1845, three years before his death, the American painter Thomas Cole, who is widely regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, wrote a lecture on the value of art as a public and moral good. Art, he wrote…Read the full article here.
April 7, 2020
Lecture on Art, by Thomas Cole (Thomas Cole National Historic Site): The Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole’s visionary nature was on display…Read here.
March 16, 2020
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York, offers an array of online programs covering the painter Thomas Cole, his period in America and…Read here.
February 28, 2020
Exhibit explores the theme of “cross pollination” in art and the environment from the 19th century to the contemporary moment…Read here.
2019
With his camera obscura, Shi Guorui reinterprets the landscapes of the Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole.
By Meredith Mendelsohn, October 24, 2019
Sometime last summer, a rectangular tent appeared in the woods off a trail in the Catskills…Read here.
Podcast hosted by Davis Dunavin, September 20, 2019
Two 19th century artists defined American landscape painting. Their art took them all over the world. But they always returned to the mountains and valleys around New York’s Hudson River….Listen here
By Eleanor Gustafson, September 17, 2019
In 2014 destiny brought Guorui to Catskill, New York, where he was inspired by the Hudson valley light and landscapes that so inspired Cole.
This fall you can see his results in SHI GUORUI: Ab/Sense-Pre/Sense, opening at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site on September 22. We spoke to Kate Menconeri, director of exhibitions and collections and curator at the site and curator of the exhibition….Read here
By Barrymore Laurence Scherer, August 10, 2019
An exhibition of the English-born painter’s lesser-known Hudson Valley scenes evinces his love for natural beauty and sorrow over its devastation.
Although the English-born painter Thomas Cole (1801-1848) is widely regarded…Read here
Podcast hosted by Tyler Green, July 28, 2019
For the first time, the exhibition considers Cole’s paintings of Catskill Creek…Listen here
By Peter Schjeldahl, May 27, 2019
Two small shows in the Hudson Valley hint at long spiritual rhythms that are not lost, though they may be occluded, in the staccato frenzies of of our day.
Two sublime small shows that will last the summer in towns along the Hudson River remind me of something that art is good for. Read here
By Bruce Weber, May/June 2019
Only a short walk from Thomas Cole’s house and studio in upstate New York winds a stretch of Catskill Creek that the painter would return to depict again and again…Read Here
By Dave Lucas, March 8, 2019
An artist with deep roots in upstate New York is celebrated this month with the first exhibition of her work in over a century…Read Here
2018
By Amy Griffin, The Albany Times Union
Landscape art and environmentalism have long been linked. Artists who are inspired by nature tend to want to preserve it. Though the focus of the environmental movement has evolved since the 19th century–from preserving natural treasures to averting global catastrophe–appreciation of all that nature has to offer has been a common thread. Read Here.
By Indiana Nash, The Daily Gazette
“Landmark” is a fitting exhibition, not only because it’s informed and inspired by Thomas Cole but also because it’s at the Albany International Airport, the lift-off point into sweeping aerial views of the Capital Region. Read Here.
By Joe Donahue, WAMC
Artist and author, Hudson Talbott, join us now to tell us about his new book, “picturing America: Thomas Cole and the Birth of American Art.”
It is a fascinating look at artist Thomas Cole’s life and takes young readers from his humble beginnings to his development of a new painting style that became America’s first formal art movement: the Hudson River school of painting. Read Here.
By Erica Chase-Salerno, Hudson Valley One
“All nature here is new to art. The mists were resting in the valley of the Hudson — the tops of mountains were visible on the other side — you might imagine them in another world. The fields in shadow were a most beautiful fresh green, the mountain side was brilliant though dark.”
–Thomas Cole
Discover the Thomas Cole National Historic Site
How did Englishman Thomas Cole catapult to the top of the 1800s US art game? The father of this new style of landscape painting, now known as the Hudson River School, had talent, skill and popularity. Read Here.
By Ben Yagoda, The Washington Post
My wife and I were standing on a bridge by the side of Route 23A, outside of Catskill, NY, a bit more than a hundred miles up the Hudson River from New York City. Read Here.
From Staff Reports, Poughkeepsie Journal
“Picturing America: Thomas Cole and the Birth of American Art” is the latest book for children by Hudson Talbott.
The 32-page picture book takes readers on a journey through the life of Thomas Cole, father of the Hudson River School of landscape painting, America’s first major art movement. Read Here…
by Dave Lucas, WAMC
Albany International Airport’s Art & Culture Program and the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill have partnered to present a new exhibition. Read Here…
by Joe Donahue, WAMC
The 2nd annual Hudson River Skywalk Arts Festival is on Sunday, September 30 at the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, and Olana. Read Here…
by Debra Bruno, The Washington Post
The Painters of the Hudson River School were grandiose, romantic, dramatic and brilliantly colorful. They also helped define the nation, championing wild America to a population that often saw nature as a thing to be feared and tamed, not celebrated. Read Here…
by Antiques and the Arts Weekly
Catskill, N.Y.–A new contemporary art exhibition, “Spectrum,” has opened at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, revealing a visual dialogue about color between 11 contemporary artists and Thomas Cole (1801-1848), founder of America’s first major art movement, the Hudson River School of landscape painting. Read Here…
by Jason Rosenfeld, The Brooklyn Rail
The Picturesque and Sublime: Thomas Cole’s Trans-Atlantic Inheritance CEDAR GROVE: THE THOMAS COLE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE-MAY1-NOVEMBER 4, 2018
Costume & Custom: Middle Eastern Threads at Olana
OLANA STATE HISTORIC SITE,HUDSON, NY-JUNE 17-NOVEMBER 25, 2018 Read Here…
by Brian K. Mahoney, Chronogram
The county seats of Hudson and Catskill are dissimilar in many respects, but their residents are passionate about the possibilities for their towns. We speak to the movers and shakers in the two communities about what makes them tick. Read Here…
by Brian K. Mahoney, Chronogram
Historic estates, exotic birds, troubled immigrants, deranged loners, and parishes dealing with the tainted legacy of the Catholic Church make up our September list. Read Here…
by Meredith Mendelson, Artsy
Early 19th-century America was a place of growing affluence. As wealth from agriculture and industry accumulated, New York’s moneyed classes hungered for cultural clout to add a luster of civility to the rugged face of the young republic. And as the urbanization of New York City intensified, city dwellers yearned for the picturesque. Read Here…
Brooklyn Double Wide
Catskill for Kids, Destinations
Blog by Kara Zauro
At the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, art, history, and nature converge. And it’s the kind of place that really lights up when inquisitive children arrive, so if your kids are interested in any of these subjects, definitely bring them along for a self-guided afternoon tour.