Programs + Events

2:00-3:00PM

Families are invited to participate in monthly outdoor walks at Olana and virtual healthy cooking classes with The Sylvia Center! During these special two-part weekend programs, families will explore Olana's landscape together through observation and art activities on Saturday afternoons. After each onsite walk at Olana, meal kits with local produce will be distributed for the virtual cooking class, led by The Sylvia Center. On Sundays (May 16, June 6) from 12:00-1:00pm, families will take the lead from a TSC Chef Instructor, and will use the ingredients in their meal kits to cook a healthy brunch from the comfort of their own homes.

For families with children 18 and under (children should have adult supervision). Register for one or all four classes. FREE (suggested donation $12). Advanced registration required. For more information or to be on our waitlist, please contact education@olana.org or call (518) 751-6938. For information about The Sylvia Center please visit sylviacenter.org or email info@sylviacenter.org.

1:00-2:00PM.

Explore Olana’s artist-designed landscape by taking a closer look at trees growing onsite. During this gentle hour-long walking tour, you will meet various tree species, and learn how to recognize them and what role they are playing in the landscape. This tour will be led by Conrad Vispo and Claudia Knab-Vispo from the Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program, which cultivates compassion for the local ecological and cultural landscape.

$15 person, $10 members. Advanced registration required. For more information, please contact education@olana.org or call (518) 567-2170.

3:30-5:00PM

Interested in hiking with your little one but don’t know how to get started? Join Whale of a Trail Adventures for a walk through Olana's landscape combined with an information session on using Kid Carriers, structured hiking backpacks for carrying children approximately 6-months through the toddler years. During this event, parents and caregivers will be able to try on multiple carriers and will receive one-on-one attention to help with fit and plan for future outdoor experiences. The group will then go for a short walk through the landscape to learn more about Olana’s artist-designed landscape while carrying their little ones. This program is designed for parents and caregivers and their children in the 6-30 month range. Child must be able to sit up on their own unassisted. Limited to 5 families.

FREE. Advanced registration required. For more information, please contact education@olana.org or call (518) 567-2170.

Photo credit: Leor Miller

9:30AM-12:30PM

Botanical Illustration is the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species. Studying nature’s forms and colors can facilitate deeper understandings of drawing, color, and the natural world. In this eight-session course for adult learners ages 55+, teaching artist Wendy Hollender will guide students in using pencil and watercolor pencils to create realistic botanical drawings. Through this course, participants will learn more about drawing techniques, qualities of color, and deepen their understanding of plant forms and structures. This in-person course is offered in conjunction with Olana’s 2021 exhibition, Cross Pollination, which explores the connections between art and nature through the work of Martin Johnson Heade, Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, and contemporary artists engaging with themes of nature, ecology, and the natural world. The eight-session course will culminate in a celebration of students' hard work throughout the workshops.

Wendy Hollender is a botanical artist, illustrator, author, and instructor. She is an instructor of Botanical Art and Illustration at the New York Botanical Garden and leads workshops at her farm in Accord, New York. In 2016, she started a highly successful online botanical drawing program: www.drawbotanical.com. She is a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society and the National Tropical Botanical Garden Florilegium Project.

$200 person, $150 members. Limited capacity; Advanced registration required at OLANA.org. For more information, please contact education@olana.org or call (518) 567-2170.

During the COVID-19 crisis, The Olana Partnership will refund registration before this program upon cancellation for any reason. Please note that The Olana Partnership reserves the right to cancel this program due to extreme weather or other dangerous conditions.

Art by Wendy Hollender, Poppies

This course is funded by Aroha Philanthropies.

Drawing paper for this course has been generously donated by Legion Paper.

6:00-7:00PM

Join Jean-Marc Superville Sovak, multidisciplinary artist and teaching professional and professor Myra Armstead for a virtual presentation and conversation about the lives of black Americans during the time of Olana’s creation. During this program, Sovak will introduce his series, a-Historical Landscapes, a project which involves altering 19th century landscape engravings to include contemporaneous images borrowed from Anti-Slavery publications. Through discussion with Professor Myra Armstead, Lyford Paterson Edwards and Helen Gray Edwards and Professor of Historical Studies at Bard College, this conversation will consider how the timeline of Church's site-specific masterpiece, Olana, runs concurrent to the experiences of men and women born into slavery in the Hudson Valley.

Olana After Hours is a virtual platform for lively conversations with interdisciplinary practitioners discussing how their passions intersect with the ongoing story of Olana. Each conversation will be hosted on Zoom. A link to the program will be sent beforehand.

$5 (FREE for members). Advanced registration required at OLANA.org. For more information, please contact education@olana.org or call (518) 567-2170.

10:00-11:00AM.

During this program, local environmentalists and ecological stewards will lead walking tours of Olana, engaging participants in the work of their organizations and providing new insights into Olana’s 250-acres. By connecting their expertise with Olana’s physical landscape, each visiting environmentalist will provide a deeper understanding of Olana as not only an artist-designed landscape, but a resource for immersive explorations in our environment and appreciation of the natural world.

Rise and shine with Constitution Marsh staff for a guided bird walk around Olana. Participants will walk the perimeter of Church’s landscape and learn more about the birds that will be calling the Hudson Valley home for the season. Constitution Marsh Audubon Center and Sanctuary is a unique and beautiful tidal marsh located in Putnam County, New York, and serves as vital natural habitat in the Hudson River Estuary. It is situated on the east shore of the Hudson River, just south of the village of Cold Spring. The Center conducts nature education programs for visiting groups, bird studies, invasive species management, and habitat restoration efforts.

$15 person, $10 members. Advanced registration required. For more information, please contact education@olana.org or call (518) 567-2170.

1:00-2:00PM.

Explore Olana’s artist-designed landscape through the perspective of pollinators. Join beekeeper Chris Layman in an hour-long guided outdoor walk and learn more about the importance of honeybees during Frederic Church’s lifetime and our own. Chris Layman and his wife Lisa run Fox Farm Apiary, a honeybee rescue and sanctuary in the Hudson Valley. In partnership with Olana, Fox Farm maintains an apiary onsite at Olana’s farm complex. This program covers approximately 1/4 mile.

$15 person, $10 members. Advanced registration required. For more information, please contact education@olana.org or call (518) 567-2170.

1:00-2:00PM.

During this program, local environmentalists and ecological stewards will lead walking tours of Olana, engaging participants in the work of their organizations and providing new insights into Olana’s 250-acres. By connecting their expertise with Olana’s physical landscape, each visiting environmentalist will provide a deeper understanding of Olana as not only an artist-designed landscape, but a resource for immersive explorations in our environment and appreciation of the natural world.

During this hour-long walking tour, learn more about Olana through Basilica Hudson’s vision as an organization devoted to art and environmentalism. Melissa Auf Der Maur, Co-Founder and Director, will lead this tour, exploring Olana while considering the vital role artists and art organizations can play in environmental advocacy and action.

$15 person, $10 members. Advanced registration required. For more information, please contact education@olana.org or call (518) 567-2170.

1:00-2:00PM.

During this program, local environmentalists and ecological stewards will lead walking tours of Olana, engaging participants in the work of their organizations and providing new insights into Olana’s 250-acres. By connecting their ecological expertise with Olana’s physical landscape, each visiting environmentalist will provide a deeper understanding of Olana as not only an artist-designed landscape, but a resource for immersive explorations in our environments and appreciation of the natural world.

Claudia Knab-Vispo and Conrad Vispo from Hawthorne Valley’s Farmscape Ecology Program will lead this program, exploring Olana through the lens of meadow plants and their insect visitors. Learn more about Hawthorne Valley’s work cultivating compassion for the ecological and cultural landscape of Columbia County, NY during this hour-long walking tour.

$15 person, $10 members. Advanced registration required. For more information, please contact education@olana.org or call (518) 567-2170.

1:00-2:00PM.

During this program, local environmentalists and ecological stewards will lead walking tours of Olana, engaging participants in the work of their organizations and providing new insights into Olana’s 250-acres. By connecting their ecological expertise with Olana’s physical landscape, each visiting environmentalist will provide a deeper understanding of Olana as not only an artist-designed landscape, but a resource for immersive explorations in our environment and appreciation of the natural world.

Tracey Testo, program coordinator at the Cornell Cooperative Extension, will lead this program, exploring Olana through the lens of agroforestry and examining the history of our forested landscape. The Cornell Cooperative Extension supports ecological sustainability and social well-being in New York State by putting knowledge to work in pursuit of economic vitality, ecological sustainability, and social well-being.

$15 person, $10 members. Advanced registration required. For more information, please contact education@olana.org or call (518) 567-2170.

1:00-2:00PM.

During this program, local environmentalists and ecological stewards will lead walking tours of Olana, engaging participants in the work of their organizations and providing new insights into Olana’s 250-acres. By connecting their ecological expertise with Olana’s physical landscape, each visiting environmentalist will provide a deeper understanding of Olana as not only an artist-designed landscape, but a resource for immersive explorations in our environment and appreciation of the natural world.

Join Riverkeeper's Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator Jen Benson for a walking tour of Olana’s artist-designed landscape to learn the history of both the Hudson River, explore historical and current threats to the Hudson River, and learn about Riverkeeper's efforts to advocate for fishable and swimmable waters. Riverkeeper’s mission is to protect and restore the Hudson River from source to sea and safeguard drinking water supplies, through advocacy rooted in community partnerships, science and law.

$15 person, $10 members. Advanced registration required. For more information, please contact education@olana.org or call (518) 567-2170.