Past Symposiums

Olana and Cedar Grove are active partners in a variety of educational projects, including an annual symposium on topics which relate to the missions of both sites. The following is a summary of two recent collaborations.

Rooted in the Hudson River School, May 2004

George Inness, Pastoral Landscape at Sunset, 1884. Oil on canvas. 25 1/2 x 33 3/8 in. The Grey Collection

Olana and Cedar Grove hosted close to 100 participants in the Middle School auditorium in Catskill for a program focused on the second generation of Hudson River School artists who began their studies in the Hudson River School tradition and then departed from the mold to develop their own individual styles.

The symposium coincided with an exhibition at Cedar Grove of works by one of these artists, Ralph Albert Blakelock. The exhibition featured more than twenty original drawings, watercolors and oil paintings, including rarely seen works from private collections, as well as other unusual items such as the artist's original palette still covered with original marks and blended paint. Elizabeth Stevens, curator of the exhibition and Director of Exhibitions and Collections at Salander O'Reilly Gallery expressed, "Cedar Grove is a beautiful and interesting setting for this exhibition. Thomas Cole's home represents the beginning of the Hudson River School, which had a profound influence on Blakelock. With Olana nearby, and Catskill Village being the home of Blakelock's family, this show is an appropriate tribute to an area that has inspired so many artists."

Ralph Albert Blakelock, Moonlight, c.1880-1899., Oil on canvas, 14 x 18 inches. Private collection

The symposium program elaborated on the idea of earlier painters such as Cole and Church, and the Hudson River Valley serving as an inspiration and departure point for both a subsequent generation of artists, like Blakelock, and for contemporary landscape painters. The day began with an orientation lecture by Karen Lucic, Chair of the Department of Art at Vassar College entitled, "Landscape Painting After the Hudson River School: Perception and Imagination." She was followed by Adrienne Baxter Bell, Curator of George Inness and the Visionary Landscape, an exhibition which had recently been on view at the National Academy of Design in New York City, who presented "George Inness: Streams of Paint and Thought."

Tamis Groft, Curator of the Albany Institute of History and Art spoke about American Impressionist, Walter Launt Palmer. Palmer studied with Frederic Church at Olana, and his father, sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer was one of Church's closest friends. The final talk of the morning, "The Paintings of the Parton Brothers," by Roderick Blackburn, examined the work of three artist brothers who lived in Hudson. Frederic Church commissioned one of the brothers, Arthur Parton to execute a painting of his property at Olana, and this painting is still on view in the house.

After a box lunch on the bucolic porch and surrounding lawn at Cedar Grove, participants were able to take part in a number of afternoon activities including a hike to sites painted by Inness, Palmer and the Partons lead by Barry Hopkins, artist and art historian. Special tours of both Olana and Cedar Grove were offered, and Elizabeth Stevens conducted Curator's Tours of the Blakelock exhibition.

Authors, Adrienne Baxter Bell and Glyn Vincent were on hand throughout the day to sign copies of their recent publications on Inness and Blakelock and to answer questions about the artists. The majestic views of the nearby Catskill Mountains from the porch at Cedar Grove provided a lovely backdrop for continued conversations about the artists and the exhibition which extended late into the afternoon.

Highlights of the 2001 Symposium
Thomas Cole: 200 Years of an American Vision, October 2001

Guests convene on the porch at Cedar Grove at the Friday night reception

In 2001, as Cedar Grove opened its doors to the public for the first time, the site joined with Olana to host a symposium which simultaneously celebrated the first season of Cedar Grove as a historic site, and the 200-year anniversary of the birth of Thomas Cole. This multi-day event featured some of the most preeminent scholars of the Hudson River School. The tremendous success of the program set the tone for what has become an annual joint symposium hosted by these two sites dedicated to the two great patriarchs of American landscape painting.

The weekend in October began with a Friday evening wine and cheese reception on the newly renovated porch at the Thomas Cole site in Catskill. Guests enjoyed the lovely mountain views from the porch and conversed with the lecturers, many of whom had been involved as advisors on the restoration of Cedar Grove.

Hikers at "Artist's Rock" during Barry Hopkins' Sunday hike in the Catskills

Saturday's program, held at Columbia-Greene Community College, began with welcoming remarks by College President, Jim Campion. Winthrop Aldrich, then Deputy Commissioner of New York State's Office Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, served as moderator throughout the day's lecture series. Professor of American Studies at Franklin and Marshall College, David Schuyler, began the morning by orienting participants to the establishment of Hudson River School painting as a truly American landscape tradition. Kenneth Myers, Associate Curator at the Freer Gallery of Art, described the nineteenth-century burgeoning American tourism experience and its ties to paintings depicting the great American wilderness and other sought-after locales. William and Mary Professor Alan Wallach discussed two concurrent 19th-century trends, the simultaneous exaltation of the American natural landscape and its destruction through industrialization, deforestation and modernization. The lecture also discussed how artists such as Thomas Cole reflected their reactions to these trends in their paintings. These morning lectures provided the historical context for afternoon talks which would focus more specifically on the works of Thomas Cole and Frederic Church.

A symposium guest converses with speaker, Ken Myers

After a box lunch on the grounds of the college, participants reconvened for talks by scholars Ellwood Parry, Gerald Carr and Franklin Kelly. Ellwood Parry, Professor of Art at the University of Arizona, linked the 19th-century relationship between landscape painters and the literary voices of the era in his lecture, Cooper, Cole and "The Last of the Mohicans". Independent art historian Gerald Carr used beautiful contemporary landscape images to discuss the lure of the Catskill region for earlier painters like Church, and Cole, as well as for artists today. Franklin Kelly, a curator at the National Gallery of Art, finished the afternoon with his lecture, Master and Pupil: Cole and Church, discussing the personal and professional relationship between Frederic Church and his teacher and mentor Thomas Cole.

Later that afternoon, participants congregated on the lawn at Olana for a cocktail reception and enjoyed a signature Hudson Valley fall sunset worthy of any Cole or Church painting.

The following day a series of activities were offered, including special tours of Olana and Cedar Grove. A highlight of the day was Barry Hopkins' sold out hike into the Catskills, to sites painted by Thomas Cole, Frederic Church and other Hudson River School artists.

Church family descendent, Maria Livingston talks with another symposium participant

The symposium provided an introduction for many attendees into the close relationship between Cole and Church, and established an opportunity for the sites to work together to educate the public through quality programming.