Olana Partnership

Collections / exhibitions: top's curatorial department continued to build momentum for an ambitious suite of national activations that will take place in 2026 in support of church 200, the bicentennial of frederic church's birth. The church 200 initiative, led by dr. Elizabeth mankin kornhauser, curator emerita of the american wing at the metropolitan museum of art, and senior consulting curator for the olana partnership, will feature over 50 participating museums across the globe planning exhibitions and installations placing church's work and legacy in a new light. Top's curatorial team spent much of the year in outreach to participating museums, planning for a significant loan exhibition at olana, providing research assistance for 17 contributing authors to the accompanying exhibition publication, and hosting a scholarly convening in october in support of the publication. From may-october top presented afterglow: frederic church and the landscape of memory, exploring church's memorial landscape paintings in-depth for the first time, centered on loans of two rarely seen paintings from private collections: to the memory of cole (1848) and the evening star (1858). The exhibition was accompanied by a full-color catalogue, published by hirmer, featuring essays from american art scholar rebecca bedell and exhibition curator allegra davis. In november top piloted a collections-based programmatic series a closer look, aimed at fostering conversational "close looking" sessions centered around underseen artworks from the olana collection. At the end of 2024 top was awarded a grant of $300,000 from the henry luce foundation to fund a 2-year project to digitize and create a public online catalogue of works by frederic church in the olana collection. This exciting initiative will provide unprecedented access to olana's rich collection of drawings, sketches, oil studies, architectural drawings, and paintings by church, spanning the artist's career. The project is anticipated to debut to the public in 2026. In research and collections, works from olana featured in two significant external exhibitions in 2024: the awe of the arctic: a visual history at the new york public library (march-july 2024) featured 19th-century stereographs collected by church, and the painting a solitary lake in new hampshire by thomas cole was featured in the traveling exhibition native prospects: indigeneity and landscape, held at the thomas cole national historic site, the florence griswold museum, and the farnsworth art museum. The curatorial team hosted several visiting researchers, including casey monroe, senior research cataloguer for frederic edwin church at cooper hewitt, smithsonian design museum. Significant research support was also provided to writer victoria johnson in support of her upcoming comprehensive biography of church, and author annik lafarge, author of on the highline: the definitive guide (now in its third edition), whose book offering a walker's guide to the history of olana is also anticipated to publish in 2026.

Visitor services: the organization is responsible for interpreting olana state historic site and its collections for all visitors and for ensuring, to the best of its ability, the safety and comfort of visitors. To this end, the organization offers a variety of regularly scheduled public tours throughout the year with trained interpretive staff. It also employs and trains staff to assist visitors with orientation, wayfinding, ticketing, and parking. By the terms of the operating agreement with nys oprhp, the organization must have a visitor services manager on site during all public tour hours.

Landscape / viewshed: the mingled flower garden thrived in 2024 and top continued to work with its long-term gardener on maintenance plans. Thanks to the generous support of glen and serra butash for funding the full maintenance and materials for this garden, a prominent feature in olana's landscape which is enjoyed by many visitors. Work on the frederic church center continued at a brisk pace throughout much of 2024, and the building construction and designed landscape which surrounds the structure was finalized in october. The olana partnership had its first opportunity to observe how visitors would be interacting with the new space. Feedback for the new facility and its surrounding landscape has been very positive. At the close of 2024, there were no development threats within olana's viewshed. Two highly visible neighboring properties (not yet protected) are currently for sale: a 100-acre estate property on mount merino, north of olana, and a 12-acre farm property south of olana. Both are in the town of greenport, which lacks adequate zoning.

Capital development: 2024 was the seventh year of top's capital campaign to fund the design and construction of the frederic church center for art & landscape (fcc), a new visitor entry and orientation facility that is the linchpin of olana's strategic landscape design plan. As of december 31, 2024, the campaign has total commitments of $11,284,622. Top has secured additional public grant funding for the fcc of $4.3m. Construction of the fcc was completed in 2024, and the facility was opened by gov. Hochul on october 25, 2024. Top signed a temporary operating agreement with oprhp on october 10, 2024. All capital development projects are the result of a long-term commitment to olana's 250-acre landscape, an improvement of public access while balancing the broader interpretative goals which are essential to understanding olana as both a nationally significant historic site and a large-scale work of art.