AS THOMAS COLE HOUSE MISSION ADAPTS, MESSAGE STAYS THE SAME
Famed painter’s love of nature, and his warnings, a big theme at historic site
More than 20 years of capturing the Hudson River Valley on canvas, painter Thomas Cole fell in love with its natural beauty — and came to fear for it deeply.
In the middle of the 19th century, those concerns were prescient, and often disregarded.
Known as the founder of the Hudson River School of landscape painting, “Cole was one of the first Americans to express environmentalist views at a time when people thought natural resources were endless,” said Betsy Jacks, executive director of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill. “In his lectures and essays and with his paintings, he implored people to take better care of what we had, and to have more appreciation for it.”
That’s why the historic site, which encompasses Cole’s home and studios (one original, one reconstructed), often builds exhibitions and experiences around the English native’s relationship with his adopted homeland, and the surroundings that inspired him. With the house closed to visitors due to COVID, the outdoors has come into even sharper focus.
At the center of the site, the Pollinator Pavilion, a fanciful gazebo created by artists Mark Dion and Dana Sherwood, invites both birds and people to pause and find sustenance in nature. A few steps away, the Hudson River Skywalk along the Rip Van Winkle Bridge links Cole’s home with Olana (fellow painter Frederic Church’s estate across the river) via a scenic pedestrian route. The Hudson River School Art Trail, created in partnership with Olana, the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area and the State Department of Environmental Conservation, identifies 20-plus sites throughout the region where hikers can see what places depicted in famous paintings look like today. Jacks and her team also worked with local agencies and the Mohican Nation Stockbridge-munsee
Band to delineate a 1-mile walking loop along the Catskill Creek, featuring Cole’s words and work.
Adding another dimension to the site, “Spring Lights,” an outdoor light show, opens this week on the grounds. It was
created by Clerestory Lights, the team that brought “Nightwood” to the Mount, writer Edith Wharton’s home in Lenox, Mass., last winter. 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 actor Jamie Bell) and sets an emotional narrative that is reflected in the lighting design by Chris Bocchiaro and Megan Kinneen.
“Thomas Cole waxes so poetic about the nature that surrounds him in this particular place where he chose to make his home, and we wanted to bring some of that glory of nature and place that is so present during the day into a nighttime experience,” said Bocchiaro, creative director for the group. “It’s very much about blossoming and blooming, this resurgence of nature and of optimism after a long COVID winter.”
“Spring Lights,” on view through May 9, also includes a film by artist Brian Kenny, projected on the wall of the Old Studio, a kaleidoscopic animation of color and imagery that evokes the depth and richness of Cole’s canvases.
“As an independent nonprofit, not owned by either New York state or the federal government, we have the freedom to experiment and try things outside the
box of your traditional house museum,” said Jacks, who came on board in 2003 after a stint as director of marketing at the Whitney Museum. Her creative approaches garnered the site a finalist spot for the 2021 National Medal for Museum and Library Service.
“For example, inside the main house, we’ve restored the interior, putting back the look of the time period as if the historic characters had just stepped out, but we also wanted to bring the feeling that they had just stepped in, so we infused the historic spaces with audiovisual storytelling,” Jacks explained. In the downstairs parlors, portraits come to life, letters appear on Cole’s desk and visitors can overhear conversations that took place in these rooms nearly two centuries ago.
The parlors will hopefully reopen in May, and on June 12, “Cross Pollination,” a collaborative exhibition of work by 20-plus Hudson River School and contemporary artists, opens at both the Cole site and Olana, exploring the theme of cross-pollination between art and the environment. A new installation will also open upstairs in the main house, highlighting an older Cole, who has become increasingly worried about the destruction of his beloved landscapes.
As an independent nonprofit, not owned by either New York state or the federal government, we have the freedom to experiment and try things outside the box of your traditional house museum.”
His warnings, Jacks said, still resonate today, like these words from a public lecture in Catskill in 1841: “Nature has spread for us a rich and delightful banquet — shall we turn from it? We are still in Eden; the wall that shuts us out of the garden is our own ignorance and folly.”