ART INSPIRES ART AT OLANA'S WAGON HOUSE
Dianna Lefas
ccSCOOP News
Olana, the family home of Frederic Church in Greenport, NY, is branching out with a new creative space and programs to encourage and inspire an artistic view of the world in the spirit of Frederic Church, preeminent 19th century artist and prominent member of the Hudson River School of Art.
According to Nelson Sterner, Director of Administration and Public Affairs of the Olana Partnership, the Wagon House, a project begun last summer and completed this past May, is a faithful reproduction of the wagon house that once stood on the same site during Church’s day, but which had been razed in the 1930’s. |
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The project was made possible by a $1.6 billion grant from the Empire State Renewal Core and the Johnson Family.
Partnership Educator, Cheryl O’Donnell, said the new Wagon House, located near Cosy Cottage below Olana itself, will open as a community space with plans for art and conservation workshops as well as lectures.
An innovative program, “Backpacks on the Move,” the brainchild of Barbara Robinson who was a former director of art at Williams College and the consultant behind “Kids Space” at MassMOCA, is designed to interest participants, especially children, in nature, observation and art.
“Backpacks on the Move” is a hands-on, family-oriented approach to casual education. Each backpack, which must be signed out at the Wagon House, carries “six or seven tasks,” said O’Donnell.
The ‘tasks’ include cardboard reproductions of tiles actually found on the edifice of Olana and which children can use to identify individual patterns, sketch pads, tracing paper and crayons. The self-guided tour comes with an outline of activities, introduces children to the art of observation and allows them to discover the artist within themselves. They can make a rubbing of a tree bark or sketch the bucolic scenery surrounding Olana in the same vein as artists from the Hudson River School of Art.
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“The idea is that the public can come in and grab a backpack and go out and have fun,” said O’Donnell. “It’s about slowing down and having the kids explore the grounds.” The cost is free and the doors open on “Backpacks on the Move” at the Wagon House sometime in August.
The Wagon House Education Center, located near the grounds of the old kitchen garden and apple orchard, will be used for educating the public of all ages and include plans for art classes geared for the autumn hosted by various local art teachers. The tuition program will be open to anyone who wishes to nurture their artistic appetite. There will also be an open studio time. “Art in the Barn,” will be a free creative art studio open on weekends for parents and young children. |
Water color painting supplies will be available for outdoor painting where participants could choose an outdoor scenefrom the myriad of beautiful natural scenes on the grounds, set up their easels and paint.
For further information, call (518) 828-1872 or log onto www.olana.org for details.
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