Skywalk Arts Festival

Saturday, September 16 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Join us at the Skywalk Arts Festival to celebrate centuries of art and scenery at the Hudson River Skywalk, connecting the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and Olana State Historic Site. The festival presents about 20 local painters and photographers, as well as Stasia Fernandez and her popular painting classes, and the instrumental music of David Temple.

Visit the Thomas Cole National Historic Site as part of the Hudson River Skywalk Festival. Thomas Cole (1801-1848) was the artist and early environmentalist who founded the Hudson River School of American landscape painting. Picnickers, artists, and visitors are invited to come and enjoy the gardens and grounds with views of the Catskill Mountains - a perfect spot to make art! Free, plein-air cloud-painting will take place on the grounds from 10 AM to 1 PM.

A special outdoor video installation by the contemporary artist Cecilia Vicuña will be available to visitors for free outside Thomas Cole's 1839 Old Studio building at the historic site. The installation is a looping 53-minute documentary poem entitled "Kon Kon," about a sacred place in Chile, the artist's home country, where people have been making art for ten thousand years. The installation is part of the two-part special exhibition "Women Reframe American Landscape" at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site that will be open to ticketed visitors from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM (last ticketed entry is 4 PM). 

At the Hudson River Bridge Authority, join 2024 Cole Fellows Catherine Augustyn and Michaela Davidson who will be sharing information about the historic home and studios, Take Action cards about our present environmental moment, and children’s activity booklets.

Visit Olana State Historic Site during the Hudson River Skywalk Arts Festival. Olana will be open for tours of the historic landscape, house and exhibition “Terraforming: Olana’s Historic Photography Collection Unearthed.” Special events for the day include: Honey Harvest: End of Summer Pollinator Walk with Fox Farm Apiary from 11:00 AM -12:00 PM; 10th Anniversary Taste NY Celebration remarks at The Olana Museum Store at 12:00 PM and Artmaking in the Afternoon - a free drop-in program from 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM. In addition, New York makers will be on site and the landscape will be free and open to all from 8:00 AM - Sunset. To learn more visit, OLANA.org.