Thomas Cole Historic Site Interpretation

FAIN: GE-50843-14

Thomas Cole Historic House (Catskill, NY 12414-1027)
Elizabeth Bond Jacks (Project Director: August 2013 to October 2015)

Planning for a multimedia reinterpretation of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, the home and studio of the founder of the 19th-century Hudson River School of American landscape painting.

The TCNHS seeks a planning grant in order to reinvent the interpretation of the home and studios of Thomas Cole (1801-1848), the seminal 19th-century artist who is considered the founder of the Hudson River School, the nation's first major art movement. Being aware of the challenges facing historic house museums today, the TCNHS seeks to apply the creativity and interactivity that we have seen in other fields and use it in the context of a 19th-century environment, communicate the humanities themes more fully and explicitly with the help of technology, and establish a working model for other historic houses to consider. Visitors increasingly desire and expect to participate rather than silently receive information, but currently they are separated from the story both physically and symbolically by velvet ropes. The proposed exhibition elements will be designed to attract new audiences and bring them new insights into America's cultural history and its relevance to the present.