Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, NY
Garden Dialogues

Garden Dialogues 2017: Glorious Olana with Margie Ruddick & Julia Rosenbaum

Hudson, NY

Join Margie Ruddick, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award Winner in Landscape Architecture, and Julia B. Rosenbaum, Associate Professor and Chair, Art History, Bard College and Olana's Director of Research & Publications, for an in-depth and exhilarating exploration of Olana, the 250-acre Persian-inspired estate designed by Hudson River School painter Frederic Edwin Church in collaboration with Calvert Vaux.  Olana was conceived as a three-dimensional work of art, and its grand views west over the Hudson River to the Catskill Mountains beyond are emblematic of the era’s idealized mix of agrarian and wilderness landscapes.

Church's paintings are heroic, romantic, and intensely reverential of the land - an ethos and artistic sentiment present in Olana today.  This Dialogue at Olana focuses on the significance of the landscape and its impact on art. Ruddick and Rosenbaum will offer personal insights and observations about Olana and its influence on them, and engage in a broader conversation with attendees.

Ruddick is recognized for her pioneering, environmental approach to urban landscape design through her innovative integration of ecology, urban planning, and culture. In her recent book, Wild by Design, which includes projects in New York City, Baja, California, and Chengdu, China, she defines and explains the five fundamental strategies she employs, often in combination, to give life, beauty, and meaning to landscapes.  Ruddick was born in Montreal, grew up in New York City, and graduated from Bowdoin College and Harvard University's Graduate School of Design.

Rosenbaum, Director of Research and Publications, The Olana Partnership, received her B.A. from Yale University and her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Visions of Belonging: New England Art and the Making of American Identity (Cornell University Press, 2006), co-editor of The American Bourgeoisie: Distinction and Identity in the Nineteenth Century(Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), and has published articles in numerous scholarly journals and edited volumes, including American Art and The Encyclopedia of New England.

1.5 LA CES™ Professional development hours available.

Thanks to the generosity of our hosts and sponsors, tickets for Garden Dialogues are tax deductible and proceeds benefit the educational programs of The Cultural Landscape Foundation.