The Capital Region is home to some of the oldest and most prominent arts and cultural organizations in the state.
It is also the birthplace of the first truly American art movement, the Hudson River School.
It began with a painter named Thomas Cole in the 1820's. Cole's ethereal landscapes of the Hudson River Valley including Kaaterskill Falls in the Catskills captured the imagination of the public.
Other artists followed in Cole's footsteps depicting the American landscape as a sublime new Eden.
They included Albert Bierstadt, Asher Durand and Frederic Church.
Church built a Persian Style home as grand as any of his paintings overlooking the Hudson River. He named it Olana.
The Albany Institute of history and art, became an important collector of the Hudson River School paintings.
Today Thomas Coles House, Olana, and The Albany Institute of history and art are places to go to learn about this first American art movement, and more places to experience real moments, real life and real stories on New York's path Through History.
