Peter Fedoryk ('18)
A History major and Art History minor, Peter was awarded a yearlong residential fellowship at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site to conduct research on the site and the artist. https://thomascole.org
The Cole Fellowship is sponsored by the Thomas Cole National Historic Site (TCNHS) and offered as a yearlong post-baccalaureate opportunity to pursue art historical research that is relevant to the artist and the site. Thomas Cole was a nineteenth century American landscape painter—credited today as the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. The TCNHS is a house museum and grounds located on the property where the painter lived and worked from 1836 to 1848. The Fellowship Program is designed to provide experience to recent undergraduates who are looking to pursue a career in art history and the museum field. Fellows will work with curatorial, exhibitions, education, and other departmental staff throughout the course of the year to develop a breadth of knowledge about the workings of a museum site and the role of each department.
In addition helping with day-to-day functions of the site, the bulk of the Fellows' work consists of a primary research project. For the next year I will specifically be researching the broader experience of Thomas Cole in America, aiming to contextualize his social, political, religious, and economic views in the wider scope of Catskill, NY and the happenings in America. This project aims to develop the complex story of Cole's inner monologue as he paints his way into the annals of American art history and determine how this story can best be presented at the TCNHS. This body of research will serve as foundational research for future reinterpretations of how Thomas Cole's story is told through the house museum. Following this yearlong position, I hope to attend graduate school for an art history/curatorial degree.
“I'm very excited to pursue this new opportunity and I feel like the History Department as a whole has done an impeccable job of preparing me to take on bigger challenges in the fields of history and art history.”
(Image: Peter pictured with his fellow residents)