The Wander Society’s Adventure Lab

Saturday, July 14 – December 1, 2018

The Wander Society is a secretive underground organization that believes in the intrinsic power of wandering to transcend the problems of modern society, access a higher plane of consciousness, and participate in direct experiences of life. The Wander Society’s Adventure Lab, is a mobile unit that functions as a secret portal into the operations and activities of the underground organization. Designed as a space to facilitate exploration the lab is replete with various wandering tools, images, a random assignment machine, and a wandering library.

In the 1860s when the Churches were traveling by caravan through remote areas of the Middle East, Isabel Church said she was “fascinated with tent life.”* They also tented in New York’s Adirondack Mountains, Maine, and on many of Frederic Church’s other remote painting expeditions. The family’s library is filled with tales from adventurers, travel books, and particularly William Prime’s Tent Life in the Holy Land. Installed in parallel with this season’s exhibition, Costume & Custom: Middle Eastern Threads at Olana, conceptual artist and New York Times’ best-selling author Keri Smith created the Adventure Lab and pays homage to the 19th century tenting adventures while layering the past with contemporary participatory adventures for visitors to Olana. Designed for all ages, come explore the lab, and make your own adventures.

Location: Near Frederic Church’s old studio location on the exit road  | Open Tuesday-Sunday, 9am – 5pm  |  All Ages  |  Free

*Isabel Church, Diary of Isabel Church, Jerusalem, March 28, 1868, Photostatic copies (negatives) made by the New-York Historical Society from originals owned by the artist’s granddaughter, Mrs. Richard C. Burroughs (Isabel Black) of Richmond, Virginia, 48-49