The Jiffy: Stories From Upstate New York

This is part three of my three-part series on Frederic Church, on the life and legacies of Church, Thomas Cole, and the Hudson River School. Betsy Jacks spent 21 years as executive director of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York. Under Betsy's leadership, they restored Cole’s 1839 Old Studio, totally reconstructed Cole’s 1846 New Studio; they restored the interiors in the Main House (I have links below to a two videos on the James Cave Instagram Feed where Betsy walks us through what we're calling 'forensic interior design'). She oversaw the publication of over 30 books, mapped a hiking trail to the places that Cole painted, and opened their new all-season visitor center designed by architect Stephen Shadley. Betsy retired in 2024 to finally give herself time to focus on her own art, and you can see the lineage of the Hudson River School in the ideas she presents, sometimes even reinterpreting the very same trees that Thomas Cole painted. Cole was Church's mentor and teacher, and here we get to know him through Betsy's life and work -- and life after Cole. "Glorious Country" is our first Jiffy Book Club selection. Sign up: https://bookclub.thejiffy.xyz To learn more about Betsy's work, visit: https://www.betsyjacks.com Related links: "Variations on a Theme," a group show in the Gallery at Spencertown Academy: https://spencertownacademy.org/event/variations-on-a-theme/2026-04-10/ Apollo Pursuing Daphne: National Gallery of Art – https://www.nga.gov/educational-resources/greco-roman-origin-myths/apollo-pursuing-daphne "This Old Vibe" featuring Betsy Jacks (Pt. 1): https://www.instagram.com/p/DAElf4HSsFR/ "This Old Vibe" featuring Betsy Jacks (Pt. 2): https://www.instagram.com/p/DAT7JF_S59M/ About the guest: Betsy Jacks is a visual artist and writer who served as Executive Director of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, New York, from 2003 to 2024 — a tenure of more than two decades leading one of the Hudson Valley's most important cultural institutions. Before that, she was Director of Marketing at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her paintings have been shown in New York City and across the Hudson Valley, and her writing has appeared in both academic and commercial publications. She holds degrees in Studio Art and Art History from Duke University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her family. Subscribe: Get the newsletter at thejiffy.xyz – photos, behind-the-scenes extras, interviews, and a monthly curated list of arts and sciences events across upstate New York. Until next time, I'll see you over on the James Cave Instagram Feed.

This is part two of my three-part series on Frederic Church, recorded on the grounds of Olana on the occasion of his 200th birthday. Victoria Johnson spent six years writing "Glorious Country: How The Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World", the first major biography of Church, climbing Andean volcanoes in his footsteps, riding camels into Petra, and working through tens of thousands of archival pages to bring him back to life. The result is one of the best books of the year, and our first Jiffy Book Club selection. We talked inside Cosy Cottage, where Church and his wife first lived when they moved to the farm that would become Olana. It's an intimate place: It's where his family life began, and where it was devastated. From there we range wide: his apprenticeship under Thomas Cole, his South American expeditions inspired by Alexander von Humboldt, his rockstar moment with "The Heart of the Andes", his political paintings on the eve of the Civil War, and what it means that his most resonant work feels so current right now. "Glorious Country" is our first Jiffy Book Club selection. Sign up: https://bookclub.thejiffy.xyz To learn more about Victoria's work and to buy her book, visit: https://gloriouscountry.org About the guest: Victoria Johnson is a professor of urban policy and planning at Hunter College in New York City. She holds a doctorate in sociology from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Yale. Her previous book, "American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic", was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. "Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World" is her third book and the first full biography ever written about Frederic Church, the nineteenth-century landscape painter whose work helped establish American art on the world stage. Subscribe: Get the newsletter at thejiffy.xyz – photos, behind-the-scenes extras, interviews, and a monthly curated list of arts and sciences events across upstate New York. Until next time, I'll see you over on the James Cave Instagram Feed.

This year marks the 200th birthday of Frederic Church, the Hudson River School painter whose mountaintop home, Olana, helped shape how Americans imagined upstate New York. To kick off a three-part series for Frederic Church 200, James starts where Church did – outside the house itself, on Earth Day, looking out at the same view Church called "the center of the world." Then he drives north to the Albany Institute of History & Art, which holds 72 letters between Church and his close friend, the Albany sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer. Curator Diane Shewchuk is in what she calls the "panic phase" of building an exhibition around those letters, because "Your Friend, Frederic E. Church" opens June 6. Thank goodness she spared time to walk us through how she writes, organizes, and builds an exhibition of this scale. Our conversation moves through Palmer's ink-stained desk, Church's six-page travelogues from Beirut and Petra, a painting made for a child who died at two, and a very helpful freight elevator. Also: Big shout out to index cards. Featured Guest: Diane Shewchuk – Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Albany Institute of History & Art "Your Friend, Frederic E. Church" – On view at the Albany Institute of History & Art from June 6 through October 12, 2026. Opening reception: June 5 Full programming calendar: albanyinstitute.org This episode was produced in partnership with the Albany Institute of History & Art. Special thanks to Diane Shewchuk and Marisa Espe. Subscribe: Get the newsletter at thejiffy.xyz — photos, behind-the-scenes extras, interviews, and a monthly curated list of arts and sciences events across upstate New York. Until next time, I'll see you over on the James Cave Instagram Feed.

In this first episode of season two (!!) I'm taking an overdue look the concept of an "upstate" New York. What is it? Where is it? Can I go to it? And who is it for? We start at Ward's Point, the southernmost point in New York, and look northward, and then we hit the road. And along the way, I talk with Poughkeepsie's Harvey Flad, Albany's Bennett Liebman, Oneonta's Wendy Lascell and Bryan Collins, and Kingston's Brian K. Mahoney, because I needed the combined wisdom of Vassar College, SUNY Oneonta, the Government Law Center at the Albany Law School, and all of Chronogram Media to, hopefully, finally answer the question: Where does upstate begin? It's a road trip up and down the Empire State. Here's the map Wendy uses in her project with students. Support the show: www.thejiffy.xyz/upgrade "The Jiffy Audio Newsletter Podcast" is an audio documentary zine – the official podcast of The Jiffy – exploring the odd histories, cozy mysteries, and surprising characters of upstate New York. Each episode is an adventure, and new episodes drop every other week. Follow James on Instagram: @jamescave Subscribe to the newsletter here: www.thejiffy.xyz

Send a text The podcast is still on a bit of a hiatus while I produce "Little Pod" (a limited series with Olivia Muenter). I'll be back with new episodes here soon, but in the meantime, I'm re-sharing this episode about Pinkster Festival – a Black cultural celebration with Dutch colonial roots – which was revived for the first time in more than 200 years last year. Pinkster began as a Dutch Christian holiday but evolved into a vital gathering for enslaved and free Black New Yorkers in the 18t...