Culture in New York's Capital District
[2] The Capital District has many historical sites and museums covering a wide range of topics and time periods.
The Crailo State Historic Site in the city of Rensselaer was built in the early 18th century and is a museum of colonial New Netherland history.
The Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Glenville, which in addition to air and space exhibits has the most extensive aviation library in New York.
Lester Park in Greenfield, is a site owned by the New York State Museum, it is a 490 million year old fossil seafloor.
[12] The USS Slater (DE-766), the only escort destroyer from World War II still afloat,[13] and a reconstruction of Henry Hudson's Half Moon are docked at Albany as floating museums.
[14] The Arkell Museum in Canajoharie features American artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe, along with history of the Mohawk Valley.
[15] Yaddo in Saratoga Springs and the Olana State Historic Site in Greenport, have natural and architectural works of art and have been used by artists of landscapes such as those of the Hudson River School.
The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls is more of a formal art museum and includes works by Botticelli, Degas, Picasso, Raphael, Rembrandt, Renoir, and Van Gogh.
The Egg in Albany and SPAC in Saratoga Springs are newer venues for concerts, ballet, and orchestra performances both constructed during Nelson Rockefeller's tenure as governor of New York.
The Albany Symphony Orchestra performs at the Palace and the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, among other local venues, and a few outside the region as well.
The Capital Repertory Theater in Albany and the New York State Theatre Institute (NYSTI) in Troy are local groups with their own performing space.
One of the largest events in the Capital District is the Tulip Fest held in Albany every spring at Washington Park.
The tradition stems from when Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd got a city ordinance passed declaring the tulip as Albany's official flower on July 1, 1948.
[21] The African-American tradition of Pinksterfest, whose origins are traced back even further to Dutch festivities, was later incorporated into the Tulip Fest.
[25] PolishFest is a three-day celebration of Polish culture in the Capital District, held in the town of Colonie for the past eight years.
[26] The Capital District has its share of historical and tourist non-fiction books; the area however has also seen a great deal of fiction written by its natives and about the region.
[30] More recently there have been many movies that have had parts filmed in the Capital District including The Bostonians (1984),[30] Ironweed (1987),[30] Scent of a Woman (1992),[30] The Age of Innocence (1993),[30] The Horse Whisperer (1998),[29] The Emperor's Club (2002),[29] The Time Machine (2002),[29] Seabiscuit (2003),[29] War of the Worlds (2005),[29] and Taking Woodstock (2009).
A state historic marker was placed in 1988 at the 160th anniversary celebrations, which also commemorates the church as a stop on the Underground Railroad.
The number of colleges and universities in the area help bring in more culturally diverse students, representing ranging religious beliefs.
