News & Announcements

Lake Course Named to Top Five U.S. Publicly Assessible Courses Rated by Playing Conditions

The Chautauqua Golf Club’s Lake Course has been named one of Golf Advisor’s Best of 2018, ranking No. 5 in the website’s listing of the publicly accessible courses that delivered the best playing conditions. The national recognition, released at GolfAdvisor.com earlier this month, is based on feedback from the website's community of reviewers. In its listing of Chautauqua Golf Club, Golf Advisor highlights one review from a golfer who praises each of the club’s 18-hole courses, the Lake Course and the Hill Course, stating, "Both courses [were] in excellent shape, and I don't mean for a public course. They would presently rival most country clubs in the Buffalo area right now." Many other reviews posted at GolfAdvisor.com also specifically applaud Chautauqua Golf Club’s excellent playing conditions.

Chautauqua Institution President Michael E. Hill today announced the appointment of Leland M. Lewis as general manager of Chautauqua Hotel Company, Inc., which includes the historic Athenaeum Hotel and all of the Institution’s dining and lodging services, effective Nov. 12. An experienced senior executive in the hospitality industry, Lewis has served as interim general manager since August.

As general manager, Lewis is responsible for all aspects of the Chautauqua Hotel Company’s operations, including delivery of an exceptional guest experience. In partnership with Chautauqua Institution leadership, and in support of and service to the Chautauqua mission, he serves as the primary strategic business leader while directing and mentoring a team to assure the highest level of service and performance. In the interim role, Lewis had already made a number of operational and strategic changes at the Athenaeum Hotel, including experimenting with regular fall hours at the hotel’s new lobby lounge and enhancing the building’s physical aesthetic and amenities. He also was charged with leading searches to hire for several key leadership positions within the hotel’s staff.

Continuing a new tradition launched last year, Chautauqua Institution will host the 2018 Winter Village at Chautauqua on selected weekends starting Nov. 23 through New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31. The festivities will highlight on-grounds shopping and dining, and include special events such as musical performances, wine and food pairing dinners, Breakfast with Santa, horse-drawn carriage and sleigh rides, and other seasonal activities.

The 2018 Winter Village kicks off at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 23, when the holiday lights and displays on Bestor Plaza will be illuminated for the first time of the season. On-ground shops and restaurants will be invited to stay open late that night, and holiday music will fill the plaza. Santa will arrive on a horse-drawn carriage to signal the launch of Chautauqua’s Winter Village and the holiday season. Highlights of opening weekend include wine tasting and small plates, Holiday Story Time at the Smith Memorial Library and Lloyd’s Food Truck and holiday beer selections.

George Heintzelman and Margaret Clarkson have endowed the position of Artistic Advisor and Artist-in-Residence in Chautauqua’s Piano Program, currently held by Alexander Gavrylyuk. Gavrylyuk’s position has been named the Heintzelman Family Artistic Advisor of the School of Music Piano Program, as he continues to work closely with co-chairs of the program, Nicola (Nikki) Melville and John Milbauer. The Heintzelman family’s gift is also supporting an extension of the program from five to six weeks beginning in 2019.

George Heintzelman has been coming to Chautauqua on a nearly annual basis since the summer of 1982. “I remember my parents and my two sisters came for a week when I was 12,” he said, “and we often stayed with our grandparents here.” In 2010, Heintzelman and Clarkson, who live on Long Island, bought a house on Warren Avenue, and George’s parents, his two sisters, and their children began coming together as a family for two weeks each summer. 

Chautauqua Institution today announced that it will begin accepting entries for the Chautauqua Janus Prize, now in its second year and boasting a doubled prize amount of $5,000. The Institution’s newest literary prize celebrates an emerging writer’s single work of short fiction or nonfiction for daring formal and aesthetic innovations that upset and reorder readers’ imaginations. In addition to receiving the $5,000 award, the winner will give a lecture on the grounds during the 2019 summer season and appear in a forthcoming issue of the literary journal Chautauqua. The prize is funded by a generous donation from Chautauquans Barbara and Twig Branch.

Chautauqua Institution President Michael E. Hill announced the appointment of Matt Ewalt to the position of vice president and Emily and Richard Smucker Chair for Education, effective Sept. 24. Ewalt has served Chautauqua in various capacities since 2006, most recently as chief of staff. 

In his new role, Ewalt continues to lead the Institution’s 10:45 a.m. Amphitheater lecture platform, and now also oversees education, youth and literary arts programs. The change comes as part of a leadership reorganization to, in part, better resource the lecture platform and work related to developing the weekly program themes for Chautauqua’s summer season.

Performances June 24 – August 15

Chautauqua Theater Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Andrew Borba and Managing Director Sarah Clare Corporandy, announces the launch of Free Will: Chautauqua Shakespeare in the Park, a new program that will bring free, public Shakespeare performances to Chautauqua Institution and venues across Chautauqua County in partnership with the City of Jamestown (as part of the Summer Performance Series at Allen Park), the Mayville / Chautauqua Community Chamber of Commerce (as part of the Summer Concert Series at Lakeside Park) and Southern Tier Brewing Company. Borba will direct the program’s inaugural production, As You Like It . Tickets are free and performances are open to the public.

CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. (May 21, 2018) — Chautauqua Institution is delighted to announce The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir (Flatiron Books), by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, as the 2018 winner of The Chautauqua Prize.

As author of the winning book, Marzano-Lesnevich receives $7,500 and all travel and expenses for a summer residency at Chautauqua from Aug. 1 to 6, 2018. A public reading will take place at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 3, in the Hall of Philosophy on the Institution’s grounds.

Marzano-Lesnevich said she was honored to receive The Chautauqua Prize, and “that the award comes from an institution with such a long history of creating space for rigorous, rewarding interdisciplinary and cross-genre dialogue makes it particularly meaningful at this moment in our national history, with our urgent need for socially engaged art.”

“I very much look forward to attending the Institution this summer, and to all the rich conversations that will unfold there,” Marzano-Lesnevich said. 

An Octoroon, Airness, and Into the Breeches!

Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC), under the leadership of Artistic Director Andrew Borba and Managing Director Sarah Clare Corporandy, is proud to announce mainstage programming for the 2018 summer season. The 2018 season features Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ An Octoroon, directed by Giovanna Sardelli, running June 29–July 8; Airnessby Chelsea Marcantel, directed by Joshua Kahan Brody, running July 14–29; Into the Breeches!by George Brant, directed by Laura Kepley and running Aug. 11–17; Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by Andrew Borba and touring around Chautauqua Institution and surrounding communities; The Amish Project by Jessica Dickey, directed by CTC Artistic Associate Sarah Elizabeth Wansleyfor a special limited run, Aug. 19–21; two New Play Workshops including Untitled Russia Play by Lauren Yee and another to be announced.

Vice President of Performing and Visual Arts Deborah Sunya Moore today announced changes in her areas of responsibility that will further highlight chamber music and arts education at Chautauqua Institution.
 
Through the generosity of Sarah Hagen McWilliams, Chautauqua will present an expanded offering of chamber music under the moniker of Chautauqua Chamber Music, which will be composed of two series, doubling the professional chamber offerings at Chautauqua during its summer seasons: the Guest Artist Series on Monday afternoons and a new Resident Artist Series on Saturday afternoons, both in Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall. Additionally, Chautauqua Chamber Music will include more access to artists with new class offerings for the general public on Tuesdays mornings. Music School Festival Orchestra Music Director Timothy Muffitt will serve as adviser to the Resident Artist Series. The first concert in this series will feature three prominent faculty: pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk, violinist Aaron Berofsky and cellist Arie Lipsky. 

Three Taps of the Gavel Address
Closing of the 144th Assembly

Michael E. Hill
18th President of Chautauqua Institution
August 27, 2017

“When I was a kid, ‘sanctuary’ meant only one thing. It was the big room with the stained-glass windows and hard wooden benches where my family worshipped every Sunday. Church attendance was not optional for my sisters and me, so that sanctuary was where I learned to pray — pray that the service would end and God would release me back into the wild. I also learned that not all prayers are answered, no matter how ardent.”

These words from Parker Palmer, a columnist and founder of the Center for Courage & Renewal, speak to me as we conclude our 144^th Assembly.  I suspect that many of us came to these sacred grounds and this hallowed grove to find sanctuary: sanctuary from a chaotic world; sanctuary from political divisiveness; sanctuary discovered in community, in the trademark fellowship envisioned by Vincent and Miller 143 years ago when they first scouted out this place that would become our beloved Chautauqua.

Chautauqua Institution today announced the appointment of Atom Atkinson of Interlochen, Michigan, as the new Director of Literary Arts effective September 1, 2017. Atkinson is currently an instructor of creative writing at Interlochen Arts Academy and Summer Camp.

Civility in Discourse: The Past, Present, and Future of Adult Civic Learning 

Free Lecture - Wednesday, May 17th, 2017, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM 
Jefferson Educational Society

In a world no longer easily defined by religion, occupation or geography, can cultural institutions bridge generational divides, such as those between digital immigrants and digital natives?

Chautauqua Institution today announced the appointment of Emily F. Morris, Ph.D., as vice president of marketing and communications and chief brand officer. Morris is an experienced leader and executive in higher education, having previously served in similar roles at nearby universities St. Bonaventure and Edinboro. She is currently executive communications director at Kent State University.

Chautauqua Institution today announced that Sherra Babcock, longtime vice president and Emily and Richard Smucker Chair for Education, will retire from her post in October 2017.

A familiar figure on the Chautauqua grounds, Babcock is probably best known for her frequent appearances onstage as moderator at lecture and literary arts programming throughout each summer season. Over more than a decade of visionary leadership, she has shepherded Chautauqua's signature and historic lecture and literary arts platforms to new levels of excellence and renown. She joined the Institution in 2007 as director of education and was appointed to her current position, the first and currently only endowed chair on Chautauqua’s staff, in 2011.

Chautauqua Institution today announced that the Rev. Robert M. Franklin Jr., director of religion, will step down from his post following the 2017 season.

Franklin has served Chautauqua in his current capacity since 2014. He has been an active participant in the Institution’s religious programming since 2001, serving as lecturer, chaplain, theologian-in-residence, adviser to the Institution’s Abrahamic program, and as a member of the Institution’s board of trustees. His decision coincides with continued expansion of his responsibilities at Emory University, where he serves as a senior advisor to the president and James T. and Berta R. Laney Chair in Moral Leadership at the Candler School of Theology.

The Chautauqua Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Chautauqua Institution, proudly announces having received gifts and commitments of $103.5 million during the course of its six-year Promise Campaign, exceeding the original goal by more than $5 million.

Concluded Dec. 31, 2016, the Promise Campaign commenced in 2011 with a series of objectives intended to implement Chautauqua Institution’s 2010–18 strategic plan. That strategic plan calls for an increase in the number of patrons to Chautauqua’s programs and improvements to the Chautauqua experience, especially in ways that would maintain affordability, provide access to new visitors, preserve its intergenerational culture, include new and divergent voices, and protect its historic and natural environments.

Good morning, and thank you for assembling in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. The title of today’s service, “We Still Have a Dream,” is a particularly salient one for the times in which we find ourselves, and, quite frankly, is the right emphasis for where we find ourselves in January 2017.

We gather in this sanctuary to honor the legacy of one of the most important civil rights leaders in recent memory. As many of you know, I count my second home as Washington, D.C. If you find yourself there, you simply must go visit the King Memorial on the National Mall. That monument is rich in symbolism. On the site, Dr. King is a towering figure etched in granite, seen emerging from a mountain, referencing the “I Have A Dream” speech we’ll hear later this morning, in which he foreshadows: