Chautauqua Institution 2024 Annual Report

Introduction 

The 150th anniversary of our storied institution, celebrated in 2024, had long been a milestone we eagerly anticipated. It offered the opportunity to honor the Institution’s significant influence and impact, not only in the history of the United States but well beyond its borders. 
 
We anchored our anniversary year with the theme The Seasons and Stories of Chautauqua, which came to life through multiple recognitions of Chautauqua’s seasons. These included the publication of “Chautauqwhat? A Short History of a Place and an Idea” by Archivist and Historian Jon Schmitz (now in its second edition), a reenactment of the experiences of the first Chautauquans with an 1870s-era tent in Miller Park throughout the season, and reenactors joining us during Old First Night week in early August. We also created history with Chautauqua’s first ever drone show on Old First Night. We captured and shared the stories of Chautauqua in partnership with StoryCorps. More than 100 Chautauquans recorded oral histories of their most cherished Chautauqua memories and relationships. The archive remains active for anyone who still wants to add their story to Chautauqua’s record in the Library of Congress. 
 
Chautauquans shared their love and commitment to the Institution’s mission by choosing to be part of Boundless: A Campaign for Chautauqua in 2024. Giving to Chautauqua during our 150th anniversary year set a new record for giving in a single year, exceeding $37 million. This was an improvement on 2023’s record-breaking philanthropy to Chautauqua, bringing our campaign within $7 million of its goal, with $143 million raised as of the close of 2024. Gifts to the endowment from the campaign have reached nearly $50 million, representing the largest contribution to the endowment by any campaign in Chautauqua’s history. This campaign also makes an historic investment possible, with new facilities and renovated spaces coming online in the coming years. We offer heartfelt thanks and eternal gratitude to all who have made these achievements possible during Chautauqua’s sesquicentennial era.
 
We closed the 2024 Summer Assembly and anniversary celebration with magical performances by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis performing Marsalis’ seminal work, All Rise with the Music School Festival Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, under the baton of Maestro Timothy Muffitt. This work will be featured in the forthcoming PBS documentary, “Chautauqua at 150: Wynton Marsalis’ All Rise‘“, to be broadcast nationally on Feb. 11, 2025 and available online thereafter.
 
Amid this year of celebration, the world’s challenges were also reflected in Chautauqua’s programming and in community conversation. Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East; the phases of the democratic process leading to the 2024 presidential election; climate change; and race, religious, and cultural divisions were topics addressed across many programmatic themes. As a community, we continue to strive for the ideals of dialogue as our core tool in living our mission to explore the best in human values and enrichment of life.

Chautauqua’s 150th birthday provided inspiration for our 2024 Summer Assembly and the entire year, during which we made great strides toward the organization’s long-term goals and objectives as framed in the strategic plan, 150 Forward: A Renewed Vision for Chautauqua Institution. The following full report summarizes our performance in the interest of this plan, some of which is foreshadowed above. This propels us forward with great hope and aspiration for the continuing prosperity, relevance and service of Chautauqua Institution and its mission.

All my best, 

Michael E. Hill, Ed.D. 
President 

Reframing Strategy 

We began 2025 by following through on a promise made in the Institution’s strategic plan, 150 Forward: The Strategic Plan for Chautauqua Institution 2019-2028, which called the Institution’s Board of Trustees and leadership team to take stock of the plan and Institution performance at the plan’s midway point. That review launched in February when the Board dedicated a full day to the review process. An adhoc committee composed of trustees and senior staff took the input and insights gleaned from that day-long conversation and created the proposed refreshed plan, 150 Forward: A Renewed Vision for Chautauqua Institution, which was approved by the Board in May. The renewed plan includes multiyear financial proformas that guide budget development and evaluation. It also calls for dashboards for key performance indicators that are updated regularly to keep both the Board and leadership team informed of progress during each budget year.  

The renewed plan maintains the original plan’s four key objectives and four cross-cutting imperatives while calling for specific focus on Summer Assembly performance in terms of attendance, revenue and guest experience. 

Objective 1: Optimize the Summer Assembly on the Chautauqua grounds to provide a first-class experience around the arts, education, religion, and recreation. 

• Attendance during the 2024 Summer Assembly exceeded goals, which had a corresponding positive impact on earned revenue.  
• We improved our long-term ticket revenue budget through pricing strategy, volume and ticket mix.  
• We achieved 2.4% growth in census (excluding season passes) and a 2.1% growth in census including  season passes. The growth came primarily from one week and season tickets. 
• Patron satisfaction as measured by Net Promoter Scoring (NPS) in surveys on questions such as “likely to refer” and “overall perception of service” has held steady or declined but remains strong according to industry standards. These survey results follow national trends on post-COVID patron expectations and reflect a larger response rate than in 2022 and 2023. Nearly two-thirds of respondents are visitors who have attended Chautauqua three or more of the past five years. 
• The purchase of Grounds Access Passes (GAP) now accounts for 15% of Long-Term Gate Passes, another decrease of 4% from the previous season (19% in 2023). GAP purchases were most highly represented in Week Two in 2024. Historically, Weeks One and Two have a higher percentage of returning Chautauquans on the grounds. 
• Amphitheater attendance increased in 2024 significantly in all event categories, reversing a downward trend from the past few years. Attendance of Amp events (measured by scans) increased 13.6% from 2023 to 2024.  
• We successfully transitioned CHQ Assembly to YouTube, dramatically decreasing operating costs and better positioning it as the primary content marketing arm for Chautauqua. 
• Core programs, including the Chautauqua Lecture Series, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and Dance continue to enjoy high satisfaction ratings. 
• Chautauqua Board members and Executive Team members participated in nine Forum Dialogues sessions with property owners, season passholders, and organizational leaders. These sessions were led by the leaders of Chautauqua’s CHQ Dialogues program Roger Doebke, Lynn Stahl and Robin Harbage. The dialogues provided great insight into these patrons’ experience of Chautauqua, with issues such as the experience with ticketing, food and beverage service and options, and information dissemination receiving the greatest levels of interest and concern. The Executive Team captured all input and created a 2025 operational plan prioritizing this input. That plan was shared with the community in December. The Board decided to continue the Forum Dialogues in some form in 2025. 

Objective 2: Expand Chautauqua’s convening authority year round to broaden its impact beyond the Summer Assembly. 

• Chautauqua Travels completed six journeys in 2024, taking patrons to Cuba twice as well as Vienna, Paris and Normandy, South Africa and Ireland. Plans for 2025 include trips to Yellowstone National Park, Mexico, France, Spain, England and India. 
• Chautauqua Travels generated nearly $100K to support Chautauqua programs and operations. 
• The Chautauqua Writers’ Festival was transformed into The Kwame Alexander Writers’ Lab, drawing triple the number of participants and expanding the program’s reach to a more diverse audience of readers and writers. 
• The Athenaeum Hotel Company welcomed more Road Scholar patrons to Chautauqua during the spring and fall months than ever before, in addition to hosting nine sold-out groups during the Summer Assembly. 
• CHQ Assembly transitioned from a privately hosted streaming platform to YouTube, expanding its reach to a significantly larger audience of potential members, subscribers, and content viewers. This shift moved CHQ Assembly from a membership-only model to a brand-building initiative under the broader Chautauqua Institution umbrella. In 2024, videos on YouTube garnered 5.9 million views and accumulated 136,000 hours of watch time. 
• Chautauqua Arts Education programs served 15 school districts, 28 schools and more than 5,700 students in 2024. As explained by Director of Arts Education Suzanne Fassett-Wright, “The arts provide a safe space to learn, build community through art making, and access to self-expression that empowers growth in ways that by its very nature are customized to each student. The arts make learning come alive.” 
• Chautauqua hosted two spring residencies. Gamelan Dharma Swara was in residence for one week, closing with a Preview Showing that was featured in a New York Times article. YYDC was funded by NYSCA for a three-week residency, closing with a preview premiere in the Amphitheater. Chautauqua will be recognized in all YYDC programs indicating the piece was workshopped at Chautauqua.   
• The first Chautauqua Perry Fellows in Democracy were selected and featured in Week One of the 2024 Summer Assembly. They are working with Program staff to curate the 2025 Forum on Democracy and Spring 2025 events such as a five-session online course by David French and a Washington, D.C.-based event led by Melody Barnes.  

Objective 3: Drive the implementation of a comprehensive, science-based approach to improving the health and sustainability of Chautauqua Lake and elevate its conservation as the centerpiece of the region’s economic prosperity. 

• A $4.7 million grant to Chautauqua Institution from the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (NYSEFC) will sustain scientific research and related infrastructure investments in Chautauqua Lake through May 2027.  
• The 2024 Chautauqua Lake Conference updated the community on important research on Chautauqua Lake. Researchers from The State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia and The Jefferson Project returned this year to share their research results and plans for the upcoming summer. Researchers from SUNY Oneonta and North Carolina State University discussed their research regarding lake vegetation. We welcomed several lake-focused organizations to share their activities with conference attendees and how people can best get involved in lake health. 
• Some 60 educational programs were held in Summer 2024 to discuss climate change, including its impacts on the health of Chautauqua Lake. 
• We launched The Jefferson Project late in the season and continued to collect valuable data leading to the development of a specification for pilot projects intended to attempt to address the excessive algal bloom and macrophyte problems in the lake. 
• Chautauqua staff maintain leadership and participation in the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance and Lake Management Committee. 
• In collaboration with the Jefferson Project, we finalized the New York State Department of Health’s Drinking Water Source Protection Plan which addresses Chautauqua Lake water quality and surrounding drinking water sources. 
• We finished the installation and calibration of the Tributary Station Projects where six water monitoring stations were installed along key tributaries leading into Chautauqua Lake. This project includes activating an online dashboard displaying various datapoints needed by researchers working on lake water quality. 

Objective 4: Grow and diversify revenue to address critical needs, increase financial resiliency, and fund Chautauqua’s future. 

• Boundless: A Campaign for Chautauqua has raised $143 million toward the goal of $150 million for this campaign. More than $37 million was raised in 2024, the largest fundraising year in the Institution’s history.  
• Contributions to the endowment have exceeded that of any previous campaign in the history of Chautauqua, with nearly $50 million in endowment gifts. 
• Gifts to the Boundless campaign are making possible major upgrades and additions to Chautauqua’s physical plant, including the two-phase renovation of Bellinger Hall, made possible by a gift from Cathrine and Craig Greene. In honor of this gift, the facility has been renamed The Greene Family Commons. 
• We will construct a new home for Chautauqua Theater Company thanks to gifts to the Roe Green Theater Center, including a foundational gift by the Roe Green Foundation. This facility will complement the facilities in Bratton Hall, providing a year-round facility for theater activity and operations. 
• Bestor Plaza received significant upgrades through campaign gifts that restored the Bestor Plaza Fountain and installed brick paver patios at both ends of the plaza. 
• The Turner Fitness Center is being renovated to improve locker rooms and other public spaces. 
• Playgrounds at Children’s School, Boys’ and Girls’ Club and Miller Park were renovated and enhanced through philanthropy. 

Cross-Cutting Imperatives

The strategic plan’s “Cross-Cutting Imperatives” are capacity builders that are fundamental to a successful 21st century business. The cross-cutting imperatives address the business and human relations infrastructure that positions Chautauqua for mission effectiveness and operational efficiency. 

 Strategic Partnerships 

• Our years-long relationship with PBS resulted in the broadcaster deciding to produce a documentary about Chautauqua on its 150th anniversary. “Chautauqua at 150: Wynton Marsalis’ All Rise” will be broadcast nationally on PBS stations in February 2025 and remain available online thereafter. This initiative also produced a full-length concert production that will be released on PBS Passport, which features Chautauqua’s Music School Festival Orchestra alongside the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and The Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus. 

IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility) 

• The work of diversifying our patron base continued by working with our external marketing agency and partnerships with local and regional networks serving communities of color. 
• More training programs were offered to staff and community groups to help create a more welcoming and inclusive experience for diverse patrons, students and staff.  
• Community awareness of issues were elevated when they arose, particularly through educational efforts in a weekly IDEA column in The Chautauquan Daily.  
• Ongoing philanthropic support was received for IDEA work (nearly $600k over the last two years with additional pledges in place for future years).  
• We implemented several accessibility enhancements to improve the patron experience, including: 
  • Installed a new ramp to make the Octagon building more accessible  
  • Launched phase one of accessibility upgrade at Sherwood Marsh Piano studio. The performance space will be accessible by wheeled devices in 2025.  
  • Expanded the mobility scooter rental program to meet patron demand, and implemented the “Turn it toward the turtle” campaign to address safety.  
  • Continued pilot program to offer “live audio description” and “sensory friendly” performances at select arts programs. 
  • Worked with community members to start an informal network for families with neurodiverse children and adults. 
  • Piloted a new Wi-Fi based Assistive Listening Technology at the Amp and collected extensive patron feedback. While some patrons were not fond of this technology, our data shows that patrons with moderate to severe hearing loss especially benefited from it, so we will offer this as an additional accessibility offering in 2025 and expand it to eight venues across the grounds. 

Labor and Talent Solutions 

Chautauqua’s Department of Human Resources prioritizes designing and fostering an employee experience focused on organization culture, work environment, and available technology as a talent solutions strategy to improve recruitment, retention, mission and profit, and business outcomes.   

• In 2024, HR welcomed Payroll & Benefits Manager Megan Kristan, focusing on total rewards as central to the employee experience, and congratulated Carleena Lendt on her promotion to HR specialist, employee experience. 
• Seasonal recruitment results indicate a progressive increase in total applicant flow, up 14% overall from 2023, and resulting in an 8% increase in seasonal hires overall. The Chautauqua Hotel Company increased seasonal hiring by 22%. The early launch of recruitment in 2024 for summer 2025, focusing on valued returning employees, and data-driven strategies for targeted and diversity recruitment initiatives endeavors to bolster this continued success in 2025. 
• HR introduced an HR Dashboard/KPIs on recruitment and retention with employee satisfaction and positive impact on the patron experience as key measures of success. HR released an exit survey to all summer seasonal employees and reviewed results with leaders and the HR Committee. HR will release employee experience and total reward surveys to career employees and benchmark total rewards with a new strategy-focused broker partner, NFP Solutions, in early 2025. HR initiatives will continue to be targeted to understand the employee experience and drive meaningful change with survey results. 
• HR engaged with Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG) in a Managed Services partnership to provide a premiere payroll and benefits experience and mitigate related risks. Additionally, HR is leading a software implementation with UKG, partnered with the Office of Business Development, to introduce Workforce Management (WFM), which integrates scheduling; timekeeping; and real-time monitoring of labor, overtime, and absenteeism through technology. WFM is a resource for managers and employees and will go live in April 2025.   

Mobilization of Technology 

We continued to reach milestones in our multi-year technology mobilization plan in 2024, led by a dedicated cross-functional team of subject matter experts. This initiative is called Project 360 because it will result in a comprehensive network of interconnected and aligned technology systems that will help us create a seamless patron and staff experience of Chautauqua.  

Accomplishments include:

• Implementing a financial system, NetSuite, providing real-time access to financials.  
• Improving the sales process and Amp scanning speeds via ticketing optimizations. 
• Enhancing Point of Sale (POS) systems for retail, golf and food and beverages operations to increase speed of service to patrons. 
• Implementing Inventory systems for Publications and Buildings & Grounds. 
• Starting the installation of enhanced parking systems to improve the patron experience. 
• Starting the implementation of our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.  
• Continuing work on the data warehouse to enable the integration of our data and improve the staff experience, so staff have more time to support guest experience initiatives.