A reminder to those who are spending the holidays at Chautauqua, there are some special events happening on the grounds for you to consider.
Chautauqua Opera Company and Conservatory, the resident opera company and conservatory of Chautauqua Institution, announced today its 2025 season. Chautauqua Opera Company For its 2025 season, Chautauqua Opera continues its 95-year history of producing opera at Chautauqua Institution while also strengthening its commitment to developing new opera. Alongside a production of Puccini’s La bohème in Chautauqua’s Amphitheater, the company will conduct workshops of three new operas. Ranging from chamber operas to large-scale pieces, these workshops will feature Chautauqua Opera Company’s 16 Young Artists collaborating with celebrated composers and librettists. Chautauqua audiences will have the exclusive opportunity to experience these new...
Happy Sustainable Holidays! Growing up in the 70s in a large Irish Catholic family that was just one generation removed from the deprivations of the Great Depression, Christmas was a time to make up for the lean times and boy did we go big! One day wasn’t enough to open all the presents, and so we started with stockings the night before. Christmas morning was a frenzied blur of wrapping paper flying in all directions as my siblings, cousins and I tore through present after present, barely pausing to appreciate any individual gift. Americans spend over half a billion dollars...
The 2024–25 school year has brought exciting growth in the Chautauqua Arts Education School Residency program, Feelin’ the Beat. This program was created for students with disabilities to support social emotional learning goals and to develop musical expression through drumming. Over time, the program has expanded to support students who have different kinds of learning challenges, many of whom were impacted by the effect of the pandemic on their learning experience. This program has been offered since 2014 when it started by serving two schools. Fast forward 10 years and the program will be in 15 schools this year —...
Dear Chautauquans, As the autumn leaves finish their descent onto Bestor Plaza, it signifies our annual ritual of Thanksgiving in the United States. This year feels especially momentous, as we remember the events celebrating the 150th anniversary of our beloved Chautauqua Institution. For a century and a half, Chautauqua has been a place where minds and hearts converge, where intellectual curiosity, artistic brilliance, and spiritual growth come together. This milestone reminds us of the enduring strength of our community—built on a legacy of connection, learning, and shared purpose. For that and so much more, we are grateful. It strikes me...
Chautauqua Institution is celebrating a major investment by New York State in the science-based conservation of Chautauqua Lake. 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. Institution President Michael E. Hill, says this investment from New York State represents a milestone in the multiyear vision for Chautauqua Lake conservation named in Chautauqua Institution’s strategic plan, 150 Forward. “When our Board of Trustees in 2019 named the development of science-based solutions for the conservation of Chautauqua Lake as one...
Chautauqua’s 2025 Summer Assembly is taking shape — it’s time to start planning your experience! This season features an exceptional lineup of speakers, performers, and artists, including Lewis Black’s biting humor, LeVar Burton’s captivating storytelling, Kwame Alexander’s lyrical poetry, Denyce Graves’s powerful voice, and George Saunders and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s literary brilliance. From lectures to concerts and theater productions, Chautauqua will once again be your community for learning, connection and inspiration. Mark your calendars and secure your gate passes and tickets! 2025 Summer Assembly Sales Schedule December: Select concerts and lectures. The perfect holiday gift — stay tuned for exciting...
Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC), the resident theater company of Chautauqua Institution, today announced their commission and development of a musical adaptation of The Crossover, the critically acclaimed novel by New York Times best-selling author and Chautauqua Institution’s Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts and writer-in-residence Kwame Alexander. Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Jade King Carroll, CTC is cementing its reputation as a national home for exciting new works. Carroll’s tenure has brought a renewed focus on commissioning, developing and producing works from new and established American playwrights. This commitment to fostering innovative storytelling is exemplified with...
In 2014 Junk Free Skin began in a small retail space in Buffalo, New York, where the founders set out to create a bath and body line using clean ingredients and truly sustainable, plastic-free packaging at an affordable price. Today the company is a thriving manufacturing facility equipped with the latest technologies and delivering products nationwide. If you visited Chautauqua this past summer, you may have picked up a free sample of their foaming hand soap at the Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative (CCI) table on Bestor Plaza. I got to see Junk Free Skin’s founder, Tom Akers, at the Western...
In July 2024, Chautauqua Institution’s Director of Arts Education Suzanne Fassett-Wright presented at the Kennedy Center’s ED@LEAD Conference. This event is an outgrowth of the Kennedy Center’s LEAD (Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability)Conference. Fassett-Wright lead a session titled “Feelin’ the Beat: Where Drumming and Social Emotional Learning Meet,” sharing out about the Chautauqua Arts Education School Residencies drumming program. This program was developed originally to serve students with disabilities, integrating music and social emotional skill learning. However, it became clear with so many students struggling with social emotional skills due to the pandemic, many schools have been hosting this...
