Chautauqua Institution today announced a new agreement with the musicians of the resident Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. The agreement extends the current Collective Bargaining Agreement through September 2021, but makes some important adjustments that provide for flexibility and creativity in planning the ensemble’s 2021 season.    “I am pleased and grateful we have been able to reach an agreement that will serve both our patrons and CSO musicians during the 2021 season as we all look forward to an enriching and soul-nourishing 2021 Summer Assembly,” said Michael E. Hill, president of Chautauqua Institution.  “This hope-filled news allows us to immediately work together...

Chautauqua Institution’s Arts Education School Residencies program is the recipient of a three-year grant award totaling $45,000 from The Children’s Guild Foundation, located in Buffalo, New York. This support is to help sustain the current program and develop professional development opportunities for area teachers in arts integration teaching strategies to serve students with disabilities across Chautauqua County. The Children’s Guild Foundation financially supports the efforts of nonprofit organizations across Western New York, with a focus on education and serving students with disabilities among their top priorities. The Institution’s School Residencies program has served students with arts integration-based lessons and residencies for...

Chautauqua Institution and Chautauqua Cinema today announced a plan to integrate operations to create a more seamless and enhanced guest experience. The first phase of this integration will take place during the 2021 season, when Chautauqua Cinema and Chautauqua Institution will work more closely together. Chautauqua Cinema will provide support and leadership for all motion picture experiences on the Institution grounds, including planned outdoor movies as well as selected events in the Chautauqua Amphitheater, with films being presented at Chautauqua Cinema as COVID-19 regulations permit. The second phase of the plan will occur starting in fall 2021, when Chautauqua Cinema...

Opera, Theater open to all to be presented in an outdoor venue on Pratt Avenue Updated May 14, 2021 Following analysis of the potential use of Norton Hall as the primary venue for Chautauqua Theater Company and Chautauqua Opera Company performances in 2021, Institution officials have opted instead to construct a temporary performance pavilion on Pratt Avenue for the presentation of performances with lawn seating open to all gate pass holders.  The plan includes the presentation of approximately 40 theater, opera and selected other programs over the nine-week Summer Assembly.  In addition to lawn space open for self-seating and requiring...

Now in Fourth Year, Award Honors Innovative Short Fiction or Nonfiction   Chautauqua Institution today announced that it is accepting submissions for the Chautauqua Janus Prize, now in its fourth year. This unique 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 a $5,000 award, the winner will give a reading during the 2021 summer season as part of the Institution’s CHQ Assembly online platform 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.   Named for Janus, the Roman god who looks to both the...

Dear Chautauqua Community, My thoughts and prayers are with each of you as we look toward the end of a tumultuous 2020 and turn our thoughts to preparing for an in-person summer assembly season for 2021.  Earlier this year, when considering the slate of 2021 weekly themes, we decided to close our summerlong exercise in shared learning on a simple yet profound topic: Resilience. We will seek to conclude our time together in 2021 on that hopeful note, with programs aligned with this description: What drives people to keep going when forces outside their control work against them? And what does that tell...

Authorizes Staff to Plan for Limited Programs, Capacity Pending Government Go-ahead, Regulations Chautauqua Institution this week announced the outline of a plan to present programming for in-person audiences during its 2021 summer assembly season, pending evolving guidance and regulations from state, federal and local government officials. The approach was approved by the Institution’s Board of Trustees at its Dec. 9 meeting, and was shared with members of the community via a series of webinars (included below). “This working plan is the result of our team having spent the entire fall consulting experts, learning from the experience of industry colleagues, and...

Two-part Live Online Event on Dec. 8 to Feature Author Mikhal Dekel CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y., & WASHINGTON, D.C. — Chautauqua Institution and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum today announced a jointly presented online program titled “The Tehran Children: Iran’s Unexpected & Suppressed Connection to the Holocaust,” inspired by Mikhal Dekel’s 2019 memoir Tehran Children: A Holocaust Refugee Odyssey. Dekel will participate in each segment of the two-part, 90-minute presentation, to air live beginning 7 p.m. EST Tuesday, Dec. 8, on the Institution’s CHQ Assembly video channel.   A finalist for the 2020 Chautauqua Prize, Tehran Children tells the little-known story of the of the more than 1 million Polish Jews who fled the...

From President Michael E. Hill This year has brought challenges unlike any most of us have ever known. There is little about daily life that is not markedly different from a year ago. We are more attuned than ever to our physical and mental health, and to the presence — and absence — of others. Our nation has endured parallel crises of this pandemic, economic struggle, and social upheaval over issues of racism and justice, all taking place against the backdrop of a rancorous presidential election. The list of disruptions and discontinuities goes on and on; you know and feel...