Discover Chautauqua
Every summer Chautauqua Institution welcomes over 100,000 visitors, to celebrate community and prioritize personal growth. Many travel here to relax, renew and recharge on the shores of Chautauqua Lake. Join us for our historic 150th anniversary season and see for yourself why Chautauqua was, and continues to be, a cherished destination.
Chautauqua’s Summer Assembly Season
There’s nothing quite like Chautauqua in the summer. Experience our grounds as they come alive with guests seeking relaxation, reinvention and our many innovative programs, performances and recreational activities.
The Seasons and Stories of Chautauqua: The 150th Anniversary Season
June 22–August 25, 2024
As most great things do, Chautauqua started with an idea: Americans were yearning to use their newfound leisure time in service of self and community betterment. It was the early 1870s and an unlikely pair of visionaries took that idea, found the perfect lakeside spot to put it to the test, and invited the nation. It worked. Soon thousands of people, multiple generations of families, descended upon the grounds each summer, traversing the lake by steam-powered boat to arrive at Fair Point. They came to learn the latest in religious and educational thought, to be entertained and enriched, and to rest and rejuvenate.
Explore the 2024 Weekly Themes
Eight Billion and Counting: The Future of Humankind in a Crowded World
Week Four: July 13–20
Exploring the Transformative Power of Music with Renée Fleming
Week Six: July 27–August 3
Water: Crisis, Beauty and Necessity – A Week in Partnership with National Geographic
Week Eight: August 10–17
Rising Together: Our Century of Creativity and Collaboration with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
Week Nine: August 17–25
Featured Events
Martina McBride
Multiple Grammy® nominee Martina McBride has sold over 23 million albums and will open the 150th Anniversary season at Chautauqua on June 22!
With 15 major music awards, 14 Gold Records and nine Platinum honors, Martina McBride has captured the hearts of audiences around the world for more than 25 years. The four-time CMA Female Vocalist of the Year has revolutionized the country music industry, with songs that deliver both melody and message. A legendary force in country music, her career skyrocketed with the release of her second album in 1993, The Way That I Am. With hits, like “My Baby Loves Me,” and “Independence Day,” the album quickly rose to million-seller status in 1995, ushering in a string of platinum albums that 2000s.
One of country music’s biggest stars, Mcbride also saw years of crossover pop success before returning to her country roots in 2005. Soon after, her albums from 2007 to 2016 successively soared to the Top Five slots on the country album chart. Most recently, in 2023, twelve years after the original release of ELEVEN, the album was re-released to include four bonus tracks in ‘ELEVEN (Deluxe)’.
Jon Meacham
Presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham is one of America’s most prominent public intellectuals, and he returns to the Chautauqua Lecture Series to open a week dedicated to tracing “The Evolution of the Modern Presidency” and, more importantly, to launch Chautauqua’s 2024 Summer Assembly Season and the celebration of the Institution’s 150th anniversary. With a depth of knowledge about politics, history, religion and current affairs, Meacham brings historical context to the issues and events impacting our daily lives.
The author of several No. 1 New York Times bestsellers, Meacham has written acclaimed books about America’s history and her presidents, including Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush (Meacham delivered eulogies for both President George H.W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush); American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation; and American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009. His latest New York Times bestseller, And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle, was published in October 2022.
Meacham is a contributing editor at Time, a former executive editor and executive vice president at Random House, and served as Newsweek’s managing editor from 1998 to 2006 and editor from 2006 to 2010. Since 2021, he has served as the Canon Historian of the Washington National Cathedral.
A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the Society of American Historians, Meacham is a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University, where he holds the Rogers Chair in the American Presidency. He is a graduate of The University of the South, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in English.
The Beach Boys
For more than six decades, The Beach Boys’ music has been an indelible part of American history. Their brilliant harmonies conveyed simple truths through sophisticated, pioneering musical arrangements. The Beach Boys transcended their music and have come to represent Californian culture. They provided fans around the world with a passport to experience love, youthful exuberance, and surf culture. Founded in Hawthorne, California in 1961, The Beach Boys are led by lead singer and critically acclaimed chief lyricist Mike Love, who, along with longtime member Bruce Johnston, musical director Brian Eichenberger, Christian Love, Tim Bonhomme, Jon Bolton, Keith Hubacher, Randy Leago and John Wedemeyer continue the legacy of the iconic band.
The Beach Boys signed with Capitol Records in July 1962 and released their first album, Surfin’ Safari, that same year.
The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful bands of all time, with over 100 million records sold worldwide. Between the 1960s and today, the group had over 80 songs chart worldwide, 36 of them in the US Top 40 (the most by a US rock band), and four topping the Billboard Hot 100. Their influence on other artists spans musical genres and movements. Countless artists have cited Pet Sounds as their inspiration for creating their own musical masterpieces. Rolling Stone ranked Pet Sounds No. 2 on its list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time,” and The Beach Boys No. 12 on its list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time.”
Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and recipients of The Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement GRAMMY Award®, The Beach Boys are a beloved American institution that remains iconic around the world.
Wilco
WILCO
Don’t miss Wilco’s debut performance at Chautauqua, where the venerated alt-rock greats will showcase their enduring love for rock ‘n’ roll. With a musical journey spanning thirty years, Wilco’s authenticity and fearless exploration of genres shine through, exemplified in their 13th studio album, Cousin, a collaboration with Welsh artist Cate Le Bon. The new tracks fit right in alongside a setlist of fan favorites, including hits like “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” “Via Chicago,” “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” and more.
CUT WORMS (opener)
Max Clarke is the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and musician presently known as Cut Worms. Cut Worm’s new Self Titled album continues Clarke’s exploration of what he calls “pop essentialism.” Mining the golden hits of yesteryear for a timeless sound, he contemplates age-old questions through a modern lens. Here, he leaves behind the legendary studio and sought-after producers for a more homegrown approach, working with a cast of gifted friends and collaborators. The result is a compact collection of daydream anthems that live between the summer’s hopeful beginnings and the season’s fleeting end.
July 6 @ 7:30 pm Week Three (July 6–13)
Jurassic Park Live in Concert with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
Amphitheater
Jurassic Park Live in Concert with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
Stuart Chafetz, conductor
The action-packed adventure pits man against prehistoric predators in the ultimate battle for survival. Featuring visually stunning imagery and groundbreaking special effects, this epic film is sheer movie magic 65 million years in the making.
Now audiences can experience Jurassic Park as never before: projected in HD with a full symphony orchestra performing John Williams’ iconic score live to picture.
Welcome… to Jurassic Park!
Kori Schake
Kori Schake is a senior fellow and the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, where her research areas include national security strategy, NATO, and alliances and U.S.-led international order. She returns to the Chautauqua Lecture Series for a week on “What We Got Wrong: Learning from Our Mistakes” to examine the contemporary legacy of American warfare — from Vietnam through Afghanistan to the current day — asking what mistakes we’ve learned from and those we’ve not, and how this can inform American military strategy as we engage in a new era of diplomacy and defense.
Before joining AEI, Schake was the deputy director-general of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. She has had a distinguished career in government, working at the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the National Security Council at the White House. She has also taught at King’s College, Stanford, West Point, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, National Defense University, and the University of Maryland, and served as senior policy adviser to the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008.
Schake is the author of five books, including America vs the West: Can the Liberal World Order Be Preserved?; Safe Passage: The Transition from British to American Hegemony; State of Disrepair: Fixing the Culture and Practices of the State Department; and Managing American Hegemony: Essays on Power in a Time of Dominance. She is also the coeditor, along with former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, of Warriors & Citizens: American Views of Our Military.
Schake holds a PhD and MA in government and politics from the University of Maryland, as well as an MPM from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. She received her bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford University.
Kai Bird
Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, historian and journalist Kai Bird is the co-author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer — the definitive biography of the theoretical physicist and “father of the atomic bomb” that served as inspiration for director and screenwriter Christopher Nolan’s most recent film, “Oppenheimer.” A relentless chronicler of history and a consummate storyteller, Bird elevates lessons from the past to undeniable relevance for audiences of today. He joins the Chautauqua Lecture Series in a week confronting “What We Got Wrong: Learning from Our Mistakes” to discuss the legacy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, whose groundbreaking work altered the course of history, and help us navigate the tremendous ethical and moral ramifications of that work.
For American Prometheus, Bird and his late co-author Martin J. Sherwin were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography, the National Books Critics Circle Award and the Duff Cooper Prize for History. Bird is the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames, and biographies of Jimmy Carter, John J. McCloy, McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy. He chronicled his childhood in the Middle East in his memoir, Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, which was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. The executive director and distinguished lecturer of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City, his work includes critical writings on the Vietnam War, Hiroshima, nuclear weapons, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the CIA.
An elected member of the prestigious Society of American Historians, Bird received his bachelor’s degree from Carleton College and his master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University.
Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons
The original Jersey boy himself, Frankie Valli is a true American legend. His incredible career with the Four Seasons, as well as his solo success, has spawned countless hit singles. With unforgettable tunes like “Sherry,” “Walk Like A Man,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Rag Doll,” “December ‘63 – Oh What A Night,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” and of course, “Grease.” His songs have been omnipresent in other iconic movies such as The Deer Hunter, Dirty Dancing, Mrs. Doubtfire, Conspiracy Theory and The Wanderers. As many as 200 artists have done cover versions of Frankie’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” from Nancy Wilson’s jazz treatment to Lauryn Hill’s hip-hop makeover.
Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons have sold over 100 million records worldwide. They continue to tour throughout the U.S. and abroad to packed houses receiving nightly standing ovations from thrilled fans of multiple generations.
July 20 @ 8:15 pm Week Five (July 20–27)
In the Air Tonight: A Symphonic Celebration of Genesis & Phil Collins with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
Amphitheater
In the Air Tonight: A Symphonic Celebration of Genesis & Phil Collins with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
Stuart Chafetz, conductor
Aaron Finley, vocalist
Brook Wood, vocalist
Brian Kushmaul, drums
Phil Collins’ one of a kind drum work and songwriting have left an enduring mark on music. With the megaband Genesis and his numerous solo hits, Phil Collins – along with bandmates Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford – penned unforgettable hits featured in this symphonic tribute featuring two vocalists. Show highlights include “Follow You Follow Me,” “Abacab,” “I Missed Again,” “Turn It On Again,” “Sussudio,” “One More Night,” “Take Me Home,” “Two Hearts,” and the iconic “In the Air Tonight.”
Boyz II Men
Chautauqua Institution welcomes legendary R&B vocal group Boyz II Men to its 2024 summer concert series. The smooth harmonies and enduring themes of Boyz II Men earned them the distinction of best-selling R&B group of all time, with 64 million albums sold. With past hits like “End of the Road,” “I’ll Make Love to You,” “One Sweet Day” and “Motownphilly,” the group redefined popular R&B, and continues to create timeless hits that appeal to fans across all generations. Throughout their 30-year career the trio has won four Grammy Awards, nine American Music Awards, nine Soul Train Awards, three Billboard Awards and a 2011 MOBO Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.
July 27 @ 8:15 pm Week Six (July 27–August 3)
Renée Fleming with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
Amphitheater
Renée Fleming with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
Rossen Milanov, conductor
One of the most acclaimed singers of our time, Renée Fleming joins the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Rossen Milanov. Honored with five Grammy® awards and the US National Medal of Arts, Ms. Fleming has sung for momentous occasions from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Diamond Jubilee Concert for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. This summer she brings Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene to the Amphitheater, a new, live, multi-media performance piece, inspired by her Grammy Award-winning album of the same name. In concert with an original film created for this performance by National Geographic, Fleming sings music ranging from Handel to The Lord of the Rings, with stunning video captured in locations from the Amazon rainforest to Yosemite, addressing humankind’s complicated relationship with nature.
July 29 @ 3:30 pm Week Six (July 27–August 3)
The 20th Annual Robert H. Jackson Lecture on the Supreme Court of the United States — Kate Shaw
Hall of Philosophy
The 20th Annual Robert H. Jackson Lecture on the Supreme Court of the United States — Kate Shaw
Kate Shaw is a Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. A constitutional law scholar, her academic work and writing focus on executive power, the law of democracy, the Supreme Court, and reproductive rights and justice.
Her scholarly writing has appeared, among other places, in the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, and the Northwestern University Law Review, and her popular writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, Time, and The Atlantic. Shaw is a contributor with ABC News, a contributing opinion writer with The New York Times, co-host of the Supreme Court podcast “Strict Scrutiny,” and a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
Before joining the Penn faculty in January 2024, she spent over a decade on the faculty of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she was also co-director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy. Earlier in her career she served as an associate counsel in the Obama White House Counsel’s Office and served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and the Honorable Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Shaw received her Bachelor of Arts from Brown University, and her Juris Doctor from Northwestern University.
Chautauqua Institution’s Robert H. Jackson Lecture is named in honor of the former Chautauquan, Jamestown lawyer, New Dealer, Solicitor General, Attorney General, Supreme Court justice, and Nuremberg chief prosecutor. Every summer the Jackson Lecture is a leading expert discussing the Supreme Court, the Justices, signal decisions, and related legal developments.
Chautauqua’s previous Jackson Lecturers have been Geoffrey Stone (2005), Linda Greenhouse (2006), Seth Waxman (2007), Jeffrey Toobin (2008), Paul Clement (2009), Jeff Shesol (2010), Dahlia Lithwick (2011), Pamela Karlan (2012), Charles Fried (2013), Akhil Amar (2014), Laurence Tribe (2015), Tracey Meares (2016), Judge Jon O. Newman (2017), Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella of Canada’s Supreme Court (2018), Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. (2019), Ruth Marcus (2020), Melissa Murray (2021), Reva Siegel (2022) and Justin Driver (2023).
Il Divo
Twenty years of life, music, and brotherhood have only enlivened, enhanced, and enriched Il Divo. Like a fine wine bettered by time, the group’s individual notes, accents, and signatures have fully bloomed over the course of a storied career. Now, the iconic quartet—Urs Bühler (tenor) of Switzerland, Sébastien Izambard (tenor) of France, David Miller (tenor) of America, and Steven LaBrie (baritone) of America—uphold the spirit of their signature sound, while expanding its scope on their tenth full-length offering and very first independent album, “XX: 20TH ANNIVERSARY ALBUM” [Il Divo Music/Thirty Tigers].
August 3 @ 8:15 pm Week Seven (August 3–10)
Sinatra & Beyond with Tony DeSare and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
Amphitheater
Sinatra & Beyond with Tony DeSare and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
Stuart Chafetz, conductor
Called “two parts Frank Sinatra and one part Billy Joel,” the triple-threat singer/pianist/songwriter Tony DeSare takes on the legend of Ol’ Blue Eyes himself. From jazz clubs to Carnegie Hall to headlining with major symphony orchestras, Tony DeSare delivers a fresh take on old school class in an outstanding, critically-acclaimed tribute to the great Frank Sinatra that includes songs like Come Fly with Me, I’ve Got the World On a String, It Was A Very Good Year, One for My Baby, The Summer Wind, I Get A Kick Out of You, Night and Day, New York, New York, My Way, and so many more Sinatra classics.
Amy Tan
Born in the United States to immigrant parents from China, Amy Tan rejected her mother’s expectations that she become a doctor and concert pianist. She chose to write fiction instead. In keeping with her love of science in the wild and childhood love of doodling, Tan — who serves on the board of the American Bird Conservancy — took up nature journal sketching in 2016, and now the beloved writer best known for The Joy Luck Club returns to the Amphitheater stage for a week dedicated to “Wonder and Awe — A Week Celebrating Chautauqua’s Sesquicentennial.” She’ll discuss her latest work, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, and the wonder and awe inspired by the natural world.
Tan is the author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Saving Fish from Drowning, and The Valley of Amazement, all New York Times bestsellers, as well as two children’s books and the nonfiction books The Opposite of Fate and Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir. Her work has been translated into 35 languages and adapted for film, television and opera.
For her work, Tan has been nominated for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the International Orange Prize. She is also the recipient of the Commonwealth Gold Award, the 2005 Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service, the 2021 Carl Sandburg Literary Award, and other honors. In March 2022 she was voted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She was also awarded the 2021 National Humanities Medal by President Joe Biden in a ceremony at the White House.
Tan’s Chautauqua presentation coincides with “Amy Tan’s Backyard Birds,” an exhibition of her nature journals and sketches on display from June 8 to Aug. 25, 2024, at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown, New York.
August 10 @ 8:15 pm Week Eight (August 10–17)
Houston Ballet with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
Amphitheater
Houston Ballet with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra
Rossen Milanov, conductor
With over 50 years of rich history, Houston Ballet has evolved into the country’s fourth-largest ballet company and with a global reach, touring in renowned theaters in Dubai, London, Paris, Moscow, Spain, Montréal, Ottawa, Melbourne, New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Tokyo and more.
Australian choreographer Stanton Welch AM has served as Artistic Director of Houston Ballet since 2003, raising the level of the Company’s classical technique from dance legends such as Sir Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, John Neumeier, and Jerome Robbins. Continuing the legacy of being a choreographic eden, Houston Ballet has also commissioned new works by Aszure Barton, Trey McIntyre, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Justin Peck. Julie Kent joined Welch as Artistic Director in 2023, after serving as Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet from 2016 – 2023, where she commissioned over 26 world premieres from a diverse range of choreographers as well as several full-length classical ballets. Kent retired as a Principal dancer in 2015 as the longest-tenured dancer in American Ballet Theatre’s 84-year history and is deeply committed to positively impacting artists, audiences, and communities through the transformative power of dance.
Program to be announced.
Erika Woolsey
Erika Woolsey is a National Geographic Explorer, visiting scholar at the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab, and chief scientist and CEO of The Hydrous, a non-profit dedicated to translating ocean science into public understanding. As a marine biologist, divemaster and virtual reality filmmaker, she loves bringing people to the ocean, in real life as well as virtually. Her work has taken her to coral reefs around the world, and now her specializations in ocean science, education, virtual reality and design bring her to the Amphitheater stage to open the Chautauqua Lecture Series week on “Water: Crisis, Beauty and Necessity — A Week in Partnership with National Geographic.”
Woolsey is the creator of award-winning ocean extended reality (XR) experiences, including “AR Reef” (an augmented reality experience created in partnership with The Smithsonian, Adobe and The Hydrous); “Immerse” (a 360-degree/3D film); “Explore” (an interactive VR experience developed for research with the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab and the National Science Foundation); and “Expedition Palau” (a shared, synchronized, immersive reality experience). She has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed publications ranging in topics from coral reef ecology to social learning in virtual reality, and in 2023 was named as one of 50 explorers changing the world by The Explorers Club.
Woolsey conducted her PhD research in coral reef ecology on the Great Barrier Reef with James Cook University and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, earned her Masters of Applied Science in Coastal Management from the University of Sydney, and studied biology and art history at Duke University.
August 13 @ 10:45 am Week Eight (August 10–17)
Marc Bierkens, Malin Fezehai & Arati Kumar-Rao
Amphitheater | CHQ Assembly
Marc Bierkens, Malin Fezehai & Arati Kumar-Rao
Three National Geographic Explorers whose work examines water issues across the world come together in conversation on the Amphitheater stage for the Chautauqua Lecture Series and a week on “Water: Crisis, Beauty and Necessity.”
Marc Bierkens is professor of hydrology in the Department of Physical Geography at Utrecht University, whose current research focuses on understanding the global water cycle and how this is impacted by climate change and human water use. To support this work, his group has built a high-resolution global hydrological and water resources model — the results of which are frequently used in public outreach like National Geographic’s World Water Map, and to aid NGOs and companies in water risk assessments through projects like the World Resources Institute Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas.
At Utrecht University, Bierkens served as acting chairman of the Department of Physical Geography from 2009 to 2015, and since June 2021 as Vice Dean of Research for the Faculty of Geosciences. He is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and is editor of the journal Water Resources Research. In 2023 he received the Henry Darcy Medal from the European Geosciences Union and the Hydrology Award from the American Geophysical Union. Since 2023, he is also a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Malin Fezehai is an Eritrean/Swedish New York-based photographer, filmmaker and visual reporter who has worked across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and America. In 2023, National Geographic Society and The Climate Pledge announced Fezehai among its latest cohort of grant recipients documenting the global climate crisis. With this grant, Fezehai is examining human adaptations to sea level rise and the experiences of people permanently living on water.
Fezehai’s work focuses on communities of displacement and dislocation around the world. In 2016, she was commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme to photograph survivors of violent extremism across Sub-Saharan Africa, which resulted in her book, SURVIVORS. In 2018, she worked at The New York Times as a visual reporter for the “Surfacing” column.
Fezehai has received a 2015 World Press Photo Award, a Wallis Annenberg Prize, and was named one of the 30 Emerging Photographers to watch in 2015 by Photo District News. Her image depicting a wedding of Eritrean refugees in Israel was the first iPhone photo ever to receive a World Press Photo Award.
Working across South Asia, environmental photographer, artist and writer Arati Kumar-Rao documents environmental degradation that has reached cataclysmic levels. She chronicles anthropogenic changes in landscapes and their fallouts on livelihood and culture — and how drastically depleting groundwater, habitat destruction and land acquisition for industry devastates biodiversity and shrinks common lands, displacing millions and pushing species toward extinction.
Using still and moving images, soundscapes, longform narratives and art, Kumar-Rao has crisscrossed the subcontinent for over a decade, using hard-hitting stories to connect the dots between environmental destruction and the loss of innate resilience in the face of a deepening climate crisis. Her first book, Marginlands: India’s Landscapes on the Brink encapsulates her work thus far on these themes. Marginlands was shortlisted for best first book in the non-fiction category at TataLitLive! Awards 2023, and longlisted for non-fiction at AttaGalatta Bangalore LitFest Awards 2023. Most recently, Kumar-Rao was included as a climate pioneer on the BBC’s 100 Women list for 2023.
Her work has appeared in National Geographic magazine, Emergence magazine, The Guardian, The Hindustan Times, Mint and BBC Outside Source, among other outlets.
What Will Your Chautauqua Institution Experience Look Like?
Learn
Expand your horizons with lectures, classes, and commune with others looking to do the same.
Experience
Be inspired by a performance by our own Opera and Theater companies, the symphony orchestra and more!
Relax and Recreate
As a pedestrian community, recreation and relaxation are built into the fabric of daily life at Chautauqua alongside offerings on our fields, courts, fairways and lakefront.
Connect
This is a place where life feels full of kindness, hope and possibilities. Chautauqua’s multi- and interfaith commitment means regular chances to hear from, learn from and engage with people of different faiths, including those who profess no faith tradition.
Plan Your Experience Today
No matter how long you plan to stay, a Chautauqua Institution experience is one you won’t soon forget. Use our experience planner to make booking your next visit simple.
Where to Stay
From the Athenaeum Hotel to countless private rental properties, Chautauqua offers accommodations for all needs and tastes.
Gate Passes and Tickets
Your Gate Pass is your passport to the Chautauqua experience. All patrons need a Gate Pass during the Summer Assembly season.
Eat, Drink & Shop
Chautauqua Institution’s historic and picturesque grounds are open throughout the year for shopping, dining and exploring.
How Will Your Family Experience Chautauqua?
From family-friendly enrichment classes, day camps, performances and entertainment, our summer retreat is sure to inspire wonder and curiosity.
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