Summer 2026 was a landmark season for Chautauqua’s performing and visual arts programs. 

For the first time since 2008, a newly constructed arts space opened: the Roe Green Theater Center. In its inaugural year, this space was a game-changer for Chautauqua Theater Company by offering state-of-the-art facilities for every stage of the creative process to provide a home for the work of our new FutureNow Playwriting Fellows. And it added some serious fun with the late-night series, boasting comedy and music – and drinks from the lobby bar. With 25 performances in its first year (most of which sold out!), the Michael E. Hill and Peter M. Korns Black Box at the Roe Green Theater Center has already become a new staple for many Chautauquans. CTC opened this new and fabulous space while simultaneously running a smashing season in Bratton Theater and incubating more than eight new works.  

Just footsteps away, the completion of the Greene Family Commons, a two-year, more than $15 million dollar renovation for our student dormitories, brought about the best living and dining experience in many years. Serving more than 250 students in visual arts, dance, instrumental, piano and voice, the Greene Family Commons has a profound impact on Chautauqua Institution’s mission-driven work to educate and help launch the next generation of artistic talent.  

From the Arts Quad where 24 students daily honed their craft, to Norton Hall where the Opera Conservatory gave us a delicious production of The Magic Flute, and everywhere in between, the grounds were abuzz with the vibrant, daring and joyful process of making art across all disciplines. Sherwood-Marsh, Lenna, Fletcher and McKnight hummed with student performances, recitals from our illustrious faculty, master classes from the Denyce Graves Foundation and the Chautauqua Chamber Music Series, which some Mondays were at capacity.   

Chautauqua School of Dance mounted a full ballet (a rare feat for a summer festival), Wuthering Heights. Chautauqua Visuals Arts mounted nine exhibitions and a lecture series including the iconic and provocative Guerilla Girls. Chautauqua Opera Company welcomed us into the process behind four operas in development and had us all laughing (and yearning) with a triple bill of operas in the Amphitheater, each connected to this unique and precious place, Chautauqua.  

On the amphitheater stage, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra wowed us with world-class pops concerts featuring artists such as Kelli O’Hara, Sutton Foster and Josh Groban, and ferocious classical repertoire like Carmina Burana and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 12. They also partnered with Natalie Merchant to offer an exquisite free concert for kids that one Chautauquan described to me as “once in a lifetime.” The versatility and high standard of musical excellence of this orchestra, tackling 22 distinct concerts in just 8 weeks, is absolutely singular. Popular entertainment ranged from rock to jazz to bluegrass with standouts including Harry Connick Jr., Allison Krauss and Union Station, and Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue. The MSFO performed six distinct concerts including a world premiere by Damien Geter, always reminding us that we are blessed to be the summer home of some of the country’s top emerging musical talent.  

Throughout it all – and indeed continuing now and all twelve months of the year – Chautauqua Arts Education’s small but mighty team has served over 5,000 public school students with in-depth, high- quality arts-integrated curriculums, encouraging self-expression and living out our belief that the arts belong to everyone.  

As we bring the season to a close, I feel overwhelmingly grateful. I am grateful for the Performing and Visual Arts team of year-round and seasonal staff who – along with our colleagues from Buildings & Grounds, ticketing, marketing, production, housing, advancement and more – made the season happen. I am grateful for the game-changing philanthropy of Craig and Cathy Greene, Roe Green and the many other donors who brought our new buildings to fruition and make all of our programming possible – and to our Friends Groups who ran three successful galas this summer. Perhaps most of all, I’m grateful for the sense of community that happens between artists, students, and audiences – a Connections host clapping in the front row as “their” student takes a bow, or a jazz singer hugging a new fan after autographing a CD for them at the merch table. These small moments, forged through art, knit us together and lift us out of the ordinary into the extraordinary.  

Next year we will meet again and make new memories. Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will anchor Week Four. Chautauqua Opera Company will mount a production of Cosi Fan Tutte in Norton Hall. Our partnership with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Week Nine is going to be a blast. And we will share hundreds more dates, times and names in the coming months. 

But for now… if you are in Chautauqua this Sunday, Aug. 30, please join us for a 3 p.m. Japanese Obon Festival-style Celebration in Bestor Plaza. Dancing “bon odori” together (don’t worry, master teacher Reiko Iwanaga will lead us!) underneath hundreds of lanterns, to the beat of Taiko drums, in a Buddhist-inspired celebration that honors the past while embracing the future – we will say goodbye to this season, while smiling toward the next.