Since 2016, Chautauqua Institution has partnered with the Jamestown Public Schools and Chautauqua Lake Central Schools to bring nationally renowned workshop leaders to provide teachers with professional development workshops to hundreds of teachers in Chautauqua County. During the 2024–2025 school year alone, over 200 teachers and hundreds of students have benefited from this program. The arts are increasingly seen by the New York State Education Department as a valuable means to encourage and enrich learning for students. Through an arts integrated approach, students have not only learned core subject area skills alongside arts skills, but they’ve demonstrated their learning through...
CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. (March 11, 2025) — In a joint announcement to the Chautauqua community today, Institution Board of Trustees Chair Candace L. Maxwell and Institution President Michael E. Hill, Ed.D., announced President Hill will leave his role as Chautauqua’s 18th president May 31, 2025. ”My eight-plus years in service to Chautauqua have been among the most rewarding and challenging of my career,” Hill said. “…it has been the honor of a lifetime to work alongside the talented Chautauqua team to advance our mission.” Hill said he is leaving his post as Institution president to accept the position of president at...
“The mind of an adult begins in the mind of a child.” Award-winning poet, educator, publisher, producer, and Chautauqua Institution’s Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts Kwame Alexander said this during his conversation with Aaron Dworkin in the closing plenary at SphinxConnect this past January. It was at Chautauqua last summer (2024) where Alexander met Aaron Dworkin, founder of the Sphinx Organization, who was at Chautauqua to give the morning lecture in the Amphitheater. SphinxConnect is the largest and longest-standing global convening dedicated to excellence and inclusion in the arts. The conversation between Alexander and Dworkin centered around Alexander’s deep...
Chautauqua Institution announced today that Chautauqua Arts Education has been awarded a $60,000 grant from The Children’s Guild Foundation (CGF) to support its arts education programming for students with disabilities. This generous award will support programming over three years, providing sustained support for program offerings and adaptations that foster greater accessibility and engagement for students of all abilities. The CGF is a longstanding supporter of organizations serving children with disabilities throughout Western New York, including an interest in supporting educational initiatives. For more information about the CGF and its work, visit www.cg.foundation. This latest grant award reflects a continued partnership...
Landscapes of Hope Ten summers ago, in the aptly named Paradise Valley north of Yellowstone National Park, I witnessed a remarkable sight. A North American Pronghorn walked across an open field and down to the Yellowstone River. What’s so remarkable about that? Well, let me tell you. Pronghorn are one of North America’s most impressive mammals. They have the longest land migration in the continental U.S. and are the fastest land animal in North America, attaining speeds close to 60 miles per hour. It is believed this impressive speed resulted from the pronghorn evolving alongside its principal predator, the North...
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...
As winter settles over Chautauqua County this January, the Young Playwrights Project (YPP) is once again breathing life into classrooms across the region, marking its eleventh year of empowering young minds through the art of storytelling. For 2025, the program has expanded its reach, now serving eight schools and bringing the magic of playwriting to 33 third and fourth grade classrooms. The participating schools include Bush, Fletcher, Lincoln, Love, and Ring Elementary Schools in Jamestown; Chautauqua Lake Elementary School in Mayville; Clymer Central School in Clymer; and Hewes BOCES Educational Center in Ashville. At its core,YPP is all about inspiring...
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) recently issued the new Wetlands Regulations. New Informational Wetlands delineation maps were also created showing areas in blue that will require a “Jurisdictional Determination” from the NYSDEC if a project is proposed within the blue areas or within 100 feet of those areas. These maps do not currently reflect potential in-lake wetland delineations. NYSDEC is working on those delineations and will update the map as they finalize them. The new maps indicate some newly designated wetland areas within Chautauqua Institution areas including around the marsh between the Woodlands and Turner Community...
The Forum Dialogues proved to be a constructive endeavor and provided the leadership of the Institution with feedback and ideas on several operational issues. This report summarizes the recommendations received and their status in terms of our current thinking. In the report below, we have organized our work to reflect four distinct categories: As mentioned in previous reports, we received a large amount of feedback, and it became clearer to us via the dialogues that different community members have different focus areas for their Chautauqua experience. That is one of the things that makes Chautauqua unique and meaningful for our...
