Welcome to the first quarterly update of the Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative. It was a busy summer of getting to know the amazing Chautauqua community. I’m so grateful for the enthusiastic support that you and others have expressed for the things we will do together to build a sustainable Chautauqua and advance understanding and action on climate. I plan to update interested stakeholders by email four times per year. I am also making space for our community to collaborate, share and learn together throughout the year. To that end, I’d like to invite you to join the new Sustainable Chautauqua group on Facebook, a space to:...
Chautauqua Institution today announced the forthcoming departures of Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC) Artistic Director Andrew Borba and Managing Director Sarah Clare Corporandy. Borba will step down following completion of the company’s 2022 season in August. Corporandy will depart in the spring of 2022, following the appointment of a new Managing Director. National searches for each leadership role will launch shortly. “Andrew and Sarah Clare have led CTC through a period of artistic excellence and company growth that I am incredibly proud of. From their commitment to new work to their nurturing of conservatory actors and both emerging and celebrated playwrights,...
Chautauqua Institution and Mather today announced the forthcoming premiere of “Mather Insights for Living and Aging Well,” a three-episode series that brings Mather Institute research findings to light, exploring ways we can all be happier and healthier as we age. The series will premiere at 9 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Nov. 3, on the CHQ Assembly streaming channel. All three episodes will be available for immediate on-demand viewing at assembly.chq.org or via the CHQ Assembly mobile or smart TV apps. Hosted by Alice St. Clair of Mather, “Mather Insights” offers key insights from Mather Institute researchers. Topics covered in the first...
“Let us take a more joyous strain.” The long winter of our discontent may not be quite over in the world, but this week, it sure is looking a lot like summer at Chautauqua! I have spent the last several days getting to welcome many of you back to the grounds. We’ve been through so much, individually and collectively, since we were last together. It has been wonderful to share your stories and to share some of my own, including the news that since our last in-person Assembly, Peter and I were married, and we joined the mighty ranks of...
Dear Chautauquans, We deeply appreciate your kindness and patience over these past few months as we have navigated changing COVID-19 regulations as well as the implementation of new website and ticketing systems. We sincerely regret the inconveniences and frustrations you may have experienced during this time. As an expression of gratitude for your loyal support, and with new knowledge of reduced state and federal regulations related to the pandemic, there will no longer be an extra ticket fee to Traditional Gate Pass (TGP) holders for the shows listed below. A base-price seat at these events is now included with the...
Chautauqua Institution President Michael E. Hill was the guest speaker of the 2021 Turner Winter Series hosted at the Robert H. Jackson Center. He reflected on the 2020 Chautauqua Institution season, Covid implications and beyond.
Helene Gayle, David Peckinpaugh Begin Terms Oct. 1 Chautauqua Institution’s Board of Trustees elected Dr. Helene D. Gayle and David Peckinpaugh to four-year terms of service at the body’s final meeting of the 2020 season on Aug. 29. The new trustee class officially begins its term on Oct. 1. Gayle, of Chicago, is president and CEO of the Chicago Community Trust, one of the nation’s oldest and largest community foundations. Under her leadership, the Trust has adopted a new strategic focus on closing the racial and ethnic wealth gap in the Chicago region. Gayle was previously president and CEO of...
“If We Knew Then …” “What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”— T.S. Eliot From our Unitarian Universalist brothers and sisters: “Spirit of life, we look within our own hearts, to the burning coal that is at the center of our being, the place where our hope for the world lives, the place where our faith in humanity resides and there we find the strength and courage to continue moving forward however muddy and rough the path may be.” Until we...
“This is what rituals are for. We do spiritual ceremonies as human beings in order to create a safe resting place for our most complicated feelings of joy or trauma, so that we don’t have to haul those feelings around with us forever, weighing us down. We all need such places of ritual safekeeping. And I do believe that if your culture or tradition doesn’t have the specific ritual you are craving, then you are absolutely permitted to make up a ceremony of your own devising, fixing your own broken-down emotional systems with all the do-it-yourself resourcefulness of a generous...
“Good morning, and welcome home to Chautauqua!” These are the words I have ordinarily used to open our assembly in the first four years I have been fortunate enough to serve as Chautauqua’s President. But this year is anything but ordinary. What you can’t see beyond me is an empty Amphitheater, which can seat up to 4,500 people. Our grounds in Western New York are traditionally populated with between 7,500 to 10,000 people on a day like this. My best estimates are that we have approximately 1,000 people on the grounds for the start of this season. From coast to...