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  • Rev. Anna Carter Florence

    The Rev. Anna Carter Florence is the Peter Marshall Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church. She is also currently serving as Co-Director of the Columbia Preachers Studio for Renewal, a Lilly-funded Compelling Preaching grant. Before joining the Columbia faculty in 1998, Florence served...

    Free Sunday Event
  • Art in the Park

    Hosted by the Friends of CVA, Art in the Park is an open art fair with 70+ vendors held in Miller Park, showcasing art by members of the Chautauqua community, artists-in-residence from the School of Art, and artisans from the region around Chautauqua Institution. Items for sale include ceramics, paintings, prints, Chautauqua-themed trinkets, pieces made...

  • Chautauqua Theater Company Presents Best for Baby

    WORLD PREMIERE By Sharyn Rothstein Directed by Oliver Butler Bratton Theater Best for Baby and its devilishly funny emcee takes audiences inside Johnson & Johnson’s decades-long and still evolving baby powder scandal. A Big American Play ripped straight from the headlines, this world premiere is equal parts showbiz spectacle and intimate human storytelling, brought to...

    $65
  • 6-Week Residency Open Studios

    Join us at the Arts Quad where visitors are invited to step inside our 6-week resident artists' studios, learn more about their processes, and engage with the residents before gathering for a reception celebrating the exhibition next door at the School of Art Gallery. This event provides a glimpse into the ideas, experiments, and conversations...

  • Cabinet of Wonder Live! A Free Family Concert with Natalie Merchant & The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra

    Stuart Chafetz, Conductor Natalie Merchant, Composer and Vocals American singer-songwriter, recording artist, and activist Natalie Merchant will be in residence at Chautauqua Institution this summer (July 25-August 2, 2026) for Week Five’s programmatic theme, “Art & Artists Against the Odds.” Merchant will give a matinee family-friendly concert performance with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, under the...

    Free Sunday Event (Ticket Required)
  • 6-Week Residency Exhibition Opening

    We are excited to announce the culmination of the Chautauqua School of Art's 6-Week Residency Program with an opening reception, following our open studios event. Over the course of six weeks, resident artists have immersed themselves in focused studio practice, meaningful dialogue, and creative exploration. This special evening offers an opportunity to experience the work...

  • John Hoppenthaler and Roy Hoffman

    Chautauqua Writers' Center Faculty Reading — Featuring John Hoppenthaler (Poetry) and Roy Hoffman (Prose) John Hoppenthaler’s books of poetry are Night Wing Over Metropolitan Area, Domestic Garden, Anticipate the Coming Reservoir, and Lives of Water, all with Carnegie Mellon UP. He has co-edited a volume of essays on the poetry of Jean Valentine, This-World Company...

  • Church of the Wild with Kriss Miller

    Kriss Young Miller and her husband Gary manage the Quaker House. Kriss is a 2022 graduate of Earlham School of Religion with her Master of Arts in Peace and Social Transformation. Kriss is currently a student of Victoria Loorz in the Seminary of the Wild Earth at the Center for Wild Spirituality. She has completed...

    Free Sunday Event
  • Chautauqua Theater Company Presents Best for Baby

    WORLD PREMIERE By Sharyn Rothstein Directed by Oliver Butler Bratton Theater Best for Baby and its devilishly funny emcee takes audiences inside Johnson & Johnson’s decades-long and still evolving baby powder scandal. A Big American Play ripped straight from the headlines, this world premiere is equal parts showbiz spectacle and intimate human storytelling, brought to...

    $65
  • CHQ Mystic Heart – Dhara Kowal, Zen Buddhism Meditation Practice

    Sensei Dhara Kowal- Kowal is Dharma Successor to Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, who sanctioned her as a Zen teacher in 2022 and gave her Dharma Transmission in 2025. As a resident teacher and priest (ordained in 2023), she serves as Co-Director of the Rochester Zen Center, in partnership with Sensei John Pulleyn. In the preceding years,...

    free
  • Movement and Meditation with Monte Thompson

    Monte Thompson was a professional dancer, and also spent years as a restauranteur. His life was spent on his feet. Now retired, he is interested in continuing to be able to move easily and gracefully while using breathing and stretching techniques to help quiet his mind and prepare him to face each day with purpose...

    free
  • Rev. Anna Carter Florence

    The Rev. Anna Carter Florence is the Peter Marshall Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church. She is also currently serving as Co-Director of the Columbia Preachers Studio for Renewal, a Lilly-funded Compelling Preaching grant. Before joining the Columbia faculty in 1998, Florence served...

    Free
  • Ken Burns and Jeffrey Rosen

    Celebrating the United States semiquincentennial, Chautauqua presents Week Six, “America at 250: In Partnership with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.” The milestone anniversary offers an opportunity to survey the previous quarter millennium – how a collection of British colonies became the world’s pre-eminent constitutional democracy, with major successes, failures and continued struggles along the way –...

    $45
  • Guided Kayak Eco Tour

    Enjoy paddling while learning about ecological info along the shores of Chautauqua Institution during this hour-long guided kayak tour. The tour begins and ends at the Sports Club. The cost is for rental of single or tandem kayak plus $12 per person for the tour guide. Limited spots so please reserve one day before the...

  • Rosemarie Zagarri

    Rosemarie Zagarri is Distinguished University Professor and professor of history at George Mason University. A specialist in Early American political and women’s history, she is the author of a numerous articles and several books, including The Politics of Size: Representation in the United States, 1776-1850, A Woman’s Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution,...

    $20
  • Masters Series Masterclass: A Conversation with Ken Burns

    Join Ken Burns for an in-depth conversation about his latest work, "The American Revolution." A filmmaker for almost 50 years, Burns will expand upon his morning lecture on the Amphitheater stage. An opportunity for Q & A, patrons can ask about Burns' awards, career, research and future plans.

    $49
  • Chautauqua Chamber Music: Ruckus with Keir GoGwilt, violin

    Experience the electrifying energy of Ruckus, a boundary-pushing baroque ensemble redefining early music performance. With virtuosic flair and a fresh, improvisatory spirit, Ruckus brings 17th- and 18th-century works vividly to life. Their performances blend historical authenticity with modern vitality, creating concerts that feel both timeless and daringly new. Don’t miss this exuberant celebration of baroque...

  • CHQ Mystic Heart – Sound Meditation with Suzanne Watters

    Suzanne Watters is a Pratt Institute MFA graduate with a concentration in painting/drawing. Her art practice centers around woven pieces made with found textiles painted with pigments and/or dyed with food waste and other organic matter. She has attended training in New York City and received a certification in sound meditation from the Sound Healing...

    free
  • Chautauqua School of Dance with the Music School Festival Orchestra

    Chautauqua School of Dance presents an outstanding mixed repertoire evening of new and established works, masterfully performed by the Music Student Festival Orchestra. This performance will feature the most exceptional young talent in the country. Under the leadership of Sasha Janes, the school continues its long tradition of excellence as a top-tier summer training program...

    $35
  • CHQ Mystic Heart – Dhara Kowal, Zen Buddhism Meditation Practice

    Sensei Dhara Kowal- Kowal is Dharma Successor to Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, who sanctioned her as a Zen teacher in 2022 and gave her Dharma Transmission in 2025. As a resident teacher and priest (ordained in 2023), she serves as Co-Director of the Rochester Zen Center, in partnership with Sensei John Pulleyn. In the preceding years,...

    free
  • Rev. Anna Carter Florence

    The Rev. Anna Carter Florence is the Peter Marshall Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church. She is also currently serving as Co-Director of the Columbia Preachers Studio for Renewal, a Lilly-funded Compelling Preaching grant. Before joining the Columbia faculty in 1998, Florence served...

    Free
  • Judi Greewald, CEO of the Nuclear Innovation Alliance

    Chautauqua Science Group Weekly Lecture Judi Greenwald is the President and CEO of the Nuclear Innovation Alliance. Ms. Greenwald has over 35 years of energy and environmental policy leadership experience in the public and nonprofit sectors, including the U.S. Congress, the White House, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,...

  • Ken Burns and Jeffrey Rosen

    Celebrating the United States semiquincentennial, Chautauqua presents Week Six, “America at 250: In Partnership with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.” The milestone anniversary offers an opportunity to survey the previous quarter millennium – how a collection of British colonies became the world’s pre-eminent constitutional democracy, with major successes, failures and continued struggles along the way –...

    $45
  • Sigrid Jakob: “Fruiting Bodies and Big Ideas: a Citizen Science Adventure”

    Bird, Tree & Garden Club lunchtime lecture series Sigrid Jakob is a freelance marketing strategist during the day and mycophile in her spare time. She’s an avid member and president of the New York Mycological Society, a mushroom club that goes out and observes fungi in New York City’s parks 52 weeks a year. She...

  • CHQ Mystic Heart – Dhara Kowal, Zen Buddhism Meditation Practice

    Sensei Dhara Kowal- Kowal is Dharma Successor to Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, who sanctioned her as a Zen teacher in 2022 and gave her Dharma Transmission in 2025. As a resident teacher and priest (ordained in 2023), she serves as Co-Director of the Rochester Zen Center, in partnership with Sensei John Pulleyn. In the preceding years,...

    free
  • Manisha Sinha

    Manisha Sinha is the Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut and immediate Past President of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. She received her Ph.D from Columbia University where her dissertation was nominated for the Bancroft Prize. She was nominated to the OAH Distinguished Lecture Series in 2003....

    $20
  • Time and Water film and filmmaker talk

    Time and Water A National Geographic documentary film inspired by Andri Snær Magnason’s 2019 non-fiction On Time and Water, directed by Sara Dosa, premiered at the Sundance Festival on 27th January 2026. Facing the death of his country’s glaciers and the loss of his beloved grandparents, Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason turns his archives into...

  • Old First Night

    Old First Night is Chautauqua’s birthday party, and all are invited! In the early years of Chautauqua, the season's first night was not in late June but early August. Therefore, Old First Night (OFN) is a celebration of the original first night of the season at Chautauqua. This event begins with music from Thursday Morning...

  • Puppy Pals Live – The Action-Packed Comedic Stunt Dog Show

    As Seen on America's Got Talent, Puppy Pals Live is a family fun action-packed show where adopted and rescued dogs perform spectacular stunts and breathtaking feats. Watch as Puppy Pals Live leads the puppies and audience through challenging and comical tricks as the pooches show everyone who is really boss! Full of canine stunts and...

    $15
  • Sunrise Paddle – Kayak/SUP

    Enjoy the beauty of the lake during our sunrise paddle. This is not a guided tour but an opportunity to rent a kayak, SUP or canoe for an enjoyable hour at sunrise. Reservations accepted one day in advance at the Sports Club. Contact sportsclub@chq.org with questions.

  • CHQ Mystic Heart – Dhara Kowal, Zen Buddhism Meditation Practice

    Sensei Dhara Kowal- Kowal is Dharma Successor to Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, who sanctioned her as a Zen teacher in 2022 and gave her Dharma Transmission in 2025. As a resident teacher and priest (ordained in 2023), she serves as Co-Director of the Rochester Zen Center, in partnership with Sensei John Pulleyn. In the preceding years,...

    free
  • Movement and Meditation with Monte Thompson

    Monte Thompson was a professional dancer, and also spent years as a restauranteur. His life was spent on his feet. Now retired, he is interested in continuing to be able to move easily and gracefully while using breathing and stretching techniques to help quiet his mind and prepare him to face each day with purpose...

    free
  • Rev. Anna Carter Florence

    The Rev. Anna Carter Florence is the Peter Marshall Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church. She is also currently serving as Co-Director of the Columbia Preachers Studio for Renewal, a Lilly-funded Compelling Preaching grant. Before joining the Columbia faculty in 1998, Florence served...

    Free
  • David W. Blight and Tiya Miles

    Continuing Chautauqua’s weeklong commemoration of “America at 250,” two of the country’s pre-eminent historians present a mainstage conversation about the moral foundations of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and how they have been interpreted and reinterpreted throughout American history. David W. Blight is Sterling Professor of History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman...

    $40
  • Guided Kayak Historic Tour

    Enjoy paddling while learning about historic sites along the shores of Chautauqua Institution during this hour-long guided kayak tour. The tour begins and ends at the Sports Club. The cost is for rental of single or tandem kayak plus $12 per person for the tour guide. Limited spots so please reserve one day before the...

  • CHQ Mystic Heart – Therapeutic Gong Meditation with Kim Hehr

    Kim Hehr is a lifelong Chautauquan and a certified level 2 teacher of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation. She has been a yoga and meditation practitioner for 30 years and has been teaching Kundalini Yoga and Meditation for 25 years. A retired hospice nurse, she is presently the coordinator of the CHQ Mystic Heart Meditation Program. Kim...

    free
  • CVA Lecture Series: Susan Lichtman, School of Art Faculty

    The Chautauqua School of Art proudly welcomes Susan Lichtman as a member of our 2026 visiting faculty. Susan Lichtman will participate in the School’s Summer Lecture Series, sharing insights and practices with our artistic community. Susan Lichtman is a figurative painter of domestic spaces, working out of her home studio in southeastern Massachusetts. She graduated...

  • Alonzo King LINES Ballet

    Alonzo King LINES Ballet is a celebrated contemporary ballet company that has been guided since 1982 by the unique artistic vision of award-winning choreographer Alonzo King. Since 1982, LINES Ballet has collaborated with noted composers, musicians and visual artists from around the world to create performances that alter the way we look at ballet today....

    $55 – $65
  • The Sarah James Trio

    Chautauqua’s own award-winning singer-songwriter and recording artist Sarah James from Scottsdale, AZ, brings her trio to our late-night series at the Roe Green Theater. From Pittsburgh, PA, accompanying Sarah will be notable guitarist and musical artist Doug Edgell and Aaron Majiros on bass and keys. Sarah James has been a staple at 3Taps here at...

    $25
  • CHQ Mystic Heart – Dhara Kowal, Zen Buddhism Meditation Practice

    Sensei Dhara Kowal- Kowal is Dharma Successor to Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, who sanctioned her as a Zen teacher in 2022 and gave her Dharma Transmission in 2025. As a resident teacher and priest (ordained in 2023), she serves as Co-Director of the Rochester Zen Center, in partnership with Sensei John Pulleyn. In the preceding years,...

    free
  • Rev. Anna Carter Florence

    The Rev. Anna Carter Florence is the Peter Marshall Professor of Preaching at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church. She is also currently serving as Co-Director of the Columbia Preachers Studio for Renewal, a Lilly-funded Compelling Preaching grant. Before joining the Columbia faculty in 1998, Florence served...

    Free
  • Melody Barnes

    Melody Barnes is the founding executive director of the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy, where she leads the Institute on an action-oriented path to realizing the promise of democracy in both principle and practice. She joins Chautauqua’s weeklong exploration of “America at 250” with remarks reflecting on the foundations of democracy and justice,...

    $40
  • CTC Theater Chats

    Theater Chats (formerly known as Brown Bags) On selected Thursdays at 12:15 p.m., bring lunch to Smith Wilkes Hall and join special guests, including actors, designers, playwrights and more, for a look at our upcoming productions and discussions on the craft of theater-making. Free and open to the public.

  • CHQ Mystic Heart – Dhara Kowal, Zen Buddhism Meditation Practice

    Sensei Dhara Kowal- Kowal is Dharma Successor to Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, who sanctioned her as a Zen teacher in 2022 and gave her Dharma Transmission in 2025. As a resident teacher and priest (ordained in 2023), she serves as Co-Director of the Rochester Zen Center, in partnership with Sensei John Pulleyn. In the preceding years,...

    free
  • Jane Kamensky

    Jane Kamensky is president and CEO of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. A leading historian of early America and the United States, she worked for three decades as a professor and higher education leader, most recently as Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard University and Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library on the History...

    $20
  • Chautauqua Opera Company Workshop: Anne of Green Gables and A Prayer for Owen Meany

    Chautauqua Opera Company will host the first workshops of two new works by GRAMMY Award nominated composer Luna Pearl Woolf. Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre has commissioned a new adaptation of Anne of Green Gables by Woolf and librettist Royce Vavrek (Lincoln in the Bardo). Pacific Opera Victoria and Opéra Magnolia have commissioned the first operatic...

    $20
  • Beach-to-Beach Color Sprint

    Ages 6+ are invited to run the color sprint. $13 fee includes white t-shirt. Powdered paint tossed at participants as they run from the children's beach to Heinz beach.Great photo opp at the end! Questions? contact sportsclub@chq.org

  • Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra with Aubree Oliverson, violin

    Rossen Milanov, conductor Aubree Oliverson, violin Experience an evening of myth, melody, and modernity with The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and guest violinist Aubree Oliverson. Missy Mazzoli’s Orpheus Undone reimagines the ancient myth with driving energy and striking orchestral color. Dvořák’s beloved Violin Concerto brings lyrical warmth and Romantic sweep to the spotlight, showcasing Oliverson’s expressive...

    $55 – $65
  • Sunrise Paddle – Kayak/SUP

    Enjoy the beauty of the lake during our sunrise paddle. This is not a guided tour but an opportunity to rent a kayak, SUP or canoe for an enjoyable hour at sunrise. Reservations accepted one day in advance at the Sports Club. Contact sportsclub@chq.org with questions.

  • CHQ Mystic Heart – Dhara Kowal, Zen Buddhism Meditation Practice

    Sensei Dhara Kowal- Kowal is Dharma Successor to Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, who sanctioned her as a Zen teacher in 2022 and gave her Dharma Transmission in 2025. As a resident teacher and priest (ordained in 2023), she serves as Co-Director of the Rochester Zen Center, in partnership with Sensei John Pulleyn. In the preceding years,...

    free
  • Movement and Meditation with Monte Thompson

    Monte Thompson was a professional dancer, and also spent years as a restauranteur. His life was spent on his feet. Now retired, he is interested in continuing to be able to move easily and gracefully while using breathing and stretching techniques to help quiet his mind and prepare him to face each day with purpose...

    free
  • Robert P. George

    Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Currently, he also chairs the New Jersey Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. George is general editor of New Forum Books, a Princeton University Press series of interdisciplinary works...

    $40
  • The Age of the Imaginals: A Musical Performance

    Following last year’s lecture presentation, Just the Right Climate for Metaphors, Caitlyn Kamminga returns to premiere The Age of the Imaginals. With music by Adam Walters, and poetry by Kamminga, this chamber work blends music and spoken word to explore transformation on a metamorphosing planet. This performance offers an accessible entry point for audiences of...

  • Laurie Halse Anderson and Adrian Matejka

    Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle – Rebellion 1776 by Laurie Halse Anderson and Be Easy: New & Selected Poems by Adrian Matejka Laurie Halse Anderson and Adrian Matejka will join us in conversation in a joint CLSC Author Presentation on Friday, August 7, 2026, in the Hall of Philosophy. Reading Be Easy: New & Selected...

    $20
  • Chautauqua Opera Company Orchestral Workshop: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

    In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Grammy award-winning composer and librettist Herschel Garfein has created the first ever operatic adaptation of a play by Tom Stoppard. Chautauqua Opera Company’s young artists will be joined by internationally heralded baritone Keith Phares and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra for a ten-day workshop of the complete opera, which concludes...

    $30