Programs
...classes to explore the beautiful grounds which helps to form strong bonds between peers.” – Riley Smith :: Festival Division 2023 Non-Residential Program Mini-Intensive Weekend August 1–4, 2026 (non-residential) Ages 10–14 In this four-day program, students will have three classes each day with Chautauqua Dance faculty, including ballet, pointe (and intro to,) variations, repertoire, and more. Students also have the opportunity to see the performance of our Pre-Professional Division with the Music School Festival Orchestra...
This is the place
At Chautauqua, we believe strongly in the power of play, reflection and discovery to reinforce or even catalyze the experience of learning. That’s why so many of our educational offerings — across all our programming pillars, for all generations — emphasize creativity, movement, introspection or social engagement as essential components. While still very much part of the world, Chautauqua represents a kind of separation from day-to-day life, a separation that permits space for exploring something...
About
...The Chautauqua Institution is a not-for-profit, 750-acre educational center beside Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State, where approximately 7,500 persons are in residence on any day during a nine-week season, and a total of over 100,000 attend scheduled public events. Over 8,000 students enroll annually in the Chautauqua Summer Schools which offer courses in art, music, dance, theater, writing skills and a wide variety of special interests. The Institution, originally the Chautauqua Lake Sunday...
Chautauqua Opera Company and Conservatory Announces 2023 Season
The Chautauqua Opera Company and Conservatory, the resident opera company and conservatory of Chautauqua Institution, today announced its 2023 Season. The Chautauqua Opera Company’s 2023 productions will feature Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and La Tragédie de Carmen — Peter Brook, Jean-Claude Carriere and Marius Constant’s adaptation of Bizet’s beloved opera. Both will be conducted by Steven Osgood and staged in Norton Memorial Hall. The Opera Conservatory, led by Director...
Chautauqua Fund
Chautauqua Fund For many, Chautauqua is home in the most profound sense–a place to learn, to grow, to live securely, to revel in an environment of physical beauty. By supporting the Chautauqua Fund you are helping to provide a place where issues of the day are explored and the arts continue to flourish. Your 100% tax-deductible gift to the Chautauqua Fund will help ensure a successful and vital future for the Chautauqua Institution. Unrestricted giving...
Stefan Bindley-Taylor Named Winner Of 2025 Chautauqua Janus Prize For ‘Bread, Meat, And Water’
...changing all at once and all the time, challenging and reshaping values, and dreams even as the foundational impulses that connect us as humans prevail.” As the 2025 prize recipient, Bindley-Taylor will receive $5,000, plus travel and lodging for a week’s writing residency at Chautauqua Institution this summer. He will give a public lecture and reading at a celebratory event at 5 p.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 8, in the parlor of the Athenaeum Hotel as...
Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative: February 2025
...no longer needed, or temporarily when pronghorn are migrating. Over the past two decades, the pronghorn migration project has helped open hundreds of miles of fence-free habitat. As a result, pronghorn numbers are on the rise. In fact, that project is how I found myself in the Paradise Valley 10 summers ago, working alongside my then 10-year-old daughter and other volunteers to take down fences. After a long, sweaty day of clipping and spooling barbed...
2022 Season
...Week Six: July 30–August 6 After Dark: The World of Nighttime What happens to us and our world after the sun goes down each day? From our homes and cities to flora and fauna, each night brings with it a markedly different landscape than the daylit one that preceded it. Nighttime is full of contradictions: It provides cover for all manner of illicit activity but also for safely creating community; it is the domain of...
Chautauqua President Announces Departure
...years, the Institution has explored some of the most important issues of our day while also seeking to adapt to a changing world. Today, we have a tremendous team of staff that is more dedicated than any I have ever served with, a leadership team whose credentials and commitment are unparalleled in the Institution’s history, a program that has never been a stronger symbol of our mission, and a business trajectory that continues to point...
Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative: June 2025
...Decision-Making in the Age of Plastics, at Chautauqua during Week Nine! In between we have a remarkable line up of lectures, films, forums, and classes exploring a diversity of perspectives on our environment, from global climate change to your backyard garden. We’ve got a day-by-day schedule to help you navigate your busy days at Chautauqua and ensure you don’t miss a thing. There are multiple programs each week of the season, and I’ll highlight just...