The Chautauqua Institution is a non-profit education center and summer resort for adults & youth located on 750 acres (3 km²) in Chautauqua, New York, 17 miles (27 km) northwest of Jamestown in the southwestern part of New York State. The Chautauqua Institution Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was further designated a National Historic Landmark.
History
It was founded in 1874 by inventor Lewis Miller and Methodist Bishop John Heyl Vincent as a teaching camp for Sunday-school teachers. The teachers would disembark at Palestine Park and begin a course of Bible study that used the Park to teach the geography of the Holy Land.
The Institution has operated each summer since then, gradually expanding its season length and program offerings in the arts, education, religion and music. It offers educational activities to the public during the season, with public events including popular entertainment, theater, symphony, ballet, opera and visual arts exhibitions. The institution also offers a variety of recreational activities, including schools of Special Studies along with, a residential music program of intensive study offered to students aiming for professional careers who audition for admittance into Chautauqua's schools of fine and performing arts.
The physical setting of the Institution defined its development as an assembly. The grounds are situated on the west shoreline of upper Chautauqua Lake. The early tent-camp assembly gave way to cottages and rooming houses, and then hotels, inns and eventually condominiums.
Founder Lewis Miller's daughter, Mina Miller Edison (wife of inventor Thomas Edison) offered literary classes in Fort Myers, Florida, through the Valinda Society. After completing courses, students were given Chautauqua diplomas.
In 1973, the National Park Service added the Institution to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1989, the Department of the Interior designated it a National Historic Landmark District consisting of most of the Institution property between NY 394, formerly NY 17J, the lake and (roughly) Lowell and North Avenues.
Institution programs
Summer admission to Chautauqua is by "gate ticket" which allows entrance into the grounds, use of Smith Memorial Library, use of public beaches and parks, and attendance at lectures and concerts. There is an additional charge for some courses, for films shown at the Chautauqua Cinema, for opera and theater tickets, and for use of the tennis courts and golf courses.
Weekly programs
Programs offered during the week at Chautauqua include devotional services and a lecture on a social, political, or academic issue in the morning, a religious or political topic in the afternoon, and an night of entertainment as the evening program. This evening Amphitheater event may be a symphony concert by the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, a dance program by the Chautauqua Ballet Company, or a show by a special guest artist. During most weeks, there is at least one opportunity to catch an opera and a play, both put on by Chautauqua's resident summer companies. Operas are performed in English at Norton Hall, a 1930s-era, art-deco structure. There are also regularly scheduled organ recitals on the Massey Memorial Organ, student recitals, master classes, forums, and seminars for the sophisticated. The East Winds Symphonic Band played the last weekly program in the Chautauqua Amphitheater before its demolition.
A broad range of special courses in music, art, dance, drama, and general topics are also offered. The Chautauqua Schools of Music offers extremely competitive programs on the basis of scholarship. George Gershwin visited Chautauqua as a summer refuge to compose parts of his Concerto in F in a small, wooden piano studio.
Sundays at Chautauqua feature worship services, both denominational and ecumenical. There is an afternoon Amphitheater program, such as a military band or student dance program. On Sundays, entrance to the Institution grounds is free. Worship services are coordinated by the permanent Department of Religion staff.
Special events
There is an annual program held on the first Tuesday of each August called "Old First Night." This is the "birthday party" for the Institution, marking the anniversary of the opening of the first season in 1874. The main event of Old First Night is a fun run around the grounds by those wishing to participate. Another Chautauqua favorite is the 4th of July show at the Amphitheater specializing in patriotic-themed music followed by area fireworks viewed from the Chautauqua lake. In addition, an afternoon filled with foam from Chautauqua’s Fire Department along with occasional town barbecues at the town square (called “Bestor Plazaâ€) and weekly sailboat races are part of the overall unique Chautauqua experience.
Children's programs
The Children's School established in 1921 is a developmental preschool for youth ages 3â€"5 and was a pioneering program in the field of nursery-school education. The program consists of social, recreational and educational activities which often incorporate other Chautauqua programs in the areas of music, drama, art, and recreation.
For older children, ages 6â€"14, they can enjoy one of the oldest day camps in the United States called the Chautauqua Boys and Girls Club, founded in 1893. While parents are enjoying various activities around the grounds, their children meet in a special area by the lake and enjoy a wide variety of sports, art, and recreational games, such as volleyball, sailing, swimming, field games, and pottery.
Institution facilities
The Institution's grounds, located between New York State Route 394 and Chautauqua Lake, include public buildings, administrative offices, a library, movie theater, bookstore, hotel, condominiums, inns, rooming houses, and many private cottages available for rent during the season. There are about 400 year-round residents, but the population can increase up to 7,500 guests per day during the summer season. The Institution is largely a pedestrian community with bikes and scooters widely used along with a 12-mph speed limit for cars when authorized to be on the grounds. There are several parking lots located on the periphery of the grounds for which visitors utilize and then walk or bike into the Institution.
The 6000-seat Amphitheater was demolished in September 2016 to make way for a new theater-style structure. The new amphitheater will have modern facilities and improved accessibility. This project caused some controversy due to the designation of the site as a National Historic Landmark.
The Athenaeum Hotel located on the grounds is the only hotel actually owned and operated by the Institution. The 156-room hotel, said to be the largest wooden building in the eastern United States, was built in the Second Empire style in 1881. It has a two-story porch supported by narrow columns, with a central, mansard-covered tower. Although the number of hotel rooms has steadily declined on the grounds in the past thirty years, there has been a corresponding growth in condominiums.
Palestine Park is a walk-around, landscaped, geographically scaled map of Palestine showing the general contour of the area, including mountains, valleys, bodies of water and the cities that existed in the correct geographical locations during the New Testament of the Bible Throughout the week, multiple tours are offered to discuss the historical and religious significance of this world-famous area.
The Chautauqua Prize
The Chautauqua Prize is an annual American literary award established by the Chautauqua Institution in 2012. The winner receives US$7,500 and all travel and expenses for a one-week summer residency at Chautauqua. It is a "national prize that celebrates a book of fiction or literary/narrative nonfiction that provides a richly rewarding reading experience and honors the author for a significant contribution to the literary arts."
Impact
The Chautauqua movement spread throughout the United States and was highly popular until the start of World War II. By the mid-1920s, when circuit Chautauquas were at their peak, they appeared in over 10,000 communities to audiences of more than 45 million. By about 1940, they had mostly run their course.
The ideals of the Chautauqua Institution were spread throughout the United States through a number of Independent Chautauqua assemblies. Popping up, were a series of traveling Chautauqua assemblies which, incorporated many of the program's components, including lectures, music, nondenominational religious studies, and a focus on current issues. Several Independent Chautauquas have survived into the 21st century.
The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC), founded in 1878 by Bishop Vincent, is America's oldest continuously operating book club. It was founded to promote self-learning and study, particularly among those unable to attend higher institutions of learning. Six to nine books are added to the reading list each year, with authors generally coming to Chautauqua to discuss their writing and to talk with readers.
Famous visitors
The Chautauqua Institution has been frequently visited by political figures, celebrities, artists, musicians, scientist and many others. Since its founding in 1874, the Institution has been visited by 4 sitting United States Presidents including Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Bill Clinton. It was at the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater where Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed a crowd of over 12,000 with his historic “I hate war†speech. The Institution has also been visited by a number of notable historical figures including Booker T. Washington, Susan B. Anthony, Amelia Earhart and Thurgood Marshall just to name a few. In addition, celebrities from the performing arts are too numerous to list, but include John Philip Sousa, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and contemporary artist such as Leann Rimes, Toby Keith and Bill Cosby.
See also
- Chapel of the Good Shepherd (Chautauqua, New York)
- List of contemporary amphitheatres
References
External links
- Official site
- Map of Chautauqua Institution
- The Great Lecture Library
- chautauqua-observed.org
- Chautauqua Foundation, Inc
- Live Bestor Plaza Camera