For 150 years, Chautauqua has made its mark on American life in a way few other institutions can claim.
As we look to our next 150 years, the possibilities that await are extraordinary.
In fact, they are
We can and we will…
Enable visitors to enjoy Chautauqua as never before through investments in the grounds and Summer Assembly season
while creating and expanding programs beyond the grounds and the season.
We can and we will…
Expand our partnerships and technology to enable richer conversations, engaging Chautauquans in new ways
while reaching audiences we never have, engaging new Chautauquans.
We can and we will…
Implement the 150 Forward Strategic Plan and elements of our visionary Master Plan
while seizing opportunities impossible to plan.
We can and we will…
Honor traditions of dialogue and connection across difference — strengths that have always defined Chautauqua —
while applying these strengths to serve our nation in this time of need.
At this historic moment, our vision calls Chautauqua to be more and do more — to fulfill our true and far-reaching potential.
Through this campaign, we are moving boldly to respond.
Campaign Goal:
$150 million
Our Aim:
To ensure Chautauqua flourishes by augmenting existing strengths and pursuing new ventures both visionary and necessary.
Our Priorities:
#1 A World-Class Experience
Making major investments in programming and facilities
#2 Expanding Our Role as a Convener
Leaning into our strengths as conversation starters and champions of civil dialogue
#3 A Thriving Chautauqua Lake
Protecting and restoring this essential treasure
#4 Endowing a Vibrant Future for Chautauqua
Achieving long-term financial stability
Priority
#1
A World-Class Experience
We are funding improvements to make the Summer Assembly truly memorable for all our patrons.
Fundraising Goal: $68 million
A World-Class Experience:
The Plan
As Chautauqua seeks to thrive in a competitive environment, our success will depend on a vibrant Summer Assembly season that will attract new patrons and make them eager to return year after year. We will invest in enriched programming, enhanced lodging and dining options, advanced technology and needed infrastructure—from housing capacity for essential seasonal staff to maintenance facilities equipped to support our historic grounds. Deepened commitments to the Chautauqua Fund will allow major investment for immediate impact.
A World-Class Experience:
Key Actions
- Optimize the Summer Assembly by investing in strategic initiatives and capital projects that elevate both the patron experience and our ability to deliver service:
- Rehabilitate the Athenaeum Hotel to extend its operating season and protect its infrastructure through weatherization, and to improve the appearance and usefulness of spaces important to the guest experience.
- Renovate Bellinger Hall to provide upgraded student housing during the summer and affordable guest accommodations year-round.
- Replace the maintenance facilities that occupy space adjacent to our arts facilities and fronting on Route 394 with a facility on Stedman Road that honors the dedicated employees who care for the grounds and its buildings.
- Identify and build a flexible solution to house seasonal staff during the Summer Assembly, decrease dependence on the private housing market, and establish a base of accommodations for off-season gatherings.
- Increase annual Chautauqua Fund giving to support infrastructure and programs, from world-class speakers and preachers to residencies and new work incubation.
- Implement new systems for ticketing, upgraded security, and other operational functions.
- Bolster Chautauqua’s long-term sustainability by investing in Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) initiatives that develop and retain a more diverse patron base, promote more inclusive programming, and ensure a more accessible guest experience.
Project Spotlight
Priority
#2
Expanding Our Role as a Convener
We are building on our strengths as champions of civil dialogue to extend the Chautauqua experience beyond the summer season and our historic grounds.
Fundraising Goal: $15 million
Expanding Our Role as a Convener:
The Plan
We plan to expand Chautauqua’s programming to reach diverse new audiences and provide them the chance to explore issues of pressing importance deeply and meaningfully. In doing so, we will promote a model of successful civil dialogue for a nation divided. Our goal: to fulfill our mission with greater impact and position the Institution to participate in the national conversation in larger ways.
Expanding Our Role as a Convener:
Key Actions
- Build on the remarkable early success of our digital platform, CHQ Assembly, expanding capabilities for high-quality virtual programs.
- Forge strategic partnerships to co-create content and co-sponsor programs, building on recent collaborations with PBS, Jazz at Lincoln Center, National Geographic, and others.
- Expand the impact of the Institution’s Climate Change Initiative, our first ongoing, multiyear and multidimensional exploration of a critical topic.
- Establish a Chautauqua Fellows Program, a cadre of distinguished thought leaders representing Chautauqua year-round.
- Extend the reach of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, an early pioneer in distance learning, to offer year-round enrichment through literature.
- Construct a permanent facility for the Chautauqua Theater Company that, in addition to Bratton Theater, fosters artistic collaboration at each step of the creative process, allowing writers, artists and performers to incubate new, ground-breaking work from inception to completion.
Priority
#3
A Thriving Chautauqua Lake
We are helping lead partnerships to protect and restore the lake, an invaluable resource for the Institution and the region.
Fundraising Goal: $17 million
A Thriving Chautauqua Lake:
The Plan
Chautauqua Lake is essential to the Chautauqua experience, critical to the area economy — and a body of water facing serious challenges. The Institution is committed to a response combining solid science and robust cooperation among many stakeholders. Scientists from The Jefferson Project, which has provided a valuable model through its work on Lake George, are now analyzing data from Chautauqua Lake to inform a plan of action.
A Thriving Chautauqua Lake:
Key Actions
- Extend support for The Jefferson Project, as scientists complete analysis of recently gathered data and plan next stages of work.
- Create a full-time position within the Institution for a leader with the expertise to guide both scientific and advocacy initiatives.
- Form a regional coalition to take joint action, pursuing “in-lake” solutions and addressing watershed-related contributing factors.
- Invest in advocacy and coalition building, education and awareness, and remediation and restoration projects.
Priority
#4
Endowing a Vibrant Future for Chautauqua
We are achieving a new level of long-term financial stability for Chautauqua Institution.
Fundraising Goal: $50 million
Endowing a Vibrant Future for Chautauqua:
The Plan
Chautauqua’s Strategic Plan targets the goal of increasing and diversifying revenue to address critical needs and build financial resiliency. Securing greater donor investment will be essential. Not-for-profit organizations like Chautauqua cannot thrive without strong philanthropic support. With this support, Chautauqua will be positioned to seize new opportunities and face unforeseen challenges—the potential impact of which 2020 and its ripple effects across the world have shown us clearly.
Endowing a Vibrant Future for Chautauqua:
Key Actions
- Significantly augment the Chautauqua Foundation’s holdings, including substantial support for flexible endowment.
- Endow programmatic leadership positions across the four pillars to ensure continuity and excellence in our core programming.
- Secure the future of our hallmark programs by endowing programmatic excellence.
- Endow scholarships across disciplines for students in our Schools of Performing & Visual Arts, promoting continued accessibility and cementing Chautauqua’s status as the first choice for top-tier talent.
The Impact
of this Campaign
The campaign will fund four priority areas grounded in a single strategic vision, each supporting the others.
By equipping our facilities to extend Chautauqua’s operating capabilities,
We will bring the summer experience to a new level as well.
By engaging national audiences through new channels,
We will fuel attendance for the programs we have long cherished.
By saving the Lake so vital to the experience of this place,
We will help sustain a movement that transcends place.
By taking these steps in concert,
we will safeguard our financial future,
And with it, something more precious:
our mission.
Seizing the moment
Some might say our goals are ambitious. We enthusiastically agree. This is a moment for bold plans and actions, and Chautauqua’s recent history has shown we are capable.
So, yes, our plans are
visionary.
That is because when Chautauquans unite in commitment to a cause, the possibilities are
A campaign for Chautauqua
Make a Gift
Join us by making your investment in Chautauqua’s future.
To make a gift online, visit giving.chq.org/boundless
For information about Boundless or ways to make a gift, contact the Office of Advancement at advancement@chq.org or 716-357-6404.
Project Spotlight
Staff Housing Solution
Laying a Foundation for Sustainability
Chautauqua Institution relies on a large seasonal workforce to deliver the programs and operations its patrons expect. The Institution is increasingly reliant on seasonal workers from across the United States and abroad to staff its food and beverage facilities, artistic programs and venues. The ability to hire this seasonal labor is threatened by a lack of affordable and available housing. Chautauqua Institution is determined to overcome these housing challenges and elevate the guest experience by developing its own flexible staff housing solution.
An Overlooked Challenge
- Each summer, the Institution houses more than 300 of its 1,200 seasonal employees across more than 20 departments and program areas. The housed staff range from teaching artists and production technicians to hospitality and food service workers.
- The Institution currently relies on an unpredictable private housing market, complicating supply forecasting and financial planning from year to year. In both 2022 and 2023, the Institution spent more than $1 million to house essential staff.
- Housing instability has a negative effect on seasonal labor recruitment and retention, impeding the Institution’s ability to operate at top capacity and diminishing the guest experience across enterprises. The needs of each employee vary (spouses, children, accessibility needs, etc.), making assignment from the unpredictable supply a continual challenge.
- The on-grounds housing used by seasonal staff diminishes the availability of accommodations for visiting Chautauquans, reducing supply that is available for gate pass purchasers.
- Providing housing for remote and seasonal staff is essential to delivering the Summer Assembly experience Chautauquans want and is competitive with other vacation possibilities.
Working Through Solutions
- The Institution has identified housing solutions that will provide flexibility, scalability and long-term cost savings to address this compounding housing issue. The Board of Trustees and staff are undergoing a thorough review of options including the construction of a village of “tiny homes.”
- Among the factors considered in conceptualizing this solution are the Institution’s existing land holdings, maintenance costs and requirements, and potential for year-round revenue generation.
- Partnerships with other county organizations, including Jamestown Community College, have been considered. However, dispersed housing and transportation between the grounds are challenges.
Building a Stronger Tomorrow
Constructing a solution that addresses Chautauqua’s staff housing issue is a long-term investment that will further secure the Institution’s financial sustainability for years to come. Much like the endowment, this project will address a need far into the future, paying dividends each year in the form of both cost savings and potential earned revenue. This is an opportunity for pragmatic Chautauquans to alter the course of the Institution’s future and build a stronger Chautauqua.
Project Spotlight
Renovation of Bellinger Hall
A Space Reimagined
Bellinger Hall is a building of tremendous potential in need of significant attention. With renovation, it can contribute to the first-class student and guest experience Chautauqua is committed to offering in season and an asset helping to make Chautauqua a desirable destination off season.
Bellinger houses the large majority of students in the Institution’s Schools of Performing and Visual Arts, and can, with needed upgrades, provide these students with the appealing and attractive accommodations they expect.
Our Starting Point
- Since the first phase of Bellinger’s construction more than 40 years ago, the building has become tired and dated.
- Guest rooms lack air conditioning, furnishings and finishes are worn and outdated, and the kitchen and food service layout is ill-suited to the needs of today.
- The building does not meet guest expectations and comments make clear it has become a liability—a reason promising students admitted to the Schools of Performing and Visual Arts choose other programs.
Our Plan
- We envision a full-scale renovation of the existing facility, including a welcoming new atrium entry and re-energized gathering spaces and an HVAC system to air condition the complete facility.
- The building’s guest rooms will be transformed to provide an experience on par with a newly designed residence hall.
- Natural light will be introduced into the lower floor’s common areas transforming these interior spaces.
The Impact
- Bellinger will become an attractive destination for students while our schools are in session, for Chautauquans during the balance of the summer season, and for other visitors the rest of the year.
- The building will once again fulfill its role as a hub where student artists of varied disciplines meet, mix, and share ideas—a key part of Chautauqua’s magic.
- The new Bellinger will also support the Institution’s goal of developing year-round programming, allowing a component of that programming to be offered to patrons on the grounds.
- It is expected that within five years, the building will generate net income through rentals for conferences, retreats and events.
In many ways, this new and better version of Bellinger Hall will represent a key puzzle piece, as we complete the picture of Chautauqua envisioned in our strategic plan, 150 Forward, for conferences and as an all-season hub of activity that will make it possible to begin hosting programs and patrons year-round.
Project Spotlight
The Jefferson Project
Insights to Inform Action
As Chautauqua Institution and regional partners work to address the challenges facing Chautauqua Lake, The Jefferson Project is filling an essential role—as an independent source of unbiased high-quality data. Generous philanthropy has helped to fund the initial phases of the Project’s research.
About the Jefferson Project
- The initiative: a collaboration of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, IBM Research, and The Lake George Association.
- The approach: employing a sophisticated technological approach to studying fresh water, with the goal of understanding the impact of human activity, including nutrient overabundance, which can cause harmful algal blooms.
Work at Chautauqua Lake
- Since 2020, we’ve deployed vertical profilers and acoustic Doppler current profilers in the north and south Basins of the lake to collect detailed data, tracking water conditions from the surface to the bottom hourly and quantifying water circulation patterns. Additional collection devices have been deployed to monitor tributaries as entry points for pollutants. Continued data collection and monitoring efforts around the lake are building a body of information for scientists to analyze.
- Next steps: provide a complete analysis which will guide interventions for protecting the lake and undertake remediation efforts.
Immediate funding priorities range from the cost of redeploying sensors in the lake and installation of additional tributary monitoring equipment to fuel for research vessels and lab expenses. Further funding may be needed to implement data-driven interventions that will improve lake health.
Project Spotlight
Athenaeum Hotel
Rehabilitating a Priceless Gem
Constructed in 1881, the Athenaeum Hotel is perhaps the most recognizable of the Institution’s iconic buildings. Currently the last operating 19th Century hotel on Chautauqua Lake, the Athenaeum stands as a window into the Institution’s storied history. Countless visitors have passed through its lobby as first-time and returning guests, enjoying its beauty and proximity to all the activities Chautauqua has to offer. While the Athenaeum has served past generations well, the Hotel no longer provides the experience 21st century visitors expect.
The Challenges
- Lack of weatherization not only inhibits year-round operational capabilities and potential revenue streams, but threatens the long-term maintenance of the building’s structure.
- The outdated state of its overnight accommodations fails to meet the needs of today’s travelers or match the quality of programming outside the hotel’s walls.
- Cosmetic wear-and-tear of public spaces betrays the innate grandeur of the beautiful structure and diminishes the guest experience, whether one visits for a week, a day or an afternoon.
Our Plan
- Weatherize the Athenaeum, from HVAC installation to window adjustments, to extend its annual operating timeframe, welcome patrons to the grounds beyond the traditional summer season and promote long-term financial sustainability.
- Update guest rooms to deliver an elevated overnight experience that both honors the hotel’s legacy and meets the needs of today’s travelers.
- Introduce new furniture and finishes to public spaces, including Heirloom Restaurant, the Parlor and Lobby Lounge, providing a superior experience in a more appealing setting.
- Upgrade back-of-house facilities to ensure a better, safer working experience to our employees, and deliver a stronger customer service experience to our patrons.
The Impact
The Athenaeum, with its iconic appearance and community spaces, has the potential to deliver a first-rate guest experience and serve as a significant source of income for the Institution, if its operating season were extended and its interior renovated. The Hotel has become a popular destination for spring and fall weddings, as well as pre-season visits with the Chautauqua Writers’ Festival and spring and fall Road Scholar programs, proving that the desire for tourism and programming on Chautauqua’s grounds extends beyond the Summer Assembly.
Even so, the Summer Assembly is the most critical time for tourism at Chautauqua. The Athenaeum’s visitors enjoy the convenience of on-grounds dining, its proximity to the Amphitheater and Hall of Philosophy, and the sweeping views of Chautauqua Lake. By elevating the cosmetic appearance of these public facilities, and channeling resources into overnight accommodations, the Athenaeum will become an increasingly desirable destination.
In rehabilitating the Athenaeum Hotel, great care will be taken to retain beloved elements, while adapting the facility to meet 21st century needs and ways of working. Strategic investment into the Hotel’s spaces and operating integrity will only elevate the Athenaeum to its rightful level of dignity and breathe new life into the guest experience.
Project Spotlight
CHQ Assembly
Expanding Our Impact Through Strategic Digital Investment
Like countless communities and organizations across the world, Chautauqua Institution faced extraordinary disruption at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In-person gathering has been at the core of our operations since the Institution was founded, but concerns for public health threatened to halt the Summer Assembly for the first time in our history in 2020. Addressing difficult challenges is at the heart of Chautauqua’s mission and we quickly embraced a nascent idea found within the 150 Forward Strategic Plan and created a multi-faceted solution to confront this existential threat: CHQ Assembly.
Forced to Face a Brewing Challenge
- Chautauquans have generally been required to visit the grounds to take advantage of our programs, limiting the reach of our platforms and pulpits.
- For years, the Institution explored ways to expand our audience and utilize modern technology to bolster the Institution’s hallmark programs. Incorporating recording technology, producing podcasts and embracing live-streaming have all been features of this exploration.
Rising Up to Meet the Moment
- The onset of the pandemic accelerated the hunger for wider digital access to the Institution’s programs. Institution staff worked quickly to establish more robust remote live capture and live-streaming capabilities, build a production team and apparatus, and establish a central platform for core programs to reach homes throughout the world.
- The CHQ Assembly team has worked to establish and expand a deep archive of hundreds of programs, ranging from lectures and concerts to worship services and master classes that are available long after they are first available to our on-grounds patrons.
- Offering virtual participation has opened access to not only our longtime and potential Chautauquans, but to extraordinary speakers, thinkers, religious leaders and entertainers as well. We have interacted with talent who otherwise would have been out of reach for various reasons.
CHQ Assembly has made significant strides in maintaining engagement with longtime patrons, amplifying our global reach and diversifying our audience. Continual exploration with subscription models and technology solutions is helping us identify and implement processes that promote long-term financial sustainability. Additional philanthropic investment now will ensure this service continues uninterrupted.
Project Spotlight
Unlocking CTC’s Potential
Curtain Up on a Brighter Future
For decades, Chautauqua Theater Company has brought together veteran and emerging performers, artists, designers, directors and writers to produce a robust mix of classical and contemporary drama. While Bratton Theater has been their home for performances, the Company has historically utilized a variety of on- and off-grounds spaces to fulfill rehearsal, production and administrative responsibilities. As CTC enters a new era of its history under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Jade King Carroll, the time has come to build a central home for Chautauqua’s resident troupe that matches its growing reputation for theatrical excellence. This major investment in CTC’s future will pay dividends for its audience as well — allowing exclusive first looks at new work, expanded capacity for burgeoning innovation and a front-row seat for experiencing the American theater’s next generation of changemakers.
Putting It Together
- For years, Chautauqua Theater Company has operated out of the former Brawdy Plumbing and Hardware store. The building is now nearly defunct, failing to meet theatrical union requirements and providing a substandard basis of operations.
- The lack of appropriate rehearsal, office and shop space on Chautauqua’s grounds has forced the Company to contract off-grounds space for rehearsal and production. The dispersed facilities pose transportation challenges and are not conducive to artistic collaboration or a company ethos.
- Bratton Theater has dutifully served as, and will continue to be, a beloved performance home for the company, but as a large, proscenium space it doesn’t meet the evolving needs for flexible configuration and non-traditional staging.
Finishing the Hat
- Chautauqua endeavors to construct a suitable home for Chautauqua Theater Company, creating a holistic, unified experience for artists, conservatory students and audiences alike. The facility will house a black box performance venue, administrative offices, prop shop facilities and rehearsal spaces. This new structure will bring the creative process into a focused footprint — a bustling theatrical hub — on Chautauqua’s grounds.
- While maintaining Bratton Theater as CTC’s mainstage, the addition of a 99-seat state-of-the-art black box theatre will provide essential space for new play development, innovative staging, cabaret-style performances and small-scale productions.
- A new facility will feature weatherization, enabling company operations to continue throughout the year and providing out-of-season space for residencies, development and performance.
- The building will house a much-improved prop shop and office spaces, as well as writing areas for playwrights in residence, two rehearsal studios, and indoor and outdoor gathering spaces for artists and audiences alike.
- Anchoring CTC on Chautauqua’s grounds enables audiences to become an increasingly important component of the artistic process from page to stage.
Something’s Coming
Under Carroll’s leadership, Chautauqua Theater Company is already moving into the center of the American theatre. With two world premieres, three commissions, national press and a partnership with the Drama League, the company has entered a new era of expansion and elevation. Audiences have already begun to feel the growing impact of CTC’s evolution, and a state-of-the-art facility is the essential next step in realizing the company’s full potential. The mainstage productions, New Play Workshops and developmental readings that have delighted Chautauqua’s audiences are just a preview of all this company has the potential to be.
As the landscape of America continues to change, theatre will do what it has for centuries: adapt to hold a mirror to society. In this new era, CTC has the opportunity and capacity to incubate new work by game-changing writers, train the world’s most promising young performers and give artists the space to create new ways of producing theatre.
The new CTC facility will be the creative home base that supports the company’s artistic trajectory, finally giving the company dignified accommodations to match its growing reputation as a premier developer and producer of dramatic work. The proposed facility, designed to foster dramatic excellence at every step of the creative process, is a rare opportunity for Chautauqua’s most discerning theatergoers to invest in Chautauqua Theater Company and, accordingly, the future of American theater.
Project Spotlight
Endowment Building
The Ultimate Source of Stability and Strength
The careful work behind Chautauqua’s strategic plan, 150 Forward, clearly revealed the need to augment the Institution’s endowment. With its previously unimaginable impact, the COVID-19 pandemic proved our planning right.
The Case for Endowment
- To sustain the excellence of all that Chautauqua does.
- To provide Chautauqua with the resilience to face challenges and crises impossible to anticipate.
- To position Chautauqua to engage in entrepreneurial thinking, seizing new opportunities to increase our impact.
- To help maintain the affordability of the Chautauqua experience.
The Impact
- Program Excellence: endowing lectures, chaplaincies, and arts programming.
- Scholarships: bringing the very best student artists to Chautauqua and thereby also supporting master classes, recitals, and performances visitors enjoy.
- Program Leaders: establishing endowed chairs for senior staff to fund those positions in perpetuity and ensure they are filled by stellar people.
- Flexible Endowment: to meet unplanned needs and seize unforeseen opportunities.
The Bottom Line
Building our endowment represents commitment to Chautauqua’s next 150 years and a gift to generations to come.
