Working Toward a Future Worthy of Our Past
In 2021, Strategic Plan Keeps Chautauqua Institution on Course Through Year of Flux
Annual Status Report on 150 Forward
By Michael E. Hill
Just before the beginning of each Summer Assembly, Institution presidents have long hosted a dinner on the President’s Cottage porch to celebrate the current and previous chairs of the Chautauqua Institution and Chautauqua Foundation boards and their spouses. It’s a tradition that my husband Peter and I have been privileged to carry forward into my presidency, one that provides a singular sense of grounding and purpose as a new Chautauqua season approaches. The confluence of knowledge, personal and family history, and sense of mission represented at these dinners is truly humbling and inspiring.
While this is primarily a social gathering, inevitably some “shop talk” weaves its way into the conversation over the course of the evening. And I am always taking mental notes, as these folks understand more deeply than almost anyone the challenges and rewards of leadership of this place and community. Their counsel is priceless, and I’m grateful beyond measure that they offer it so generously. It’s a reminder that, for many of us, our care for Chautauqua transcends any formal role or responsibilities — but also that we are momentary stewards of a story that ran long before and will run long after we no longer occupy these “seats.”
In 2021, we lost two of the luminaries who were regulars at this special table. Dick Miller and Bill Clinger are two towering figures in the Institution’s history — giants even among the many worthy “Chautauqua Giants” we have honored over the years at the Chautauqua Archives’ Heritage Lecture Series. I’m fortunate to have been able to call them both my friends, and to have benefited from their sage guidance and advice.
Dick was a descendent of our founding Miller family, and carried that weighty torch with grace, heart and vision. Many credit him with saving Chautauqua as it entered its second century of existence in the 1970s, which coincided with his tenure as chair of the Board of Trustees. Dick took an organization in decline and set its course skyward. Then, as president of the Chautauqua Foundation for 25 years, he built a fundraising operation that has to this date delivered five successful capital campaigns. All along, he was a steadfast champion of the Institution’s mission — the same one that guided his great-grandfather, Chautauqua co-founder Lewis Miller.
Bill was a lifelong Chautauquan who became chair of our Board of Trustees following decades of distinguished service as a member of Congress representing his hometown of Warren, Pennsylvania. Through his final public address at Chautauqua in 2019, in which he argued powerfully for new regulations against gerrymandering, Bill was the picture of moral leadership and service above self. His steady hand guided the Institution through some rocky days in the early 2000s, positioning the organization to survive through and thrive beyond the Great Recession. We also held impromptu meetings in the back row of the Amp almost daily during the summer, and he was one of my favorite lunch companions on annual trips to Naples, Florida. Regardless of location, seeing Bill was one of the great joys of my role.
What Dick and Bill understood was that Chautauqua’s continued existence is not a foregone conclusion. Our future is not guaranteed simply by leaning on our storied and important history. We must change, must evolve, must keep pace with and respond to our times, while remaining steadfastly anchored to our mission and values. Leaders of legacy institutions will recognize the constant push-pull of tradition and innovation. I’m guilty of publicly invoking this paradigm often myself, maybe to exhaustion — but I do so because it’s true! And it defines our work as we strive confidently toward our aspirations.
In my introduction to this report last year, I described a different yet equally important gathering that takes place each summer on the President’s Cottage porch. This one entails a Children’s School class presenting a list of their ideas for how to make Chautauqua better (some more feasible than others but all worthy of consideration). These are the idealistic future leaders of Chautauqua — to have them thinking of the future here, and their place in it, is restorative in a similar way as those dinners with their predecessors.
These two gatherings help define for me my role here, and our charge as we pursue our collective aspirations: Honor and build upon the work and legacy of those who’ve brought us here, to hand off a healthy and vibrant Chautauqua to those yet to arrive. I think you’ll see both sides of that equation as you read through this report. What follows is an accounting of Chautauqua’s 2021 — triumphs celebrated, frustrations acknowledged, and, maybe most importantly, community reassembled. The work continues.
Our experience of 2021 at Chautauqua, while mottled by a variety of incredibly disruptive challenges, obstacles and moments of real unease, was considerably better than 2020. We were thrilled to return to in-person programming during the Summer Assembly, if in a modified fashion. This was a crucial achievement from a missional and business standpoint, and also for the emotional well-being of this community.
Just as 2020 called all of us to shift and adapt to an entirely online experience, so, too, did 2021 ask us to be flexible and adaptable. At so many junctures, at just the moment we felt we finally had a real grasp of the shape of our circumstances, regulations would change, or the erratic economy would throw us a curveball, or viral spread would shift dramatically in both positive and negative directions. The gratitude I feel toward all of you — my staff colleagues, our board of trustees, and all the community members who joined us on this journey — is boundless.
As promised in our initial communication about 150 Forward, our 2019–28 strategic plan, this centerpiece article in the Fall/Winter 2021–22 online version of Chautauqua Magazine serves as my annual status report on our progress in addressing the plan’s key objectives and cross-cutting imperatives. We couldn’t have imagined in May 2019, when the Board of Trustees approved 150 Forward, that a substantial portion of its 10-year vision would be marked by, and in many ways in service of, a response to a global pandemic. But again we found over the past year, like the one before it, that the values and principles expressed within 150 Forward proved visionary. They provided exactly the steady guidance we needed to approach uniquely challenging planning, budgeting, sales and execution processes.
To quickly recap, the Institution is focusing over the first three to five years of 150 Forward on achieving concrete, measurable progress, as reviewed and adjusted periodically, toward the following four broad key objectives:
- Optimize the Summer Assembly on the Chautauqua grounds to provide a first-class experience around the arts, education, religion and recreation;
- Expand Chautauqua’s convening authority year-round to broaden its impact beyond the Summer Assembly;
- Drive the implementation of a comprehensive, science-based approach to improving the health and sustainability of Chautauqua Lake and elevate its conservation as the centerpiece of the region’s economic prosperity; and
- Grow and diversify revenue to address critical needs, increase financial resiliency, and fund Chautauqua’s future.
By design, the key objectives and their corresponding strategies must be implemented organization-wide and require the involvement and investment of all stakeholders. Cross-cutting imperatives, on the other hand, enable Institution-wide action on important organizational capabilities needed to achieve Chautauqua’s mission. All require sustained attention for the duration of the plan. We’ve identified the following four imperatives to receive our focus over 150 Forward’s first three years:
- Strategic partnerships;
- Mobilization of technology;
- Labor and talent solutions; and
- Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA).
These initial areas of focus are meant to set us on a path to realize 150 Forward’s overarching goal: Convene diverse perspectives and voices to discover and advance the most important, relevant conversations and experiences of our time during the Summer Assembly and year-round, on the grounds of the Institution and beyond.
Key Objective 1: Optimize the Summer Assembly on the Chautauqua grounds to provide a first-class experience around the arts, education, religion and recreation.
Simply put, pulling off an in-person Summer Assembly in 2021 was by itself enough to call our work within Key Objective 1 a success. Operating under relative normalcy is a baseline requirement for true progress here. That said, 2021’s unique circumstances afforded us opportunities to experiment with our model and operations, and to measure patrons’ sentiment about those experiments. Some were smash hits and others landed with a thud, but all offered important learning opportunities.
First, we introduced a new gate pass type that was not focused on program. We did so knowing that some patrons would be uneasy about attending programs in person. The Grounds Access Pass — which provided access to on-grounds accommodations, shops, restaurants, amenities and some non-Amphitheater programming — was our solution for accommodating patrons who wanted to be present at Chautauqua but not feel forced into paying for an experience that wasn’t aligned with their personal risk tolerance.
There was another reason to experiment with this new gate pass offering: For years we’ve heard from a sizable segment of our patron base that programming simply isn’t central to their Chautauqua experience. These are folks who are working remotely, or who prefer to spend time on the lake, or on the golf course or tennis courts, or with family on the porch or at the beach — all wonderful ways to live into our mission! They still participate in programming, just more selectively. The Grounds Access Pass, or GAP, was wildly popular with this segment, which is the primary reason it will remain among our pass options in 2022. The GAP was also popular with one other, somewhat surprising group (for 2021, anyway): Travelers unfamiliar with Chautauqua who wanted to give us a try. We know this place can be overwhelming to newcomers. The GAP provided these Chautauquans a way to dip their toe into Chautauqua without feeling the pressure of needing to know instantly how to navigate their experience. We hope to see them back in future seasons, perhaps even as Traditional Gate Pass purchasers.
A separate experiment was also a response to producing a season in a pandemic. Requiring patrons to reserve or purchase seats in the Amphitheater was originally envisioned as a way to control access to every seat for every event — which until early June we believed was going to be required by COVID regulations. When regulations eased, we were glad to be able to return many of these events to our traditional festival-seating model, eliminating the inconvenience of an extra transaction or reservation. However, a handful of anticipated high-attendance programs remained as separate ticket purchases for all attendees. We understand this was not well received by all, and we heard you, loud and clear! In 2022 and moving forward, we will be sure to offer the traditional all-inclusive gate pass type.
Elsewhere on the grounds, I hope you had the opportunity to sip a beverage and nibble on some Asian fusion fare at our new 3 Taps and The A Truck restaurant concept. Not having true lakeside dining anywhere on Chautauqua’s 2 miles of waterfront has been a missed opportunity for, well, forever. With some quick decision-making and through the extraordinary efforts of our facilities and trades teams, we used the pandemic-driven need for more open-air gathering spaces as an opportunity to expand and enhance our on-grounds foodservice options. By acclamation, it was a huge hit for all our patron demographics, especially young people. We look forward to enhancing this fresh new offering as we build our foodservice operations in future seasons.
A few other ways we worked to optimize the Summer Assembly in 2021:
- CHQ Assembly — our solution to a remote assembly in 2020 — became the platform for streaming our in-person programs out to the world. Thanks to the efforts of our program teams to secure permissions from speakers and preachers, every single one of our lectures and worship services was streamed live from the Amphitheater. We also broadcasted a remarkable number of our performing arts offerings, such as Music School Festival Orchestra concerts (a major plus for students’ parents!) and popular guest artists such as Chanticleer, Amythyst Kiah and Clarice and Sérgio Assad. Many of these programs remain available on demand to CHQ Assembly subscribers. Programs that were not able to be hosted at the Amp were offered exclusively on CHQ Assembly, such as the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle lecture series, the African American Heritage House lecture series and the Chautauqua Women’s Club Contemporary Issues Forum. CHQ Assembly also provided content that illuminated life at Chautauqua — from community organizations to recreation and everything in between. Daily interviews with staff and friends of Chautauqua painted a 360-degree view of the Summer Assembly experience and tradition.
- The 2021-exclusive Performance Pavilion on Pratt — a different form of PPP! — provided a unique outdoor setting for Chautauqua Theater Company and Chautauqua Opera Company to safely stage live productions. The venue was a hit with patrons, except on rainy days, and provided our artists and administrators with valuable experience in outdoor production that can be applied in future seasons. (Both companies are excited to return to their usual stages at Bratton Theater and Norton Hall in 2022.)
- Our Schools of Performing and Visual Arts adapted their schedules, procedures and facilities to safely accommodate about half their usual student population for a combination of in-person and remote learning (with some students never stepping foot on the grounds). These experimental models have opened eyes to the possibilities for our work to engage students in a post-pandemic world. And while we know our patrons missed their usual opportunities to interact with these talented and ambitious young people, we’re excited to restore that aspect of the Chautauqua experience soon.
- We also solidified plans to unify operations in two areas that ensures the sustained viability of some beloved program offerings:
—The Chautauqua Opera Company and School of Music Voice Program are now the Chautauqua Opera Company and Conservatory, bringing together two artistic departments that overlapped in many ways. I’m grateful to General and Artistic Director Steven Osgood and Conservatory Director Marlena Malas for creating a wonderful environment of collaboration that opera and voice lovers will come to see in 2022.
—Secondly, the Institution agreed to assume responsibility for the operations of Chautauqua Cinema, welcoming former owner Billy Schmidt to the Chautauqua staff to provide support and leadership for all motion picture experiences on the grounds. The move preserves the Cinema as a cherished independent movie house experience while increasing the visibility of its offerings as official Chautauqua programs. We’re excited to explore this new dynamic more fully this coming summer. - In our recreation areas, we hosted two highly successful special events: a morning panel conversation with sports legends Tara VanDerveer of NCAA women’s basketball fame (and a lifelong Chautauquan) and LPGA champion Nancy Lopez, presented by the Chautauqua County Coalition of Women and Girls at the Chautauqua Golf Club; and the Ivan Lendl Tennis Clinic with the eponymous tennis legend. The Chautauqua Golf Club also upgraded its cart fleet, reconfigured food and beverage service at the Double Eagle Café, and renovated and upgraded more than 40 bunkers on its way to a record year in both rounds and revenue. And Chautauqua Health & Fitness at Turner Community Center doubled its group exercise offerings, resulting in a huge bump in revenue.
- During a summer that required reductions in enrollment for Children’s School and Boys’ and Girls’ Club, Chautauqua launched Play CHQ pop-up programming around the grounds that invited families to explore together through games, crafts, STEM activities and more. Going forward, Play CHQ will continue to engage families through the Summer Assembly and year-round at community events.
- With limited classroom availability and capacity, our community education curriculum focused increasingly on high-quality classes aimed at drawing a wide range of patrons. The approach led to the highest-ever net promoter scores in the areas of overall program satisfaction and instructor satisfaction. Offerings will be expanded and incorporate these learnings in 2022.
- An achievement I’m most grateful for and excited: Our board approved the construction of a new, consolidated, state-of-the-art facility to serve the teams and equipment that maintain our buildings and grounds. Groundbreaking on this project is expected in the coming months, with completion, we hope, by early 2023. While patrons are not likely to feel directly the impact of this major upgrade in our operations, its effect on the people that deliver the Chautauqua experience will be profound. I’m overjoyed that we are going to provide them a modern facility that is worthy of their incredible efforts, and I’m beyond grateful to the donors who made its construction possible!
We also wish to acknowledge here the extraordinary work and contributions of our community organizations and denominational houses in 2022. They joined us in taking on an extremely flexible disposition, navigating COVID-19 fears and regulations with courage and success. Whether it was tours of our grounds and gardens — and the launch of a new self-guided tour app — by the Bird, Tree & Garden Club, special events offered under a tent in front of the Chautauqua Women’s Club, socials and conversations at the Athenaeum Hotel, performing and visual arts friends’ events, or welcoming religious community services and accommodations, these critical partners of the Summer Assembly recreated a 2021 version of their cultural throughline that is central to Chautauqua’s “secret sauce.”
Finally, we know there are instances and operational areas where we fell short last summer. Some were the result of outmatched systems; others by the same staff shortages being felt around the country; still others by the need to move too fast in too limited a timeframe. This key objective will not be met if we don’t respond to those shortcomings, and so as we work to resolve them, we commit to keeping you apprised of our progress.
Mostly, though, the 2021 Summer Assembly was an emotional and operational triumph — and it was wonderful to have a near-record number of you here and participating again in the purest manifestation of Chautauqua’s mission.
Key Objective 2: Expand Chautauqua’s convening authority year-round to broaden its impact beyond the Summer Assembly.
While primarily focusing on hobbled somewhat by the necessary work to program an in-person summer, Institution teams also continued to build our capacity — and output — in year-round programming. The cornerstone of this effort, designed to capitalize on the power of Chautauqua’s brand and to greatly diversify revenue sources, has been a major investment in staffing. Many of our new staff additions have been possible through the Chautauqua community’s generosity, while others are strategic investments as part of well-considered business plans designed to generate revenue above expenses over prescribed timelines.
One such effort made possible by philanthropy is the Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative, launched this year under the leadership of director Mark Wenzler. This initiative represents the first time we have formally tested the ways in which we might carry a critical conversation beyond the Summer Assembly and for multiple years. In his December update, Mark outlined a framework for the initiative and near-term priorities consisting of three components: Programs, Chautauqua Lake and Operations. “These are the ‘what’ we do,” Mark wrote. “The ‘how’ we do it is through education, stewardship and the pursuit of justice.” As we move into 2022, we’re excited to see how this foundational work comes to life during the Summer Assembly and well beyond. Once again, three donors made all the difference in launching and sustaining this work; they have our collective thanks!
Mark will also lead the first two exciting opportunities inside Chautauqua Travels, our new, one-of-a-kind group travel program that offers unmatched curated experiences in the U.S. and abroad. We’re proud to partner on this initiative with Academic Travel Abroad, the same organization that supported our 1980s Chautauqua-Soviet exchange programs. Our first two offerings — a summer 2022 trip to Iceland, and a fall 2022 excursion to New Orleans and southern Louisiana — happen to be themed within Mark’s area of climate change; future opportunities will cover the gamut of Chautauqua’s distinctive mix of interdisciplinary and intergenerational explorations. Programs soon to be announced will focus on other critical issues of the day that can be uniquely explored through travel.
Speaking of that mix, our existing program areas have been busy adapting to a refreshed year-round mindset using the properties we established in 2020 as CHQ Assembly. In 2021, we extended the reach and scope of the Chautauqua Lecture Series and Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle with lectures and author interviews featured on CHQ Assembly leading up to and following 2021 Summer Assembly. We also expanded Chautauqua’s Online Classroom to include programs, classes and workshops offered year-round to students around the world, including the 2021 Chautauqua Writers’ Festival, the Mirror Project Reading Circle discussions (in partnership with the African American Heritage House), Writers’ Center workshops, an extended series leading up to our week on “Building a Culture of Empathy,” and classes spanning a variety of disciplines.
Some of our offerings came to life in a hybrid fashion. Building on the success of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Septet residency “bubble” in October 2020, we hosted dancers and administrators from Dance Theatre of Harlem for almost a month in March and April. The company was able to make use of dance facilities that usually stand dormant at that time of year, and we designed some themed public dining opportunities with a (remote, at that time) performance component. These residencies have been important pilots for our program, marketing, conferencing and food and beverage areas as we consider ways to make better use of Chautauqua’s physical plant in the nine months outside of summer.
Immediately outside the grounds, we continued to build Chautauqua’s capacity to serve our neighbors in Chautauqua County and Western New York. The work of Chautauqua Arts Education continued apace, serving local schoolchildren and teachers with lessons and developmental workshops in in-person, fully remote and hybrid environments. We also completed the first phase of the publicly accessible CHQ Trail at the Chautauqua Golf Club, thanks to a grant awarded through the Play Everywhere Design Challenge supported by the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation. Over the next year, the CHQ Trail will be further developed to build out a permanent mud run course, available for use by bicyclists as well as walkers in the spring, summer and fall months.
These efforts and initiatives begin to frame a strategic picture of what it means to lean more intentionally and significantly into our mission beyond the Summer Assembly and the grounds of Chautauqua Institution. Not only does our mission call us to expand Chautauqua’s reach and impact, but our goals of sustainability and viability require it. In other words, to achieve the vision of Key Objective 1, which calls us to optimize the Summer Assembly, we need to continue to invest in programs and facilities that bring it to life. Those investments require new and enhanced revenue streams, some of which will come from a stronger overall case for grants and gifts. Our work in Key Objective 2 is laser-focused on building a stronger, more impactful case for support, leading to Chautauqua’s long-term financial and operational sustainability and viability.
Key Objective 3: Drive the implementation of a comprehensive, science-based approach to improving the health and sustainability of Chautauqua Lake and elevate its conservation as the centerpiece of the region’s economic prosperity.
Chautauqua Institution continues to play a foundational role in regional efforts to improve the condition of our beloved Chautauqua Lake. In June, we announced a $1 million investment in research initiatives to support the continuing development of scientific knowledge of lake ecology. This investment includes funding for a dedicated full-time position to support our operations staff — under the auspices of the Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative — to oversee the Institution’s work on lake issues. I’m pleased to note that Toby Shepherd started early in 2022 as our new Chautauqua Lake Project Manager. We also were able to support the construction of two cutting-edge vertical water-column profilers (versus borrowed equipment in 2020), meaning Chautauqua Lake now has dedicated infrastructure for scientific analysis of its waters.
I am especially proud of our continued partnership with Chautauqua County government and fellow stakeholder organizations and municipalities, and the continued and expanding involvement of The Jefferson Project, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and IBM in helping us to understand Chautauqua Lake’s challenges. Dr. John Kelly, the renowned IBM executive and engineer, has been particularly complimentary of the cooperation among our diverse stakeholder group as a reason The Jefferson Project at Lake George was willing to expand its work to Chautauqua Lake: “We believe that the Chautauqua Lake region is uniquely positioned to leverage the knowledge and resources of The Jefferson Project — both because of the existing foundation of knowledge and research on this fascinating ecosystem, and because of the region-wide commitment to solid science-informed solutions to the ills of the lake.”
Through this expansion to Chautauqua Lake, The Jefferson Project has begun to form a scientific basis for the root causes of toxic harmful algal blooms (HABs) on freshwater bodies statewide. Our coalition’s work has inspired New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to name the protection of these waters as one of her top priorities, with particular attention to the issue of HABs caused by pollution and exacerbated by climate change. These learnings promise to provide us, alongside our Chautauqua County partners and stakeholders around New York, clear direction on best practices for mitigating HABs and preventing them in the future, as we continue to feel the effects of a changing climate.
Key Objective 4: Grow and diversify revenue to address critical needs, increase financial resiliency, and fund Chautauqua’s future.
To diversify revenue sources, we first needed to shore up our primary line of business — the Summer Assembly — and thankfully this year offered us that opportunity. Our overall attendance numbers nearly returned to 2019 levels; with our new ticketing model, this delivered about 75% of that year’s revenue to our bottom line, significantly above our cautiously conservative projections. Our traditional enterprise activities, such as the Athenaeum Hotel and its associated foodservice venues, the Chautauqua Bookstore, and our recreational offerings also all saw revenue well above what we had budgeted. The staffs in all these areas deserve tremendous kudos for holding the line, creatively and through adversity; their efforts have allowed us to budget for 2022 from a position of considerable strength.
2021 also saw us build out our program and production teams, as we work to position CHQ Assembly, Chautauqua Travels and other initiatives contained within Key Objective 2 to become consistent contributors of significant revenue. Indeed, they’re already well on their way.
As always, philanthropy plays a major role in Chautauqua’s financial picture, and I remain astonished by the generosity of an ever-expanding community. In 2021 we grew endowment substantially, through outright gifts and with prudent portfolio management overseen by our Chautauqua Foundation staff and board colleagues. Our Advancement staff continues to build momentum as we prepare for a capital campaign to coincide with Chautauqua’s upcoming sesquicentennial. And our annual Chautauqua Fund goals — $5.8 million in 2021 — grow more ambitious every year. Perhaps most importantly, we added new donors to our portfolio of long-term contributors, further evidence that our expanded view of Chautauqua is resonating well beyond our normal base.
Finally, I’d be remiss not to mention the one-time infusions of funds Chautauqua sought and received as a beneficiary of government programs such as the Payroll Protection Program and Shuttered Venue Operators Grant. We join our fellow arts and cultural organizations in humbled gratitude for these lifelines that have enabled us to continue to meet our missions and enrich lives.
All of this places Chautauqua in the enviable position of being much stronger financially coming out of the pandemic than we anticipated, enabling us to begin making long-needed investments in our people, facilities and grounds (including the new consolidated maintenance building), technology, Chautauqua Lake, and more. What a turnaround story! It is a testament to the many, many people who care deeply for this mission.
Cross-cutting Imperative: Strategic Partnerships
The interwoven nature of 150 Forward’s Key Objectives and Cross-cutting Imperatives is again demonstrated in that so many strategic partnerships have already been mentioned in this report. From national- and international-level collaborations with Dance Theatre of Harlem, Mather Institute, and Academic Travel Abroad, to statewide work on protecting freshwater bodies through The Jefferson Project and our ongoing conversations with public health officials regarding strategies to help arts and cultural organizations navigate the pandemic, to efforts locally with the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance, National Comedy Center and other nonprofit and government bodies, Chautauqua and its staff are deeply engaged in initiatives that expand our reach, fulfill our mission, and put our resources to work in service of our partners.
During the Summer Assembly, program partnerships with Erie Insurance, National Comedy Center, and Buffalo-Niagara Film Commission helped us to lean into themes, deepen relationships, and imagine work that is yet to come.
A standout model of partnership curation and nurturing comes from Chautauqua Visual Arts (CVA) under the leadership of Sharon Louden, the Sydelle Sonkin and Herb Siegel Artistic Director. Over the past three years since her appointment in this role, Sharon and the CVA team have created more than 50 partnerships with colleges, universities, museums, and organizations across the U.S. to create fully funded scholarships for every participant in the school’s seven-week summer resident artist program. CVA Partnerships also bring programs, resources, and networking opportunities to the visual arts experience of participants and community members alike. The outcomes of this work and more are illuminated online at the Chautauqua Visual Arts page, where virtual experiences of lectures and other programs, including galleries exhibits, are available to the world, as are the exquisite offerings of The Gallery Store.
One partnership that may fly under the radar is with fellow Chautauqua County anchor institution Jamestown Community College. Those who arrive early each summer may know that for many years Chautauqua Golf Club has co-hosted the NJCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championships in June with JCC. This past year we reached a six-year agreement to continue that yearly tradition, with a major addition: Beginning in 2022, we will host that division’s Women’s Golf Championship as well! These tournaments bring major tourism dollars and national attention to our corner of Western New York.
Cross-cutting Imperative: Mobilization of Technology
The low humming sound undergirding our work over the past two years is generated by the dedicated efforts of a mighty team of IT, finance, marketing, sales, fundraising, programming, and community relations staff members who, with the support of one of the world’s leading technology consulting firms, have imagined a multi-year plan to modernize and integrate Chautauqua’s technology systems, data, and operations. Chautauqua’s Technology Mobilization Roadmap, endorsed by the Board of Trustees in November 2021, presents a multi-year plan to create a mission- and vision-aligned technology infrastructure that will support our work, create modern and engaging patron experiences, and enable data capture and analysis to inform future planning and decision-making.
The roadmap is organized around a unifying principle: Providing an extraordinary patron experience. With this as the vision, the plan calls for every technology system we use to eventually be linked together in a network of systems that support the unique and extremely complex and diverse business of Chautauqua by prioritizing the patron experience. This will be achieved by either replacing or adapting existing systems so that they all “talk” to each other, collect and compile data and information consistently, and leverage best-available security protocols and systems.
Over time, what community members will see are modern and efficient ticketing and scanning systems, user-friendly interfaces for purchasing, account and personal transaction history and information, and functionality such as customizable calendars of events, for example. On the operations side of things, staff will have real-time access to reliable and more comprehensive data and analytics that are critical to sound decision-making and planning. These capabilities are essential to the operations of a modern organization, and the investment of more than $5 million over the next six years collectively represents the erasure of an IT infrastructure deferred maintenance deficit that has haunted the Institution for decades.
In the introduction to this report, we acknowledged the role that our strategic plan has played in focusing our efforts amid the disruption of the pandemic. This sentiment is most apparent when it comes to our imperative to mobilize technology. While timelines for some aspects of this aspiration have been adjusted, the core vision has progressed and positioned us at the close of 2021 to not only move forward — but to leap.
Before we close this section of the report, we wish to make special mention of the team of IT staff members, led by Cindy Mando, director of information technology, who have not only made the Technology Mobilization Roadmap vision possible but, in the meantime, have tirelessly supported the operations of Chautauqua with their will, knowledge and ingenuity. They have leveraged every resource available toward our goals and objectives, in many cases creating solutions under impossible timelines and with limited resources. We are fortunate beyond measure to have such a talented, creative, and dedicated team of individuals working IT magic every day in service of Chautauqua’s mission.
Cross-cutting Imperative: Labor and Talent Solutions
The tumult of the past year in hiring and retaining staff has been well documented by the national media. We face a labor market unlike any in recent memory. Chautauqua has approached this challenging environment aggressively, seeking to adjust our employment value proposition where possible and necessary to meet evolving workforce expectations. Our Human Resources team regularly keeps tabs on industry and national trends to inform these efforts.
Guided by 150 Forward and with the endorsement and significant investment of our board, we’ve begun to post and hire for critical positions that will help Chautauqua truly realize much of what we’ve discussed to this point. Our candidate pools have been impressive, and for many of these positions, national and international — indicating genuine enthusiasm for the Institution’s mission and our vision for its future. In the coming months, our staff listings in a number of areas will grow as we build an operation that can sustain everything that already makes Chautauqua beloved — principally the magic of the Summer Assembly — and further positions us to meet the aspirations expressed in 150 Forward. We recently announced that Laura Savia will come aboard shortly as our new Vice President of Performing and Visual Arts, following the permanent appointment of Deborah Sunya Moore as Senior Vice President and Chief Program Officer. Soon we will announce a new Vice President of Religion, following the retirement of our friend the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson at the end of 2021. We’re also making significant hires within the production, food and beverage, marketing, analytics and IT areas.
In the past year, we’ve also welcomed aboard new leaders in areas where we believe Chautauqua can serve as a model. The previously mentioned Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative is positioned to have significant impact under the leadership of Director Mark Wenzler. And having Amit Taneja’s presence and expertise as our new Senior Vice President and Chief Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) Officer provides true momentum and direction to work we’ve long identified as both a priority and deficient at Chautauqua. More on that in a moment.
In every instance we have heard folks ask about the increase in hiring, and we have shared this answer: We’re adding staff because we’re succeeding. We’re building out an organization that can stand the test of time, and we’re reversing years of suppressed investment in people to ensure that Chautauqua will be a force of good in the world. These hires and others that will join the fold in the coming years are possible because of our strong financial position, careful planning, rigorous adherence to “return on investment,” and, in many cases, philanthropy. It’s an exciting time!
Lastly, we all know that seasonal hiring has long been a challenge, especially for an organization with needs so wide-ranging as ours; even in the seasonal tourism space, there are few operations that match our variety of opportunities. That challenge was compounded by a number of factors in 2021. So, led by the efforts of our Department of Human Resources, we continue to expand our networks and pipelines with local schools and universities, and monitor trends in each individual industry represented here. Through this good planning — and continuing to accentuate Chautauqua-exclusive benefits — we’re working to ensure that we’re prepared to deliver your Chautauqua experience at a high level all summer long in 2022.
Cross-cutting Imperative: Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA)
The appointment of Amit Taneja to our executive leadership team begins to fulfill a priority I named from the first day of my presidency: Chautauqua must be a place where everyone feels that they can engage as full and valued participants in the Chautauqua experience. This is both a moral and practical imperative. But make no mistake — Amit’s leadership and presence does not mean it is his charge alone! We all need to take responsibility for ensuring that the Chautauqua community of the present and future better reflects the larger world outside our gates.
Following a summer of conversation and fact-gathering with patrons, staff and leadership, Amit has developed an IDEA-specific strategic plan, which he recently presented to our Board of Trustees. We will share the plan with the wider Chautauqua community in the spring, and further community sessions will be developed for the 2022 Summer Assembly. We hope all Chautauqua community members will be deeply engaged in this process.
As has been the case for many years, one of the most prominent ways in which Chautauqua demonstrates our commitment to IDEA work is through the voices and stories we feature on our platforms and stages. I am incredibly proud of our program teams for ensuring that the speakers, preachers, artists and art our audiences engage with are representative of a wide swath of difference and lived experience. The same is true of the diverse student population within our Schools of Performing and Visual Arts. It was amazing in 2021 to recapture the energy and beauty they bring to our grounds after 2020 necessitated remote study (though, credit to our amazing leadership and faculty, we continue to make use of those learning tools to engage an even broader student audience who are unable to join us in person).
Finally, I’m proud to say that Amit is also making connections within our home community of Chautauqua County. His efforts are ensuring that our organization, as one of the anchor institutions of our region, can serve as a resource on IDEA issues for the many wonderful small agencies, nonprofits and businesses that serve our neighbors, while learning the lessons they have to offer us. This is also one of the ways we are living into the promise of Key Objective 2 of 150 Forward.
I’ll admit that when we set about documenting the story of Chautauqua’s 2021, I wasn’t expecting it to match the length and intensity of our report on 2020, as this past year was certainly more “normal” than the one that preceded it. Turns out, rebuilding an in-person Summer Assembly presented a similar level of challenge inside our 2021 circumstances. I’m immensely proud of what we created together. It was gratifying to see chaplains, speakers and performers on our stages again, and to watch them engage with a grateful audience. For many of our on-stage guests, it was their first time in front of an in-person crowd in a year and a half — to a person they would comment publicly and backstage how meaningful an experience it was for them.
As we look ahead to our time together in 2022, we do so with the goal of providing all of us a more traditional Summer Assembly. This means programs return to their usual venues at their usual frequency, and a heightened level of activity across the grounds — with community health and safety always our North Star. I look forward to welcoming you to the Amphitheater for the weekday morning lecture at our usual 10:45 a.m. start, to seeing audiences spilling into the grove at the Hall of Philosophy, and to song and soliloquy once again bouncing off the hallowed walls of Norton Hall and Bratton Theater.
And while returning to a more normal cadence last summer had us brimming with joy, our expanded work year-round through CHQ Assembly, in partnerships like those recently begun with Baylor University, and through our ongoing engagement with thought leaders in our Washington, D.C., offices and online around the globe, reminded us that 2021 was a year of four seasons: the founding principle of our strategic planning efforts and a cadence that is starting to become a part of our normal operations.
We move forward with a disposition of experimentation and adaptability that has served us well in navigating the past two years, positioning us to greet our 150th birthday as a strong, nimble organization ready to grasp new opportunities while staying true to our mission. This is exactly what 150 Forward calls us to do, to secure Chautauqua’s long-term sustainability. It is also the same mindset that guided visionary Chautauquans like Dick Miller and Bill Clinger. By living into the objectives and imperatives of 150 Forward, we honor the love and contributions of those who came before — and ensure that future generations of leaders inherit a healthy, vibrant Chautauqua, always prepared to meet the moment.
Michael E. Hill is the 18th president of Chautauqua Institution.
