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HISTORICAL ROOTS
The Colorado Chautauqua takes its name from the Chautauqua Institution on Lake Chautauqua in western New York, which started in 1874 as a summer school for Sunday school teachers. “Chautauqua” soon became shorthand for an organized gathering intended to introduce people to great ideas, new ideas and issues of public concern.
The Chautauqua Movement was America’s first truly national mass educational and cultural movement.
The Chautauqua Auditorium was built in 1898 in 54 days, with derricks lifting the six 80-foot-long cross trusses, weighing three tons each, 56 feet in the air. The construction cost was $6,700. The Chautauqua Dining Hall was also built in 1989, with a construction cost of $11,000. Both the Auditorium and Dining Hall opened on July 4, 1898.
The Colorado Chautauqua was named a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 2006. There are 24 NHLs in Colorado; this is
one of two in the Denver-Boulder metro area.
The Colorado Music Festival has held its multi-week festival of classical music performances in the Auditorium every
summer since 1976.
In spring 2015, the Colorado Chautauqua Association digitized a portion of the National Historic Landmark’s archive collection and made it accessible to the public through www.chautauqua.com. The online exhibit includes items such as photographs showing the Auditorium’s original bleachers and dirt floor, program brochures from the early 1900’s as well as the first program from 1898, and more modern posters that capture speakers such as Reverend Jesse Jackson.
The Colorado Chautauqua was created by the Texas Board of Regents in an effort to establish a summer school for teachers
in a cool climate. Because the Chautauqua Movement was such a powerful and popular cultural force in the United States at the time, the Regents surmised that the best way to obtain a favorable location for the teachers’ school would be to partner with a railroad company, package the school with a chautauqua and barter with a Colorado town for a site.
The Colorado Chautauqua Association (CCA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that leases 26 acres of Chautauqua Park and public buildings from the City of Boulder and has responsibility for preservation and use of those facilities as well as the buildings it owns. CCA provides year-round lodging, programming and venues for private events in the historic setting.
Colorado Chautauqua Association Press Kit
For additional media information, please contact Ann Obenchain at [email protected]
OUR PROGRAMMING
More than 250,000 annual visitors enjoy the respite and inspiration offered year-round at Chautauqua, including arts and education programming, lodging in 58 cottages and two lodges, and nourishment at the Chautauqua Dining Hall.
Chautauqua’s year-round overnight guests arrive from all 50 states and countries around the world. The largest
numbers of guests come from within Colorado, followed by Texas and California.
Over one million hikers use the trailheads adjacent to Chautauqua each year. These trails are part of the more than 45,000 acres of land that the City of Boulder has preserved and protected as Boulder's Open Space & Mountain Parks.
The Colorado Chautauqua is the only chautauqua west of the Mississippi River that has been in continuous operation since 1898 with its original structures intact. It is also the only chautauqua open year-round.
Thousands of performers, from orators of the early 20th
century to modern musical acts and full symphonies, have graced the historic stage of the Chautauqua Auditorium since its opening on July 4, 1898.
The mission of the Colorado Chautauqua Association is to preserve, perpetuate and improve the site and spirit of the historic chautauqua, enhancing its community and values through cultural, educational, social and recreational experiences.
Colorado Chautauqua Association Press Kit For additional media information, please contact Ann Obenchain at [email protected]
OUR PROGRAMMING
The chautauqua experience is traditionally based on lifelong learning, love of nature, voluntary simplicity, music, oration and the arts. The Colorado Chautauqua Association strives to bring to life to these experiences through a robust lineup of year-round programming. From world class music headliners to intimate stage readings, year-round programming truly offers something for everyone.
Summer Programming The most anticipated season of the year, the summer program (May to September) at Chautauqua features a diverse lineup of musical acts, silent films with live musical accompaniment, dance troupes and renowned cultural luminaries. Taking place inside the historic Chautauqua Auditorium, the setting is like no other. The Auditorium maintains its original rustic ‘barn like’ architecture from 1898, when Chautauqua was founded as a cultural and educational center. The summer also brings the special experience of seeing classic films featuring live musical accompaniment by artists such as pianist Hank Troy and The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, in the Chautauqua Auditorium with the annual Chautauqua Silent Film Series. The 2015 Silent Film Series begins and ends with talkies, with “The Bicycle Thief” starting things off in June, and Carlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” bringing the series to a close in August. In between are films that vary along the spectrum from Buster Keaton laughs to the film that inspired the musical “Chicago.”
The Colorado Music Festival‘s (CMF) six-week classical music series is also a summer staple at Chautauqua, showcasing the CMF Orchestra. The festival continues to inspire audiences of more than 20,000 each year with programming that embraces the most beloved classical music repertoire, while integrating the works of exciting modern composers.
The eco-friendly convenience of the free HOP 2 Chautauqua shuttle is available for many of the summer’s shows. For more information about summer programming, please visit www.chautauqua.com.
Fall and Winter Programming As the weather turns to cooler temperatures, Chautauqua’s programming moves from the Auditorium to the Community House (b. 1918). A cozy atmosphere of 125-seats, the historic venue provides an ideal setting for taking in an intimate concert, film or lecture through the months of October to April as well as throughout the summer.
Colorado Chautauqua Association Press Kit
For additional media information, please contact Ann Obenchain at [email protected]
RECENT NEWS
Even though it might mean stepping out of your musical comfort zone, every Colorado music fan ought to try and take in at least one show a year at Boulder’s Chautauqua Auditorium. The venue’s history, location and atmosphere make for an extraordinary musical experience. On a perfect, end-of-spring Friday night, there was no better place to witness the even more extraordinary musical experience of an Andrew Bird performance, than Chautauqua’s open air, century-old barn.
- Hey Reverb, Andrew Bird at Chautauqua Auditorium, June 2014
Pick one of the 58 cottages or two lodges at the Colorado Chautauqua (from $185; Chautauqua.com) at the base of the Flatirons in Chautauqua park, and you’ll have miles of trails right outside your door.
- Shape Magazine, Get Fit Coast to Coast, March 2014 issue
The Colorado Chautauqua Association announced its 2014 Summer Series for its Auditorium concerts in Boulder, Colo. The series presents a diverse mix of music performers including Andrew Bird, BB King, and Rufus Wainwright. Additionally, the lineup includes comedians Paula Poundstone and Steven Wright.
- CPR.com, Colorado Chautauqua announces 2014 summer concert series lineup, April 25, 2014
Just a hop, skip and a jump away from Denver, Boulder is surrounded by a greenbelt of city trails and open spaces. Chautauqua, a National Historic Landmark, is our favorite stomping ground with charming rental cottages, 48 miles of hiking trails, a dining hall with the best patio dining around and thousands of acres of natural lands.
- Mile High Mamas Colorado’s Top 20 Family Vacation Ideas for 2014,
May 12, 2014
Colorado Chautauqua Association Press Kit For additional media information, please contact Ann Obenchain at [email protected]
“It’s a delightful experience to go back in time and see how a film could be held together without all the special effects and heavy soundtracks that we now get,” says Hart. “The acting and the comedy were paramount.”
- Denver Westword, Silent Nights, May 14, 2014
“There may be no better summertime venue in the Front Range than Chautauqua (sorry, Red Rocks), especially when the moon is nearly full and it spills into the doorways of the building. And when the music inside is great too, well, that’s just a bonus. So, on Thursday night, while Steve Earle rollicked through an impressive four-decades-deep catalog, the atmosphere inside (and out) was electric.”
- Denver Post, Reverb, Steve Earle at Chautauqua Review, June 12, 2014
“But Steven Wright, the 58-year-old Massachusetts stand-up known for his absurd one- liners and sleepy stage presence, has never had a problem swimming upstream.”
- Denver Post, Steven Wright’s long, funny career path loops back on itself, September 11, 2014
“Instead of presenting the play with props and sets, Chautauqua asked for a staged reading in their intimate Community House. ‘We have had a successful run of readings and wanted to build upon it with this uniquely Colorado story,’ says Ann Obenchain of Chautauqua. ‘The intimate feel of this theater, along with the 13 actors reading the play, will be something most people have never experienced. It is magical’.”
- Boulder Weekly, Something Good From War, September 25, 2014
Colorado Chautauqua Association Press Kit For additional media information, please contact Ann Obenchain at [email protected]