Session with Becker, Halda to close Friday Amp dialogues
Over the next two days, Chautauqua Institution President Tom Becker will appear in two public forums that will focus on the future of Chautauqua’s centerpiece Amphitheater.
Posts Tagged 'president'
Becker to honor predecessor Hesse with President’s Medal
Every week’s lecture series has a theme at Chautauqua Institution, but that wasn’t always the case. In fact, the concept…
Three Taps of the Gavel: Ours is a never-ending quest
BRIA GRANVILLE | Staff Photographer Chautauqua Institution President Thomas M. Becker is greeted with extended applause and a standing ovation…
Chautauqua Dance looks forward to season of energy, education
For those who love the art of dance, the Chautauqua Dance program offers this summer everything from performances by dancers in-residence to lectures on various topics in the world of dance.
The Charlotte Ballet, known formerly as the North Carolina Dance Theatre, will be in residence for the first seven weeks of the Chautauqua season, under the artistic direction of Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux.
Potter: Rising election costs have corrupting effect on elected officials
The 2012 election was one of many firsts. It was the first presidential election in which corporations had First Amendment rights. It was the first federal election with hundreds of millions of dollars of “secret money” spent. And it was the first election since 1972 in which neither presidential candidate participated in the public spending system.
What was the result of this election of firsts? An unprecedented amount of campaign spending: $7 billion.
“That is a 337 percent increase in spending since 1992,” said Trevor Potter, the founder of the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C.
Gordon-Reed: In many ways, Johnson crippled by his racism
Documenting the life of one of America’s worst presidents may not sound appealing, but Annette Gordon-Reed has accepted the challenge.
Her book, Andrew Johnson, details the life of the 17th president, who assumed office following Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865.
From the President: Thomas M. Becker
On Saturday evening the Chautauqua Opera Company will perform Benjamin Britten’s psychologically potent social parable of the struggle of the individual against the masses.
White analyzes Christian ethic within Lincoln’s second inaugural address
Abraham Lincoln was a Christian president, and he embedded Christian ethics of inclusivity, humility and reconciliation within his speeches, writings and presidency, said Ronald C. White Jr., the author of A. Lincoln: A Biography and Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural. White presented Monday’s 2 p.m. Interfaith Lecture in the Hall of Philosophy.
White opened this season’s Week Nine religion lecture theme, “The Ethics of Presidential Power,” with a lecture titled “Abraham Lincoln’s Sermon on the Mount: the Second Inaugural Address.”
White began his lecture with a reading of the 701-word document, which only took Lincoln six minutes to read to an audience of 25,000 to 30,000 people on March 4, 1865. At the time the president delivered the speech, the crowd was full of soldiers who had lost limbs during the Civil War, family members who had lost sons and brothers, White said. The atmosphere was turbulent, and already there were threats of Lincoln’s assassination or abduction. Nearby rooftops were strewn with sharpshooters, White said.
Women’s Club welcomes Curatolo as new president
The Chautauqua Women’s Club this season is perhaps like a petri dish for “High Tech, High Touch,” one of the 10 trends that author John Naisbitt identified in his prescient book, Megatrends.
Though published in 1980, the book is eerily relevant. In the chapter “High Tech, High Touch,” Naisbitt sets up the dichotomy suggesting that as technology becomes a larger part of life, people will seek traditional, face-to-face experiences.
The strength of the CWC is “high touch” built on relationships formed throughout years of shared goals. The question is how will a definitely high-touch organization founded 133 years ago — and whose members in a recent survey chose fellowship as the most important reason for joining — remain vigorous despite the changing profile of women at Chautauqua in the digital age.
Enter new CWC President Courtney L. Curatolo. Her mandate is to create a synthesis which recognizes the changing reality of women’s lives but also embraces their high-touch preferences. She would rather be called Cour, and that informality combined with her youth — she is 35 — is exactly what makes her a good choice to lead the CWC.
Prestige, Community, Individual Development — even in a land undeveloped
Having arrived at Chautauqua to assist then-director Scott Brown in 1905, Arthur E. Bestor assumed the title himself in 1907 — in a kind of administration round robin — when George E. Vincent was appointed Chautauqua Institution president. All three men associated with one another through the University of Chicago.
The Institution had enjoyed considerable growth and success in the early part of the 20th century, thanks in part to the efforts of Chairman of the Board of Trustees Dr. W.H. Hickman. Also, the era had brought to Chautauqua stability of personnel and fiscal perpetuity.
In her book, Three Taps of the Gavel: The Chautauqua Story, Alfreda L. Irwin wrote that Hickman wanted “to bring Chautauqua expenditures fully within the limits of its income, … clean up all debts except bonded debt, … complete the buildings that had been started and push with vigor the Commercial Block enterprise, … (and see) the strongest men in the country on the Board of Trustees, men who would not only serve, but who could and would give largely to the various phases of the larger life of Chautauqua.”
The Chautauquan Daily 