Lecture Programs

Corry-Jamestown Corp. was an office furniture manufacturing company located in Corry, Pennsylvania. But it began in Jamestown, New York, and involved a number of people from around the country with connections to Jamestown and the metal furniture industry. Needing a factory building for the new company a factory was found in Corry and the company moved there in 1919 and the rest is history. Karen Livsey and Sam Genco will present. The 2026 Fenton…

Brian Frank is the founder and general partner of FTW Ventures, bringing decades of experience in building transformative technology that impacts the way people work, play and live. In 2015, Frank turned his attention to how technology can improve the lives of every person on the planet by building a better food system. He raised two early-stage funds for investments into food and agriculture technology businesses with FTW, partnering with the…

Join us for a special, family-friendly evening! Guest speaker Ja:no’s Bowen (Seneca Nation, Beaver clan) explores the night sky through the powerful art of storytelling and rich visuals. Discover how constellations like the Pleiades carry a cultural legacy that continues to inspire the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee. Includes a Q&A, facility tours, and viewing through large telescopes if skies are clear. Free/Donations welcome.

Michael Grunwald is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author who has written about U.S. public policy and politics for three decades. He is best known for his coverage of climate change and the environment. His latest book, We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate, is a groundbreaking piece of reportage on the fight to fix our food system. In the book, Grunwald argues that humanity has started to…

Thursday, Aug. 20, at 7 pm, Michelle Henry will present Chautauqua Town Historical Society’s August talk: "The County Home in Dewittville." The CTHS’s programs are on the third Thursday of the month. The talks are in the Veteran’s Memorial Meeting Room of the Chautauqua Town Hall, 2 Academy Street, Mayville, NY.

Anna Lappé is the executive director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, a strategic alliance of philanthropic foundations working for food system transformation around the world. Before joining the Global Alliance in July 2023, Lappé had worked for more than 25 years as an internationally renowned expert on food systems and a respected advocate for sustainability and justice along the food chain. She has conducted…

Tucked away from view behind respectable facades, alleys were indispensable elements in American cities during the last half of the nineteenth century. The “impolite” realities of the industrial movement were hidden from Victorian society. Jamestown had 5 alleys - what are their stories? Learn about them on the Hidden Alleys tour. Participants will meet at the Fenton History Center at 10:00 a.m. The Fenton History Center conducts…

SPEAKER:Heather Ann Thompson, Ph.D.Pulitzer Prize-winning Author and Historian at the University of Michigan TOPIC:Fear and Fury is a historical work by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Heather Ann Thompson. It investigates the 1984 subway shooting in New York City and analyzes its profound implications for American race relations, politics, and democracy. Venue located on Chautauqua Institution grounds; a gate pass is required.

Priya Parker opens Week Nine of the 2026 Chautauqua Lecture Series and the theme of “The Importance of Gathering” by helping us take a deeper look at how anyone can create collective meaning in modern life, one gathering at a time. She is a facilitator, strategic adviser, acclaimed author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters, and the host of The Art of Gathering Digital Course. She writes and teaches on Group Life,…