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Chautauqua prounounced "Shuh -- TALK -- wa"
Chautauqua was started as an outdoor adult education program for Sunday School teachers on Chautauqua Lake in upstate New York by Methodist minister John Heyl Vincent and businessman Lewis Miller. In the outdoor setting the education program merged with family entertainment and recreation.
Similar Chautauqua assemblies sprung up in various locations in North America. These Chautauquas became the successor of the Lyceum movement. The New York organization founded by Vincent and Miller later became known as the Chautauqua Institution - a permanent summer cultural resort that can be enjoyed today.
"Chautauqua is the most American thing in America." - Teddy Roosevelt
Tent Chautauquas
From 1904 - 1932, before radio and television, traveling cultural tent shows toured across America. It was a road show of music, entertainment, and always a great speaker of the day. Touring by train and car, it was the most exciting event of the summer across America and Canada. At their peak, Tent Chautauquas appeared in over 10,000 communities to more than 45 million. Caught by the Great Depression of the 1930's, the Tent Chautauqua Circuits disappeared, replaced by radio and movies. A Tent Chautauqua regularly came to Greenville, SC and set up its distinctive brown tents in City Park (now McPherson Park). Redpath Chautauqua
"Chautauqua is an integral part of the national defense." - Woodrow Wilson, during WW1
Modern Chautauqua
In the 1970's Chautauqua was revived and sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and state humanities councils as a means of providing lively, interactive and authentic humanities education. Local communities recreate the magic of the Chautauqua tent and present historical interpretrs in first person performances often in an out-door setting that creates a free and open forum for the public.
"When Chautauqua works, it's magic. It happens in a place that doesn't belong to anyone in particular. It belongs to everyone." -- Everett Albers, founder of Modern Chautauqua
Chautauqua in the Carolinas
George Frein, PhD, a founding member of the National Chautauqua Tour, brought Chautauqua back to Greenville in 1999. Greenville Chautauqua has been in constant production ever since.
In 2000, Buncombe County Chautauqua, in cooperation with Greenville Chautauqua, began presenting Chautauqua in Asheville, NC.
In 2009 we expanded to Spartanburg, SC. For two years the Chatuauqua Festival was held at Wofford College and is now sponsored by the Spartanburg Public Libraries at the Headquarters Library.
