Buffalo-Chautauqua Connection
The Buffalo-Chautauqua Idea was first presented as a Special Studies course at the Chautauqua Institution during the 2006 & 2007 Summer Seasons by Dennis Galucki. The title was, “IMAGINE Buffalo Niagara in the 21st-Century: The Buffalo-Chautauqua Idea.”
The premise of the course was to appreciate that Chautauqua Institution was a continuous exploration and lifelong learning experience since 1874 around an idea and place focusing on four pillars: art, education, religion, and recreation.
The question to imagine was what if a city and region, like Buffalo Niagara, were inspired to create lifelong learning experiences around four pillars, common to all cities: art, architecture, history, and nature?
This became the “Buffalo-Chautauqua Idea: Exploring American Legacy” and the digital vehicle created in 2009 to explore the Idea was called the Center for the Study of Art, Architecture, History, & Nature (C-SAAHN).
C-SAAHN is a digital enterprise and network designed to help link volunteers and lifelong learning communities as part of the “Buffalo-Chautauqua Idea: Exploring American Legacy.”
C-SAAHN has created over ninety ‘IMAGINE’ Tuesday Noon-Hour Lectures at the Downtown Buffalo & Erie County Public Library since the end of 2009 with audio recordings uploaded to Internet Archives. This is part of its Initiative, “IMAGINE Lifelong Learning @ Buffalo Niagara.”
At Chautauqua Institution, C-SAAHN has added various free audio recordings, since 2010, to make Chautauqua Institution, as a great American lifelong learning center, more available to the people of Buffalo Niagara and beyond. These include the weekly Monday “Art of Investing” Discussion Group, and the Tuesday and Friday CI Archives Heritage Lecture Series and the Tuesday Tour of the Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution & Albright-Knox Art Gallery exhibit collaboration around “Abstract Expressionism.“
Also, to further help foster the BUF/CHQ Connection, C-SAAHN has organized since 2010, “Buffalo Day @ Chautauqua” with the following sponsors: The Buffalo News, WNED, & Visit Buffalo Niagara. The Fourth Annual “Buffalo Day @ Chautauqua” will be Tuesday July 23, 2013 during the WEEK FIVE theme, “Pursuit of Happiness.”