Chautauqua’s 150th anniversary celebration continues this week with the second in a series of five lectures centering on the history of the Institution’s program pillars: religion, recreation, education and the arts. This week’s Pillar Talk focuses on Chautauqua’s arts pillar, led by former Vice President and Director of Programming Marty Merkley. Merkley will speak at 3:15 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy, instead of the previously announced location of the Hall of Christ; the program will end in time for Chautauquans to attend the chamber music performance of the Akropolis Reed Quintet at 4:15 p.m. in Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall.
Merkley served as leader of Chautauqua’s arts program for 25 years, nurturing an expansive range of programs across multiple artforms, including classical, liturgical and popular music, dance, voice, theater, opera and visual arts. But his vision came to life most fully in inter-arts collaborations, perhaps most notably the August 2015 presentation of Carmina Burana, that featured symphonic music, dance and visual arts.
“An arts organization has a responsibility to foster artistic growth in the community,” School of Music Artistic Director Timothy Muffitt commented in 2015 as the inter-arts Carmina Burana performance was coming together. “Sometimes, that means a little bit of stretching and a little bit of moving toward the edge. I think Marty has shown a remarkable balance of maintaining that popular appeal but also allowing this organization to move forward.”
Senior Vice President and Chief Program Officer Deborah Sunya Moore worked with Merkley as associate director of arts programming before she succeeded him as head of performing and visual arts.
“Marty is a friend and a cherished mentor. I am absolutely certain I could not have even considered taking on the leadership of this area without his careful guidance and ongoing support,” she said. “I am looking forward to looking back at this incredible history with him.”
During Merkley’s tenure, Chautauqua invested in two new major performance venues, Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall and Fletcher Music Hall, and renovations to nearly every other artistic facility, including the School of Music campus and the world-class galleries at Strohl Art Center and Fowler-Kellogg Art Center. He also helped guide a major restoration of the iconic Massey Memorial Organ.
In 1993, he founded the Logan Chamber Music Series and, in 2022, as president of the Kay Hardesty Logan Foundation, he presented a gift of $1 million for an endowment to assure the program is supported in perpetuity.
The 1959 film, “Pillow Talk,” starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day, may have inspired only the name of Chautauqua’s special 150th Anniversary lecture series, but this week’s talk also celebrates the medium of this acclaimed film – the arts – a uniquely diverse, rich and compelling way that Chautauqua celebrates the best in human values.
