Bright Dreams, Hard Times:
America in the Thirties Chautauqua

Dust Storm by Herschel Logan,
courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society

The Bright Dreams, Hard Times: America in the Thirties Chautauqua is a revival of the traveling tent programs that entertained and educated Kansans during the first decades of the 20th century.

Today people gather each evening on the plains of Kansas under the Chautauqua tent to visit with scholars portraying famous figures from the 1930s.

Bright Dreams, Hard Times: America in the Thirties includes first-person portrayals of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Senator Huey Long of Louisiana, Pentecostal leader Aimee Semple McPherson, Harlem Renaissance writer and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, and humorist Will Rogers.

Daily workshops for adults and children, a Youth Chautauqua day camp, and special history events are offered throughout the community during the five-day Chautauqua event.

2010 Schedule

Colby • June 1-6
Prairie Museum of Art & History, 1905 S. Franklin
Click here for a full schedule of Chautauqua events in Colby (pdf)

All evening tent programs moderated by Will Rogers.

Belleville • June 7-13
Belleville Farm & Home, 1825 N St., (19th Street and N Street)
Click here for a full schedule of Chautauqua events in Belleville (pdf)

All evening tent programs moderated by Will Rogers.

For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit the Kansas-Nebraska Chautauqua website, www.knchautauqua.org, or contact the Kansas Humanities Council at 785/357-0359.

Click here to listen to KHC's Executive Director Julie Mulvihill talk about the history of Chautauqua on Kansas Public Radio in 2008.

The Bright Dreams, Hard Times: America in the Thirties Chautauqua is supported by We The People, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.