The Skidmore Jazz Institute, a two week program for serious jazz students features concerts by its own faculty sextet and by visiting artists like Chucho Valdes, Ray Brown, Stefon Harris, Jackie McLean, Joe Lovano, Slide Hampton, Nicholas Payton, Jacky Terrasson, and Clary Terry. The series of SRO concerts (and regularly SRO in Bernhard Theater an hour before concert time) occur in late June and early July.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays in July the Summer International Film Festival, now in its 30th season, features twice weekly viewings of rare, classic and recent internationally acclaimed films by prize-winning directors -- like Visconti, Wertmuller, Truffaut, Kenneth Branagh, Jocelyn Moorhouse, Eric Roehmer, Martin Scorcese, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Kon Ichikawa, Jan Nemec and Gillian Armstrong.

Every weeknight for four weeks in July, as it has for more than 15 years, the New York State Summer Writers Institute - offering intensive credit or non-credit workshops in fiction, non-fiction and poetry -- brings to campus many of the most famous and well-regarded writers in the country. Those familiar with the open readings sponsored by the Institute look forward each summer to the now regular appearances in Gannett, Emerson or Davis Auditoriums of such prize-winning authors William Kennedy, Robert Pinsky, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Stone, Anne Beattie, Russell Banks, Mary Gordon, Stanley Kaufmann and many more.

The SITI Company will be on campus late July, early August, this summer celebrating the 15th year of its summer theater residency. The SITI Company, led by Anne Bogart, conducts a four-week theater intensive for actors, directors, writers, choreographers and dancers. SITI Company members and workshop participants give lectures, theater training demonstrations and in some years theater productions.

For more than 15 years, the Summer Dance Workshop has brought a different dance company to campus each summer, and each offers its own distinctive workshop. Past companies include the Mark Morris Dance Group, Garth Fagan, Twyla Tharp, Trisha Brown, Martha Graham Dance Company, Jose Limon, Doug Varone, and Paul Taylor's educational dance troupe Taylor 2. The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will be in residence during June. Look for community master classes, lecture demonstrations and open rehearsals.

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery’s designation as a “teaching museum” signals Skidmore’s intent to make Tang exhibitions, collection, and programs a significant contributor to a broad liberal arts education. Tang Museum exhibitions feature contemporary art, but regularly address other disciplines, including the natural and social sciences, performing arts and humanities. Events in the summer include, of course, exhibits in the museum, but also activities on the museum.

The Schick Art Gallery in the Saisselin Art Building offers students, the college community and the public an opportunity to experience significant contemporary and historical works of art borrowed for exhibit here from museums, galleries and private collections. Shows address a wide range of disciplines and are often accompanied by catalogues, gallery lectures and discussions with visiting artists, who often bring their own work to exhibit in the gallery.

The Jacob Perlow Lecture Series, offered annually in April and mid-July, has included lectures and readings by scholars like Arthur Hertzberg, Francine Klagsbrun, Lawrence Langer, Henry Feingold, and Carolyn Forche, and concerts by The Klezmatics.

The month of August opens with more music-making from the Skidmore Summer Flute Institute. Daily master classes, ensemble rehearsals and private lessons led by director, Jan Vinci are supplemented by special guest artists. The faculty and student recitals are open to the public.

Skidmore opens its campus to non-profit organizations for Summer Conferences offering them the advantages of our modern classrooms and lecture facilities, residence hall accommodations, dining services, and scenic Saratoga Springs for short-term conferences, seminars, workshops, and business meetings. The International Women's Writing Guild, Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, and the New York State Summer School of the Arts are just a few regularly returning groups.

The downtown life of Saratoga Springs in the summer, when the population very nearly doubles with summer visitors, is likewise something not to be missed. In addition to everything happening on campus, there's a lot happening downtown as well: the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, summer home of the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra, is also home to the Freihofer’s Jazz Festival, blues festivals and numerous popular band concerts. There's also lots of live music and dancing downtown, great restaurants, great weather and of course the racing season, which opens at the Track in late July.