The institute has three performance venues, various community meeting rooms, and extensive music education facilities.

It presents annually an array of culturally diverse festivals, concert series and educational programs that focus on, but are not limited to, American music.

In 1997 the company shifted from its summer-only festival model and began year-round programming with the foundation of two additional performance initiatives, The American Composers Series and The Emerald City Jazz Kings.

[5] At its August 2000 Oregon Festival of American Music the company presented the world premier public performance of American soprano saxophonist and composer Sidney Bechet's 1955 ballet "La colline du delta" under the baton of Festival Jazz Advisor Dick Hyman, with original choreography by The Eugene Ballet's Toni Pimble.

[6] In July 2002 it moved into the former First Baptist Church in downtown Eugene (a 65,000-square-foot (6,000 m2) complex of performance, meeting and classroom spaces), which it named "The John G. Shedd Institute for the Arts" in honor of early 20th century Chicago businessman and philanthropist John G. Shedd.