Use the freshly fallen leaves at the Arboretum to make beautiful art, just like the famed nature artist Andy Goldsworthy. This is a chance to play in the leaves and make something beautiful—even if it only lasts until the next gust of wind! This program is suitable for ages 5 and up.
Come by the Arnold Arboretum for our series of Second Sundays community events, celebrating Peters Hill and the neighborhoods surrounding it. Enjoy family activities, cool off with free ice cream, play lawn games, talk to a horticulturist or a scientist, take a tour, and more!
Tour and Tree Mob Schedule:
12:00pm: English-language tour of Peters Hill
1:00pm: Spanish-language tour of Peters Hill / Recorridos guiados en español a las 13.00 horas
Peters Hill, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Bring your family and friends to Peters Hill for an afternoon of free tours, crafts, family activities, and more! Did we mention free ice cream and bubbles? Free activities open to all ages include:
Tours of Peters Hill offered in both English and Spanish
Plant information tents featuring wildflowers and plant defenses, fascinating Arboretum plant highlights, know-how of Arboretum experts, and a rich assortment of cuttings to view up close
Ice cream, art activities, lawn games, StoryWalks®, and more!...
Hunnewell Lawn, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Stop by the Hunnewell Lawn between 12:00pm–3:00pm to create beautiful nature-based cyanotype prints. Participants will arrange flowers, leaves, and seeds and expose them in sunlight to create a deep blue print with bright, ghost-white silhouettes.
An opera for youth and families, Mr. Twister and the Tale of Tornado Alley follows Mr. Twister and his grandson Bobby on a journey around the globe—from the chilly arctic to the sizzlingly warm Gulf of Mexico. Through the power of his magic telescope, Mr. Twister can see just about everything—except the family reunion of the North and South winds that is about to create a cyclone in Tornado Alley! Join us on this operatic adventure (with puppets!).
Families are also invited to a pre-show puppetmaking workshop where your child can make a puppet to use during the performance of...
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Visitor Center, 125 Arborway, Boston
Come to the Arboretum for live demonstrations on the lathe by woodturners from three New England clubs. Demonstrations will take place on Saturday and Sunday at 11am, 1pm, and 3pm. Be sure to leave time to look at the exquisite works on display exemplifying these artisans’ virtuosity with wood, a lathe, and imagination.
The MassQ Ball 2022: Origin will feature the diverse artistic expressions of Boston’s communities of color. Interact with the landscape in new and creative ways, transform into a walking work of art through the practice of MassQing (a ritual application of paint to the face derived from ancient traditions of body decoration), and enjoy performances and art work by Boston cultural artists including:
Arborway Gate, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
With four actors, a live DJ, and one of Shakespeare’s funniest comedies, The Bomb-itty of Errors by Jordan Allen-Dutton, Jason Catalano, Gregory J. Qaiyum, Jeffrey Qaiyum, and Erik Weiner is a hip-hop-opera that moves the crowd! Directed by Christopher V. Edwards and performed by Actors' Shakespeare Project against the historic brick backdrop of the Hunnewell Building, The Bomb-itty of Errors comes to the Arboretum during our 150th anniversary year. A modern remix of a well-loved classic, the play encapsulates the ethos of our sesquicentennial celebrations as we honor...
Bradley Rosaceous Collection, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Led by Castle of our Skins’ Director of Education Taylor Lena McTootle, “Making a Mythos” focuses on the creative power of storytelling. Young participants will experience firsthand how fictional tales can reflect our cultural values and create them.
Laura Fantini uses colored pencil to render seeds in exquisite, hyper-realistic drawings. This series is called “Hope,” and therein lies the power of seeds. They are emblematic of both birth and growth—small, complicated, and extraordinary, like the wonderful drawings in this exhibition.
Five decades of weekly walks in the Arnold Arboretum find expression in Ginny Zanger’s art. “Ambling” gives her time to sketch and paint. Using the unique possibilities of her favorite medium—watercolor—and printmaking, Zanger explores, with articulate interpretations, the Arboretum’s rich botanical display. In this online show, most of her work is on Yupo, a silky, polypropylene paper that enhances the flow of the watercolor.
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Sarah Cross, the Arnold Arboretum's exhibiting artist of Between the Leaves, will hold a cyanotype printing workshop for families. Join Sarah to make beautiful blue prints of leaves and blooms found at the Arboretum, while you learn about this alternative printing technique. After making your own unique cyanotype photogram, you will be able to take it home. All materials will be provided.
Please note: This free drop-in activity is appropriate for ages 7 and up.
Leventritt Shrub and Vine Garden, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
This June, the Arnold Arboretum brings a new production of Jane Austen's Regency period romance, Pride and Prejudice, to the Leventritt Shrub and Vine Garden. This adaptation by playwright, Kate Hamill will be staged by Actors' Shakespeare Project (ASP), the award winning theater company who brought the site-specific Fog x Macbeth to the Arboretum last fall. Join us for Austen's seminal look at love, Hamill's comic and energetic adaptation, and Actors' Shakespeare Projects' wonderful cast of characters, as they...
Fog x Hill, Hunnewell Building Lawn, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
Fog x Macbeth brings Shakespeare's tragedy of political ambition, blood, and flawed humans into the landscape of the Arnold Arboretum, and the art and shifting atmosphere of Fujiko Nakaya's fog sculpture. The play's live and site-specific, performance will resonate with Frederick Law Olmsted's landscape design and Fog x FLO...
John Knowles Paine Concert Hall, 3 Oxford Street, Cambridge
In conjunction with Symposium on Guido Adler - Musicology Then and Now. Violinist Irina Muresanu, cellist Jonah Ellsworth, andpianist Heng-Jin Park each have distinguished careers as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and have appeared with major orchestras and premier chamber music festivals throughout the United States and Europe.... Read more about Boston Trio