Visitors are invited to experience the natural beauty of the Arnold Arboretum on an outdoor, self-guided journey that centers resilience, healing, wellness, and joy. This collaboration between the American Repertory Theater and the Arboretum features multi-genre audio plays for various ages, interactive movement maps, and pop-up performances, all set against the 281-acre backdrop of one of the jewels of Boston’s Emerald Necklace.

The Arboretum is open daily, sunrise to sunset. Visitors entering via the Arborway, Bussey Street, Forest Hills, Centre Street, Walter Street, Peters...

Families need nature all year round! Meet inside the main gate at the Visitor Center. We will find a place to play together, making snow angels, snow humans, and more! Afterwards, families are invited to come inside the Lecture Hall to warm up with cookies and cocoa. Free and open to all, most suitable for children ages four through ten.

Learn more about Family Hike: Play in...

Families need nature at all times of the year! Meet inside the main gate at the Visitor Center. We’ll make paper chickadees and go on a StoryWalk to learn how a little bird can bring back the Sun! Free and open to all, most suitable for children ages four through ten.

Learn more about Family Hike: Short Days, Long Nights.

Families need nature at all times of the year! Meet inside the main gate at the Visitor Center. We’ll learn how Arboretum animals get ready for winter. Go on a StoryWalk, get a tattoo, and make a winter home for your favorite animal!

Free and open to all, this event is most suitable for children ages four through ten.

Learn more about Family Hike: Get Ready for...

Join the Arnold Arboretum for tours, family activities, and festivities inviting you to discover the diversity of the rose family (Rosaceae) which includes more than four thousand species. Many of the rose family taxa are of great importance to humans and the agricultural economy, and are vulnerable to extreme weather that is becoming the new norm. Come learn more about the many fruits of the rose family, a welcome buffet for our local wildlife.

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Join the Arboretum's exhibiting artist, Steffanie Schwam, in this hands-on workshop. You will make your own unique monoprint on paper or fabric, using leaves from the Arboretum's collections, paint, printmaking tools, recycled materials, and the inspiration of the surrounding landscape.

Note: This workshop is appropriate for ages 8 and up. An adult must accompany anyone between ages 8–12.

Cost: $15 for members; $25 for nonmembers.

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This is part of the new Science in Our Park Series. Come to the Arnold Arboretum and be a scientist! Get your hands onto scientific tools, use your observation skills, and share your findings with others.

Dissection Dramatics will give you ample opportunity to fiddle with microscopes, hand lenses and digital scopes. Discover the secrets contained in a flower as you pull it apart piece by piece. Then test your puzzle making abilities as you attempt to put it back together.

One adult may bring a maximum of three children; suitable for children ages...

Families need nature at all times of the year! Meet inside the main gate at the Visitor Center. We’ll look at buds and blooms and learn how bees find flowers. Go on a StoryWalk®, get a bee tattoo, and look at flowers under microscopes.

Free and open to all, most suitable for children ages four through ten.

Learn more about Family Hike: Flower Power.

Lilac Sunday has been celebrated at the Arnold Arboretum since 1908. The lilac collection at the Arnold Arboretum is among the premier collections of these plants in North America and is singled out each year for a daylong celebration on May 12.

Tours of the lilacs and family activities are available from 10:00am to 3:00pm on Sunday, May 12. Pack a picnic! Picnicking is permitted on this day only, but food must be brought in to the Arboretum. There will only be lemonade, slush, and ice cream available on site during event hours. The landscape is open from dawn until dusk...

Harvard University is pleased to invite Allston-Brighton and Cambridge neighbors to the annual Community Football Day at Harvard Stadium on Saturday, November 3rd. Come cheer on the Crimson as they take on Columbia! All Allston-Brighton and Cambridge residents receive free admission to the game and a voucher for lunch, valid at any concession stand within the stadium. Proof of residence is required. The community welcome tent opens at 10:00 am; kick-off is at 12:00 pm.

Engineering in the Fog --make your own glasses to create your up close and personal Fog for ages 8 and up.  One adult may bring a maximum of three children; age suitability listed above after dates. Meet on the Hunnewell Building lawn to the south of the building.  Free, drop in, no registration required.

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Join our docent for a tour of the other end of the Arnold Arboretum, the southern end. Peters Hill became part of the Arboretum in 1894 and continues to charm with its special character, collections, and history. In autumn, the amazing view from the summit takes on a new tapestry of color, spreading out in the landscape below you. Learn the history of the land, along with information on the woody plants located here, like the collection of crabapples fruiting in many colors on the northern slope.

Free but registration requested.

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...

Join an Arboretum staff member to discover the Arboretum on guided hikes for families. Come find new discoveries among the trees at the Arboretum as they take on their brilliant fall colors. What would Teddy Bears eat? Would you want to share their picnic? One adult may bring a maximum of three children; suitable for children ages five through twelve. Meet in the Hunnewell Visitor Center...

Learn among the trees and discover the Arboretum on guided hikes for families. Seeds can fly. Find out which ones do and how they do it. One adult may bring a maximum of three children; suitable for children ages five through twelve. Meet in the Hunnewell Visitor Center.

Free, drop in, no registration required.

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With nearly 4,000 different kinds of plants represented in the Arboretum's living collections, every day presents rich opportunities to see something new. If you enjoy learning about plants and their unique characteristics, you can contribute to science as a participant in our Tree Spotters program. This citizen science project opens a window into the Arboretum's phenology: the timing of natural events, such as the leafing out and flowering of trees in the spring and changing foliage colors in the fall. Your observations will...