Each ARTS FIRST festival is unique, but every year combines the exuberance of Harvard students, faculty and affiliates who are passionate about the many art forms presented in four rousing days of performances, exhibitions and community.
Enjoy free, family-friendly performances, dance styles from around the world, public art walks, hands-on artmaking, and much more! We look forward to celebrating the artists of Harvard community with you during ARTS FIRST on May 2–5, 2019.
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.
Census Challenge will test your categorizing and observational skills. Join us in the North Woods and help us catalog the diversity of living organisms found in a small area. You will be surprised!
One adult may bring a maximum of three children; suitable for children ages five and up. This...
Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge
Come see the world through the eyes of a scientist and explore what research reveals about life and our planet. Graduate students from the departments of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Human Evolutionary Biology, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University will share their research through hands-on activities in the museum galleries. This program is designed to actively engage families in learning more about science and exciting new discoveries in our natural world.
Linden Path & North Woods, Arnold Arboretum, Boston
Arnold Arboretum Staff and Volunteers
Visit the Arnold Arboretum and venture through the North Woods. Be on the lookout for the wild inhabitants. Use your explorer senses to spot things that normally go unseen. Develop your observation skills and be prepared to make discoveries that might be surprising!
One adult may bring a maximum of three children; suitable for children ages five and up. This is a drop-in activity. The hike will begin at the start of Linden Path.
Arborway Gate, Meadow Road, Arnold Arboretum, Boston
Families need nature all year! Celebrate the return of migratory redwing blackbirds to the meadow of the Arnold Arboretum. Search for birds with binoculars, go on a StoryWalk® about wild birds, identify bird calls, dress up as a redwing blackbird, and get a redwing blackbird tattoo!
Free, fun, family activities allow visitors to explore arts from the ancient Near East. Activities change daily: make Egyptian accessories, inscribe clay tablets, or decode hieroglyphics. Drop in for five minutes—or 30—to see what is new every day.
Self-guided activities take place on the first floor of the Harvard Semitic Museum. Explore the rich history of cultures connected by the family of Semitic languages. Exhibitions include a full-scale replica of an ancient Israelite home, life-sized casts of famous Mesopotamian monuments, authentic mummy coffins, and tablets...
Join the Arnold Arboretum's Brendan Keegan for an easy walk looking for early spring birds. This April walk will focus on breeding behavior, the competitive reality of bird song, and a check on chickadee nesting tubes for signs of activity.
All skill levels, especially beginners, are encouraged to join. Make sure to bring binoculars; a few binoculars will be available to share.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge
During April school vacation week, drop in to the third-floor galleries to touch a Maya hieroglyph and create your own glyph rubbing to take home. In the Arts of War exhibit, hunt for animals hidden in designs on weapons and armor from around the world.
Activities are free with regular museum admission. Self-guided activities change daily.
Admission is free for Massachusetts residents every Sunday morning (year-round) from 9:00am-12:00pm and on Wednesdays from 3:00pm-5:00pm (September through May). Proof of residency required. This offer is not available to...
O’Donnell and Soldiers Field, 65 North Harvard St., Allston
Bring your dog to enjoy the Crimson doubleheader as both the Harvard Baseball and Softball teams play! All dogs will receive a free Harvard Athletics Dog Bandana!
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Join Harvard archaeology students in the museum galleries as they share their experience from excavations around the world and across time. Examine artifacts and see what archaeologists do. Try launching a spear with a spear thrower (weather permitting), carve cuneiform writing on clay, and experience up-to-the-minute technologies such as 3D printing and augmented reality. Test your listening skills in the World Music Challenge game hosted by colleagues from the social anthropology department. Activities will be spread across both the Peabody and the Harvard Semitic Museums.
Families need nature at all times of the year! Please meet us inside the main gate at 125 Arborway. We’ll search for signs of spring along Meadow Road, looking for flowers, insects, birdsong, and more! This hike is free and open to all.
The American Repertory Theater and the Harvard Ed Portal welcome you to a day of performances, workshops, and community. Inspired by A.R.T.'s upcoming productions of Endlings, Dragon Cycle, and Clairvoyance, this event uplifts the voices of Asian-Pacific Islander (API) artists. Join A.R.T. artists Celine Song (Endlings playwright), Sara Porkalob (Dragon Cycle), and Diana Oh (Clairvoyance), as well as local artists...
Families need nature at all times of the year! 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.
Free, fun, family activities allow visitors to explore arts from the ancient Near East. Activities change daily: make Egyptian accessories, inscribe clay tablets, or decode hieroglyphics. Drop in for five minutes--or 30--to see what is new every day.
Activities take place on the first floor of the Harvard Semitic Museum. This HMSC museum explores the rich history of cultures connected by the family of Semitic languages. Exhibitions include a full-scale replica of an ancient Israelite home, life-sized casts of famous Mesopotamian monuments, authentic mummy...
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Olive fruit and oil have been used for more than 6,000 years as much more than food. In this active experience led by a museum educator, parents and kids will discover the importance of olives in ancient Israel. Families will explore the Houses of Ancient Israel exhibit, craft working olive-oil saucer lamps to take home, handle artifacts, and crown themselves winners in a gallery game with victory wreaths. End the program with an optional olive taste test of products provided by Salt & Olive (Harvard Square).
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Olive fruit and oil have been used for more than 6,000 years as much more than food. In this active experience led by a museum educator, parents and kids will discover the importance of olives in ancient Israel. Families will explore the Houses of Ancient Israel exhibit, craft working olive-oil saucer lamps to take home, handle artifacts, and crown themselves winners in a gallery game with victory wreaths. End the program with an optional olive taste test of products provided by Salt & Olive (Harvard Square).
Gallery 224 at Harvard Ceramics Program, 224 Western Ave., Allston
Gallery 224 at the Ceramics Program, Office for the Arts at Harvard is pleased to present an exhibition of work from Montana-based potter Julia Galloway's most recent body of work, The Endangered Species Project: New England. Galloway works from each state's official list of species identified as endangered, threatened or extinct. She has created a series of covered jars, one urn for each species, illustrating the smallest Agassiz Clam Shrimp to the largest Eastern Elk.
Science Center, Lecture Hall B, 1 Oxford St. Cambridge
Why does pizza crust have holes? How does cheese form from milk? How do you break down food into the fuel your body needs? What makes pizza dough stretchy? Join us at the 2018 Harvard Holiday Science Lecture as we observe, touch, taste, and explore some of your favorite foods. Kids, families, students, teachers and the curious are welcome! You will discover the physics, chemistry and biology of cheese and bread, look at them under a microscope, make a simple cheese (yum!), and learn about digestion (yuck!). Using...
Science Center, Lecture Hall B, 1 Oxford St. Cambridge
Why does pizza crust have holes? How does cheese form from milk? How do you break down food into the fuel your body needs? What makes pizza dough stretchy? Join us at the 2018 Harvard Holiday Science Lecture as we observe, touch, taste, and explore some of your favorite foods. Kids, families, students, teachers and the curious are welcome! You will discover the physics, chemistry and biology of cheese and bread, look at them under a microscope, make a simple cheese (yum!), and learn about digestion (yuck!). Using live experiments and interactive...