Kicking off the 2019-20 season for men's basketball, Harvard will host the ninth-annual Crimson Madness event!
This year's event will feature a dunk contest, 3-point competition and intrasquad scrimmage, as well as a special welcome from Tommy Amaker, The Thomas G. Stemberg '71 Family Endowed Coach for Harvard Men's Basketball. Along with the action on the court, fans in attendance will be treated to free giveaways, free food, student promotions, a postgame autograph session and more!
Harvard Commons, Smith Campus Center, 1350 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge
Enjoy lunch or a study break in the Smith Campus Center! Stop by Harvard Commons every Wednesday to hear live music from Club Passim, a local folk music organization based in Harvard Square.
Bradley Rosaceous Collection, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
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.
Join the Harvard ArtLab, Harvard’s new laboratory for art and research, for an opening celebration on September 21! Allston-based tap dance company Subject: Matter will kick off the celebration with a performance beginning promptly at 10:00am accompanied by a live jazz band. Visitors can have their portrait taken by Boston-based photographer OJ Slaughter and experience the ArtLab’s sound studio and A*, the multi-channel art installation by Harvard Film Study Center Fellow Andy Graydon.
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Families need nature at all times of the year! Join the Arboretum for a family hike where you will look for seeds that fly, seeds that float, seeds that get buried away, and seeds that travel through an animal’s stomach.
This event is free and open to all and most suitable for children ages four through ten.
Watch a vibrant collection of animated shorts narrated in some of the 68 Indigenous languages of Mexico. Created by visiting Mexican designer Gabriela Badillo and selected from her project 68 Voices, 68 Hearts, these films foster pride, respect, and the use of Indigenous Mexican languages among speakers and non-speakers.
The family-friendly stories are subtitled in English and are based on legends and poems from native communities. The event includes a lively Q&A with Badillo in English and Spanish, an authentic Mexican snack, and a chance to learn phrases in one of Mexico...
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
The Caterpillar Lab, from Keene, New Hampshire, comes to the Arnold Arboretum for 5 days of astonishing exhibits. Explore the amazing world of caterpillars on a whole new level. There will be live caterpillars, cocoons, hatched eggs, shed skins, and much more. Visitors of all ages will be amazed!
Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Families need nature at all times of the year! After meeting inside the main gate at the Visitor Center, you'll visit a nearby forest inside the Arboretum and learn what plants and animals live there. Visitors will get a chance to play with forest puppets, get a tattoo, and read a StoryWalk ®.
Free and open to all, most suitable for children ages four through ten.
Hunnewell Lawn, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
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.
Catch Some Rays! will let you harness the power of the sun. Help to create solar ovens, test the ability of various garden bed coverings to keep roots cool, and plant a sunflower seed that will follow the sun.
Please note: One adult may bring a maximum of three children; suitable for children ages five and up.
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.
Arborist Station: Meet an Arboretum arborist and see them in action. Try on arborist protective gear and get up close and personal with the special tools used by arborists.
Watercolor Station: Become inspired by the beauty of the Arboretum and use...
Enjoy hundreds of fragrant lily flowers at the 72nd Annual International Lily Show. You will be amazed by the vibrant colors and diversity of scents on display. Discover the genus Lilium!
Enjoy hundreds of fragrant lily flowers at the 72nd Annual International Lily Show. You will be amazed by the vibrant colors and diversity of scents on display. Discover the genus Lilium!
Enjoy summer evenings with live music and fun for all ages at Summer Thursdays on the Plaza!
Play on the lush green lawn beneath the shade structure, dance through bubbles, get creative with chalk drawings, and play a wide assortment of lawn games. Plus, enjoy live music from the community from 5:30pm–6:30pm.
Free, fun, family activities allow visitors to explore arts from the ancient Near East! Activities change daily: construct models of an Egyptian pyramid, inscribe clay tablets, or decode hieroglyphics.
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 coffins, and tablets containing the earliest forms of writing.
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...
Hunnewell Lawn, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
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.
Get Your Hands Dirty will allow you to stick your hands into the soil and really get to know it. You will have a chance to use digital probes, collect data, and then share that data with other scientists for a day.
One adult may bring a maximum of three children; suitable for children ages five and up.
Ray Mellone Park, Honan Allston Public Library, 300 North Harvard St., Allston
Join the Harvard Ed Portal for the 2019 Summer Concert Series featuring a diverse lineup of performers whose family-friendly programs will have you dancing and singing along!
On June 17, the series kicks off with Afro-Brazilian percussion group Grooversity. Next up on July 15, Bamidele brings West African dancing and drumming to north Allston-Brighton. And on August 12, close out the season with Veronica Robles' and her all-female mariachi trio.
All events are free, open to the public, and rain or shine (rain location is inside the Honan Library auditorium). No...