Things to Do This Week in Boston

Your frequently updated guide to getting off the couch and out of the house.


THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK (clockwise from top left): BoSoma Dance Company 20th Anniversary at the Calderwood Pavilion; Arlo Parks at Royale; the Coolidge Corner Theater Expansion is open this week; Boston Comedy Festival at multiple locations, with headliner Kevin Nealon at City Winery; The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at Agganis Arena; Hallyu! The Korean Wave at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Jump to:Monday, March 25Tuesday, March 26 | Wednesday, March 27 | Thursday, March 28 | Friday, March 29 | Saturday, March 30 | Sunday, March 31 | Monday, April 1Art & Exhibitions | Upcoming |

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MULTIPLE DAYS
Ongoing through Monday, April 1 (and Beyond)

SEASONAL FUN

Photograph by Annielly Camargo, courtesy of the Downtown Boston BID

Winteractive
Inspired by the winter festivals of Québec, Winteractive features 16 different works, some interactive, some enormous, all strewn across Downtown—a pair of giant clown heads, an imposing metal cube that hides a magical diorama, a unicorn in a frosted display case, and much more. Check the website above for the exact address of each piece.
Free, through April 14, various locations, Downtown Boston

FOOD + DRINK

See also: Where to Eat in Greater Boston in March 2024

THEATER

Autobiography of Red
A little outfit called Superhuman Arts presents this musical adaptation of Ann Carson’s verse novel, inspired by the obscure ancient Greek monster Geryon, re-imagined by Carson as a troubled boy who finds himself in the thrall of a man named Herakles—but whether or not it’s for the better is a different question.
$20, Thursday through Saturday, March 28-30, Plaza Theater, Boston Center for the Arts, 530 Tremont St., Boston

A Star Without a Name
NYC troupe PM Theater brings us their off-Broadway production of Romanian writer Mihail Sebastian’s A Star Without a Name. Finished during World War II, it looks back on the bygone world before World War I in a meditation on love and destiny. The play was popular enough in Europe to inspire film adaptations on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
$66, Thursday and Friday, March 28-29, Mosesian Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St., Watertown

Beyond Words
Produced by MIT’s Catalyst Collaborative and Central Square Theater, Beyond Words tells the true story of Harvard researcher Irene Pepperberg, who claims to have taught a parrot, Alex, to speak and solve problems at the level of small human child—proof, she believes, that parrots aren’t just skilled mimics, but able to comprehend language.
$24-$93, through April 14, Central Square Theater, 450 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

Cost of Living
SpeakEasy Stage’s spring season continues with this Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Martyna Majok, which casts a spotlight on the dynamics between disabled and abled people, centering on two pairs: John, a PhD student with cerebral palsy and Jess, his aide, and Eddie, a former truck driver, and his ex-wife Ani, who was left a quadriplegic after a horrible accident.
$25-$80, through March 30, Roberts Studio Theater, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., Boston

King Hedley II
Actors’ Shakespeare Project returns to the world of August Wilson with this dark tale of a man attempting to get his life together after seven years of incarceration—but the conditions in 1985 Pittsburgh are bleak, and despite his commanding name, King’s ambitions may be a bit greater than he can manage.
$20-$59.50, through March 31, Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley St., Roxbury

MUSIC

Boston Symphony Orchestra: Dvořák Symphony No. 7 and Elgar Cello Concerto
Stirring Spanish cellist Pablo Ferrández and guest conductor Domingo Hindoyan join the BSO for Antonín Dvořák’s seventh symphony, celebrated for its brooding grandeur and Czech folk elements, and Edward Elgar’s lone concerto for cello, a repertoire staple for the instrument that’s sure to be glorious in the deft hands of Ferrández.
$35-$149, Thursday through Saturday, March 28-30, Symphony Hall, 301 Mass. Ave., Boston

COMEDY

Boston Comedy Festival
Kevin Nealon and D.L. Hughley are the best-known headliners at this year’s Boston Comedy Festival. You can also catch spots from Alex Giampapa, Myq Kaplan, Lenny Clarke, Tony V, Liz Glazer, Corey Rodrigues, John Moses, Rafi Gonzalez, Bethany Van Delft, and many, many more killer comics from Boston and further afield.
$20-$55, through Saturday, March 30, City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston and Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass. Ave., Boston

Ray Harrington
In addition to his standup career, affable comedian Ray Harrington is known for his documentary Be a Man, in which he attempts to address his seemingly insufficient masculine credentials by doing a lot of silly hypermasculine things, and his webseries Undependent, a mockumentary about a couple of comics trying to make a documentary series.
$22, Friday and Saturday, March 29-30, Nick’s Comedy Stop, 100 Warrenton St., Boston

Taylor, the Next Jedi: an Improvised Star Wars Parody
Just like J.J. Abrams with Emperor Palpatine, Improv Asylum has dug their Star Wars spoof out of the grave for another round of performances. In each show, an audience member is cast as the titular protagonist and put through whirlwind of ridiculous space drama, set off by a few suggestions from the rest of the audience.
$35, through May 17, Improv Asylum, 216 Hanover St., Boston

DANCE

Message in a Bottle
Leave it to Sting to eschew the typical jukebox musical treatment in favor of this dance theater show with choreography by Kate Prince, which uses songs from the legendary singer-songwriter’s Police and post-Police oeuvre to tell the story of a village under attack, and the trio of siblings who rise to become its champions.
$49-$164, Tuesday through Saturday, March 26-30, Emerson Colonial Theater, 106 Boylston St., Boston

BoSoma Dance Company: 20th Anniversary Season
BoSoma (short for Boston Somatic) Dance Company celebrates two decades of existence with this concert, crafted to “highlight the past, present, and future of the company” and featuring works by Artistic Director Katherine Hooper, Margaret Falcone, Jessica-Rose, and Lindsey Leduc.
$40-$50, Friday and Saturday, March 29-30, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., Boston

CIRCUS

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
The one and only “Greatest Show on Earth” is back from a six-year hiatus, and it’s not your great granddaddy’s circus—this revamped entertainment spectacle, with amazing aerial stunts, classic acrobatics, unusual extreme sports, a human cannonball, and plenty of clowning around, promises “an immersive, 360-degree environment and new technology” and, for the first time, no animal performers.
$15-$150, Thursday, March 28 through April 7, Agganis Arena, 925 Comm. Ave., Boston

MOVIES

Photo by Jessica Reyes

Coolidge Corner Theater Expansion Open House and Grand Opening
Good news for local cinephiles: one of the Boston area’s best movie theaters just got even better, with an expanded lobby, a brand-new Education and Community Engagement Center, and two new theaters. At Tuesday’s open house, you can take a tour of the new digs, and they’ll be breaking in the new theaters on Wednesday with showings of The Wizard of Oz and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Free-$15.50, Tuesday and Wednesday, March 26-27, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

Ennio
Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso) directed this new documentary about iconic film composer Ennio Morricone, best known for redefining the sound of Westerns in his work with Sergio Leone—but his work before and after that goes so much deeper, from his early Italian work to Days of Heaven to The Hateful Eight.
$13.50-$15.50, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

Cinema Ritrovato on Tour
UMass Boston and the Brattle Theater share some highlights from Italy’s Cinema Ritrovato festival, focusing on restorations and rediscovered historic films. Highlights include Thelma and Louise (Thursday), the classic noir Caught (Saturday), the early Stanley Kubrick outing Fear and Desire (Saturday), and The Movie Orgy (Sunday), an epic mash-up of 16mm footage by a very young Joe Dante (Gremlins).
$12.50-$14.50, Thursday through Sunday, March 28-31, Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge

Riddle of Fire
With the next season of Stranger Things still pretty far off, this adventure from writer-director Weston Razooli, starring a cast of kids but geared toward adults, might be just the thing to tide you over. It’s not a sci-fi/fantasy joint, but it strongly evokes movies of the ’80s, particularly The Goonies, while hiding a different resonance beneath its surface nostalgia.
$10.99-$14.49, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

Immaculate
Sydney Sweeney (Anyone but You, The White Lotus) is Cecilia, a new nun whose convent increasingly does not feel like a place of peace—and, to make matters worse, she’s suddenly pregnant. What the hell is going on, and will she survive long enough to find out?
$13.75-$16.25, Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge

Love Lies Bleeding
Kristen Stewart stars in this A24 romantic thriller as Lou, a 1980s gym manager struck dumb with love upon the arrival of bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O’Brian). The only threat to their bond is Jackie’s involvement with the illegal business of Lou’s father (Ed Harris).
$10.99-$14.49, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

Problemista
Saturday Night Live writer Julio Torres wrote, directed, and stars in this surreal comedy as Alejandro, an aspiring toy designer in New York who’s struggling with his immigration status. His best chance for a sponsor is his erratic boss (Tilda Swinton), but she doesn’t exactly make it easy for him.
$10.99-$14.49, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve’s immersive adaptation of Frank Herbert’s legendary sci-fi novel comes to a thrilling conclusion in its long-awaited second half, in which Timothée Chalamet—ahem, Paul Atreides—leads the Fremen in a battle to re-take the planet Aarrakis from the villainous and extremely pale Harkonnen dynasty.
$15, through March 16, Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston

Drive-Away Dolls
Co-written and directed by the unmistakable Ethan Coen, this road strip comedy stars Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan as Jamie and Marian, a pair of young women who up and leave for Tallahassee, where they get mixed up with a group of not-very-good criminals.
$12-$16, through Thursday, March 14, Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville

Perfect Days
Wim Wenders’ newest film drops in on the life of Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho), a solitary Japanese man who cleans Tokyo’s rather stunningly designed public toilets for a living. It may not seem like a desirable job, but the endearing Hirayama approaches it, and the rest of his unexpectedly full life, with passion and wisdom.
$13.50-$15.50, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

UNIQLO Festival of Films from Japan
This series of six mostly contemporary Japanese films continues Friday with the recent anime production Blue Giant, the story of an aspiring jazz saxophonist who moves from his small town to the big city.
$15, through April 4, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

American Fiction
Recalling Spike Lee’s outrageous Bamboozled, this satire from writer-director Cord Jefferson follows a Black novelist (Jeffrey Wright) who, exasperated with the entertainment industry profiting from Black stereotypes, creates a ridiculously clichéd novel as a joke, only to watch it become a huge hit.
$10-$12, West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington Street, West Newton

TOURS

View Boston
If you’ve got visitors and you want to give them a killer 360-degree view of the city, or if you just want a peep yourself, you can hardly do better than View Boston, at the top of the Prudential Center. You can spring for a guided tour or just take it in yourself. The view isn’t all you’ll find up there—there’s also a restaurant, The Beacon, and Stratus, a cocktail bar. Higher-level ticket packages include a sample drink.
$29.99-59.99, open daily, 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Prudential Center, 800 Boylston St., Boston

The Innovation Trail
This new tour focuses not on colonial and revolutionary Boston—that’s been thoroughly covered—but on the city’s history, down to the present, as a hub of science, medicine, and technology. You can pay for a guided tour on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday through the end of October, or opt for a self-guided experience whenever you want.
Free-$20, now open, starts in Central Square, Cambridge or Downtown Crossing, Boston


Want to suggest an event? Email us.


MONDAY (3/25/24)

MUSIC

The Magnetic Fields
Stephin Merritt, one of indie pop’s great baritone vocalists, is touring with his best known band to celebrate the anniversary of their best known album, the three hour masterpiece 69 Love Songs—a record so long that it’ll take them two shows to play it all. The second of two nights.
$45-$98, Roadrunner, 89 Guest St., Brighton

Unwound
Although they emerged from Washington state in the grunge era, Unwound was never going to cough up a Ten or Nevermind—they has a looser, noisier, more chaotic and lo-fi sound, and they stuck to it and their indie status throughout the 90s, while many of their peers were signing to the majors. After a 20-year hiatus, they reunited in 2022.
$51, 8 p.m., Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Boston

MOVIES

Seminar: The Virgin Suicides
She may have been a nepo baby, but Sofia Coppola’s 1999 debut proved she was no mid director. At this talk, Lesley University film professor Ingrid Stobbe will discuss how Coppola took a novel about teenage girls seen through the male gaze and added an extra layer of complexity. It’s followed by a separately ticketed screening of the film.
$27.50, 6:15 p.m., Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline


TUESDAY (3/26/24)

COMEDY

World’s Biggest Army
If you like your comedy goofy, absurd, satirical, and a little experimental, pop up to Davis Square for this “night of sketch comedy, new videos, and tactical combat” with sharpshooting YouTube sketch troupe Home Planet, the guys from Podcast About List, and the deliberately deranged Adult Swim contributor Pierce Campion.
$20, 7 p.m., The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Somerville


WEDNESDAY (3/27/24)

MUSIC

Maoli
This band’s unique mixture of reggae and country—think gentle guitar skanking with twangy vocals and lyrics like “counting all the stars from the bed of my truck”—could only have come from their homeland, Hawaii, where they’ve built a strong following. Their latest single, a pickup anthem called “Betting on Us,” is catchy enough to make Nashville jealous.
$36, 8 p.m., Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave., Allston

Kenny Mason
Atlanta rapper Kenny Mason survived a tough upbringing, embracing a restless ambition as his ticket out and up. His sound often betrays a youthful love of punk and alternative rock (for a recent example, check out the track “US”). His breakthrough recording was, appropriately enough, entitled “Hit.” His latest album, just dropped this month, is 9.
$29, 8 p.m., Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave., Boston

THEATER

When Light Bends
Employing music, sleight of hand and optical illusion, this edutaining performance places the story of how Arthur Eddington used solar eclipses to prove Einstein’s general theory of relativity alongside a (very) near-future fictional tale of two lovers racing to make it to the path of totality for April’s upcoming eclipse.
$15, 7 p.m., Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston

KID-FRIENDLY

Punk Rock Aerobics for Kids
Designed for kids aged six to 10, these recurring Wednesday classes fuse aerobics and punk dancing to create a super fun workout, set to a high-energy rock soundtrack (don’t worry, it’s confirmed G-rated). Founder Hilken Mancini has become something of a punk celeb herself—in 2021, Green Day featured her in their video for “Here Comes The Shock”.
Free, 6 p.m., Curtis Hall, 20 South St., Jamaica Plain


THURSDAY (3/28/24)

MUSIC

Arlo Parks
This British indie pop/R&B singer-songwriter released her second album, My Soft Machine, in December. Its songs show a well-seasoned sound, Parks’ ethereal voice dancing elegantly through the tracks, matched to twinkly beats that are as unexpected as they are bouncy.
$32, 8 p.m., Royale, 279 Tremont St., Boston

COMEDY

Josh Blue
Fourth season Last Comic Standing winner Josh Blue irreverently and candidly explores his experiences as a person with cerebral palsy. Not all his jokes are about that, though. One of his perfect two-liners: “Somebody at the hotel ran up on me and was like, ‘Hey man, did I see you on TV?’ I’m like, ‘Well how am I supposed to know?’”
$29-$39, 7:30 p.m., The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St., Boston

HISTORY

Creative Acts of Protest: A History Slam
Protest has always been a part of American life—the only thing that’s changed is what it’s been about. In this fun set of five-minute slide shows highlighting the ingenuity shown by protestors over the years, you’ll learn a few fascinating facts about some famous and not-so-famous movements. Some of the presenters are academics, others autodidacts, but all have a great true story to tell.
Free, 6:30 p.m., Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington St., Boston

MOVIES

Kumiko: The Treasure Hunter
This darkly eccentric 2014 drama traces the journey of an isolated Japanese woman obsessed with the Fargo and convinced she knows where the film’s money-loaded suitcase is buried. Now she’s in Minneapolis. You may be wondering who’s going to be the first person to get her to realize the movie isn’t real, but friend, it’s far too late for that.
$14.49, 7:3 p.m., Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

BOOKS + READINGS

Lisa Ko
In Memory Piece, her follow up to The Leavers, novelist Lisa Ko imagines the full lives of a trio of female friends, from their adolescence in the 1980s to their early compromises with adult life in the 90s to their old age in a speculative 2040s.
Free, 7 p.m., Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

Garrard Conley
All the World Beside, the new novel from Garrard Conley (Boy Erased), delivers a queer twist on The Scarlet Letter, depicting the flowering of a gay romance between two Puritan men in 18th century New England. It’s not clear what sort of future they could have, but turning back feels impossible.
Free, 7 p.m., Porter Square Books: Boston Edition, 50 Liberty Dr., Boston


FRIDAY (3/29/24)

MUSIC

A Far Cry: Stradivari Serenade
Famously self-conducted local ensemble A Far Cry will perform works by Bach, Tchaikovsky, and others on 18 of the world’s most gorgeous-sounding stringed instruments—and in a bonus presentation from violin expert Christopher Reuning, you’ll learn exactly why the Stradivarius has earned such a sterling reputation.
$35-$125, 8 p.m. Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St., Boston

Kai Wachi
EDM producer/DJ Kai Wachi flings out face-melting blasts of liquid noise so prolifically that you’d think he was trying to send his audience through purgatory early. Even with the yearning pop of recent track “After All,” he couldn’t help but toss in some ear-splitting beats for a few seconds toward the end, presumably just to make sure you’re still awake.
$34.55, 9:39 p.m., Big Night Live, 110 Causeway St., Boston

Grouplove
This Los Angeles quintet is indelibly associated with the all-star indie jam “Tongue Tied,” off their 2011 debut Never Trust a Happy Song. None of their other singles have matched its success, but they’ve kept up the grind, spawning five subsequent albums of caterwauling millennial pop rock. Their latest, I Want It All Right Now, dropped last July.
$39.50, 8 p.m., Roadrunner, 89 Guest St., Brighton

COMEDY

Tim Butterly
In addition to standup, this boisterous hipster comic has a self-described “fake TV show” called Field Trippin’ and hosts the podcast Dad Meat (he was also a co-host of the now-defunct Stoner Dadz podcast). It’s rare to find a clip of him not hanging out with his other comedian friends, but he’s definitely clever enough to hold his own.
$25, 7:15 p.m., The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Somerville


SATURDAY (3/30/24)

MUSIC

Sona Jobarteh Band
An heir by blood to the West African griot tradition, Sona Jobarteh is the first woman to professionally play the kora, a harp-like instrument wielded traditionally only by griot families. Born and raised in England, she combines modern Afropop with the sounds of her proud lineage—an earthy fusion that comes through strongly in compositions like “Kanu”.
$40-$58, Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville

Stolen Gin
In the tradition of The Grateful Dead and Phish, New York City band Stolen Gin partly improvise their live shows, claiming to “never play songs the same way twice.” They’re no great innovators among jam bands, but their breezy jazz-funk, defined by a pair of elastic Stratocasters, popping bass lines, and dancing sax lines, is a very good time.
$20, 8 p.m., The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge

Hey Rim Jeon
A jazz pianist and associate professor at Berklee, Hey Rim Jeon has been based in Boston for many years. A strong feature of her playing is control—each note or chord feels deliberate and inevitable, dynamically dialed-in to perfection. Check out this very cool performance clip from last year for a sample.
$35-$115, 7 p.m., Scullers Jazz Club, 400 Soldiers Field Rd., Allston

SHOPPING

Somerville Winter Farmers Market
With many farmers markets in hibernation, this weekly indoor market, with more than 70 vendors offering produce, dairy, meat, pastries, coffee, specialty items, and more, is an excellent cold weather alternative. It runs Saturdays through April 6.
Free, 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville


SUNDAY (3/31/24)

MUSIC

Laveda
Brooklyn indie pop duo Laveda released their second album, A Place You Grew Up In, last year. Their sound is dreamy, but not in a sleepy sense—on the album’s title track, Ali Genevich turns in a rousing, cathartic vocal performance bordering on emo. On another cut, “Surprise,” they sound a lot like a slightly thawed-out Alvvays.
$15, 7 p.m., Warehouse XI, 11 Sanborn Ct., Somerville


MONDAY (4/1/24)

MUSIC

Bas
Born in France to Sudanese parents and raised in New York City, rapper Bas dropped his fourth album, We Only Talk About Real Shit When We’re Fucked Up, in December. Its latest single, “Choppas,” just dropped last week. Backed by an immersive, trippy, low-riding beat, it uses spinning helicopter blades as a metaphor for the frustrating cycle of a relationship.
$42.50, 8 p.m., Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Boston

MOVIES

The Conversation
The Harvard Film Archive screens a fresh 35mm print of this 1974 Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece about a surveillance expert (Gene Hackman) whose mental grip starts to slip when he becomes personally invested in an assignment.
$10, 7 p.m., Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge


THURSDAY (4/4/24)

Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter
Looking for a rebirth last year, the artist up to then known as Lingua Ignota adopted a new moniker and cloaked herself in the garments of old time American religion, dropping a new album called Saved! in October. Her gothic folk muse and cathartic vocals remain basically the same, but they’re rawer than ever.
$25-$30, 8 p.m., Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville


ART + EXHIBITIONS (Ongoing)

A still from the Netflix phenomenon Squid Game, 2021 Netflix. / All Rights Reserved, Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Hallyu! The Korean Wave
It might seem as if South Korea’s global cultural influence—Parasite, Squid Game, a K-pop group visiting the White House—is a recent phenomenon, but, the Museum of Fine Arts hopes to prove with this exhibition that it’s been brewing for years, and that today’s tastemakers have a strong sense of their national artistic history.
$34, through July 28, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

See also: The MFA’s “Korean Wave” Exhibition Is Thrilling

Robert Rovenolt: (no regrets)
If you could see the memories and feelings floating through your head—some fleeting, some ruminated on, some in the background, some stuffed down as intrusive—what would they look like? Perhaps something like this set of works by longtime South End resident Robert Rovenolt, exploring what he calls “memory as collage.”
Free, through April 13, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, 551 Tremont St., Boston

Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away.
Drawing from the collections of more than twenty different museums and other institutions, this powerful travelling exhibition displays hundreds of photographs and objects—shoes, uniforms, bits of architecture, even a gas mask used by a camp officer—connected to the most notorious of the Nazi death factories.
$34.95, opens Friday, March 15 through September 2, The Saunders Castle at Park Plaza, 130 Columbus Ave., Boston

LaToya M. Hobbs, “Scene 5: The Studio,” from “Carving Out Time,” 2020–21.

LaToya M. Hobbs: It’s Time
This show collects, for the first time, the complete Carving Out Time series of woodcuts by Baltimore-based artist LaToya M. Hobbs. Depicting a single day in her own life, each panel is dense with the ephemera of identity, showing the various roles she plays as an artist, mother, wife, and teacher.
Free, through July 21, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Noriko Saitō, Japanese, “Sunbeam,” 2002. Ink and color on paper; drypoint with aquatint.

Future Minded: New Works in the Collection
Harvard Arts Museums shows off some of their latest acquisitions, many by living artists, some centuries old, all reflecting shifts in the institution’s views of history and its impact on the conditions of the present. Artists include Jean (Hans) Arp, Edward Mitchell Bannister, Willie Cole, Svenja Deininger, Baldwin Lee, Lucia Moholy, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Noriko Saitō, Melissa Shook, and many others.
Free, through July 21, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Changing Landscapes: An Immersive Journey
The Museum of Science takes you on an interactive, multimedia virtual tour of four UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Giza, Venice, Rapa Nui (better known by its colonial name, Easter Island) and Mesa Verde, highlighting the effects of climate change on each of these important centers of civilization.
$29, Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston

Our Time on Earth
Bringing together 12 installations from around the world, including such exotic experiences as a magnified look at plankton, a dive into the layers of a tree, and an interspecies dinner, this exhibition from London’s Barbican Centre aspires to a future in which humans coexist peacefully with their environment.
$20, through June 9, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

Wu Tsang: Of Whales
Worcester native Wu Tsang brings one part of her trilogy inspired by Moby-Dick to the Institute of Contemporary Art with this immersive installation that uses extended reality technology to try to get inside the mind of a sperm whale, creating a “lush, dreamy oceanscape.”
$20, through August 4, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West
The Gardner Museum casts a major spotlight on stunningly intricate painter Raqib Shaw, a London-based native of the Indian-controlled portion of the disputed Kashmir region whose surreal works have one foot in the imagination and one in socio-political reality.
$20, through May 12, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 Evans Way, Boston

Lorraine O’Grady: Both/And
Wellesley College’s Davis Museum hosts the first major career-spanning exhibition for alum Lorraine O’Grady, a multidisciplinary artist and writer who’s spent decades exploring the construction of Black womanhood, diasporic consciousness, and other socio-political concerns, particularly through the diptych, which she uses to hold and stage the tensions between contradictory ideas and self-concepts.
Free, through June 2, Davis Museum, 106 Central Street, Wellesley

Destiny Doorways
Using botanical imagery to depict the pathways of life, this installation by Mithsuca Berry engages the viewer with opportunities to reflect on where they’ve been and where they’re headed. You’ll get to choose from a variety of media to make your your own art in response, adding it to the chorus of other visitor responses.
$20, through June 15, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

Lani Asunción: Duty-Free Paradise
As a third generation Phillipine immigrant raised in Hawaii, Lani Asunción recognized the significance of their Jamaica Plain studio being close to the home of the founder of the Dole, the fruit company closely intertwined with the colonization of Hawaii. This exhibition, bringing an often ignored or buried history to light, is the result of Asunción’s exploration of that connection.
Free, through April 13, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, 551 Tremont St., Boston

WNDR Museum
This new gallery space in Downtown Crossing is hitting the ground running with iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s Let’s Survive Forever and more than 20 other immersive installations, including The Wisdom Project, where visitors can add their own response to the question “What do you know for sure?,” and WNDR’s signature Light Floor, which changes in response to visitors’ movement.
$32-$38, 500 Washington St., Boston

Wordplay
The Institute of Contemporary Art has mined its own collection for work highlighting the use of words in visual art, with pieces from Kenturah Davis, Taylor Davis, Joe Wardwell, Rivane Neuenschwander, Shepard Fairey, Jenny Holzer, Glenn Ligon, and more.
$20, through January 5, 2025, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork: Poems of Electronic Air
Spread across two floors of Harvard’s Carpenter Center, indoors and outdoors, Poems of Electronic Air integrates sound picked up from microphones and sent, altered, back into the environment, coat-like sculptures made of wool and silicone, river stones that visitors can walk across, a deflating and inflating bounce house-like structure, and other curiosities.
Free, through April 7, Carpenter Center, Harvard University, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge

The Lost Generation: Women Ceramicists and the Cuban Avant-Garde
Boston College’s McMullen Museum explores the unsung work of the women of the Taller de Santiago de las Vegas, a ceramics workshop near Havana, during the Cuban revolutionary era. Their striking modernist designs made a deep impression on a group of much better-known male painters and brought greater prestige to the art of ceramics in Cuba.
Free, through June 2, McMullen Museum of Art, 2101 Comm. Ave., Brighton

Wolf Vostell: Dé-coll/age Is Your Life
Committed to the use of destruction in art making as a means of highlighting the destructiveness in society, Wolf Vostell created a body of work that cried out for peace in the anxious Cold War era. Harvard’s Busch-Reisinger Museum has the largest collection of his work on this side of the world, much of which, including prints, sculptures, films, performance-related items, will be on display here.
Free, through May 5, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Photo by Troy Wade

Matthew Bajor: Interference Patterns
Local artist Matthew Bajor created these three large, colorful, kinetic glass sculptures as a reflection on his mother’s Alzheimer’s disease. Entitled Double Diamond, Mingling Memories, and Pixelated Heart, they convey the power of compassion in connecting with those who may no longer remember us or even be able to speak.
Free, through March 20, Harvard Ed Portal, 224 Western Ave., Allston

Picasso: War, Combat, and Revolution
Take a deep dive into the world of Picasso’s immortal and imposing Guernica, one of the great anti-war statements in 20th century art, dense with both pathos and symbolic meaning. Although the painting itself remains in Madrid, you’ll see several drawings and prints from Picasso that express similar themes to the painting.
Free, through May 5, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Day One DNA: 50 Years in Hip-Hop Culture
Featuring more than 200 objects, including studio reels, photos, party fliers, magazines, custom clothing, jewelry, recording equipment, and more from the archives of Ice-T and DJ Afrika Islam, this show looks at hip hop history both from a personal perspective and in its wider cultural context.
Free, through May 31, Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, 102 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge

Digital Iridescence: Jell-O in New Media
You read that right: this exhibition features the work of five artists using gelatin as a medium, exploring its jiggly, tissue-like nature, its animal derivation, the distortions of light it’s capable of producing, and its history and marketing as a staple treat for homemakers for over a century.
$27, through March 24, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

The Myth of Normal
Featuring the work of MassArt alumni to celebrate the school’s 150th anniversary, this multimedia exhibition examines what happens when dysfunctional modes of thoughts and behavior become norms, and how the self-expressive potential of art can provide relief from the sometimes-damaging pressure to be “normal.”
Free, through May 19, MassArt Art Museum, 621 Huntington Ave., Boston

Surveillance: From Vision to Data
If you’ve ever seen an ad online for something you only mentioned in conversation, you know you’re being watched—and your phone is just one of the more recent tools of the trade. This exhibition examines some historic instruments of surveillance, showing how they’ve been used, in the eerie words of its synopsis, “to transform individuals and landscapes into data.”
Free, through June 22, Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University, 1 Oxford St., Cambridge

Resa Blatman’s Beauty and the Beasties from “Bats!” at the Peabody Essex Museum. / Photo courtesy of Resa Blatman

“Bats!”
The Peabody Essex Museum would certainly win the award for Salem’s Best Halloween Museum Exhibition (if only it existed!) with its latest extravaganza. For starters, the PEM has gathered various pop-culture artifacts and artworks celebrating our favorite winged mammals by contemporary talents such as Somerville painter Resa Blatman and Argentine papercraftsman Juan Nicolás Elizalde. But the exhibition also has a natural-history element to it, stressing how bats are, in fact, indicator species that reveal the health of the environment around us. Best of all, visitors get to meet a small colony of real live Egyptian fruit bats, who are as adorable as they are fascinating. —MATTHEW REED BAKER
$20 (non-member general admission), through July 28, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

Shehuo: Community Fire
Since 2007, Chinese photographer Zhang Xiao has periodically documented the celebration of Shehuo, a spring festival in rural Northern China, showing its regional quirks, handmade props that double as family heirlooms, and its transformation over the years into a commercialized spectacle for tourists.
$15, through April 14, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge

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UPCOMING

2024

April 2024

May 2024

  • Sheer Mag with Pile at the Crystal Ballroom (55 Davis Sq., Somerville).

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