The Harvard Graduate School of Design presents Grammy Award winning musicians Caroline Shaw and Andrew Yee on Thursday, October 22 at 6:30 pm in the Piper Auditorium, They will perform a selection of their music, inspired by landscapes we imagine and inhabit. The musicians draw on their recent album, Or, The Whale (2026), to explore connections between the sun and soil of the landscape and the sound and sense of music. Edward Eigen, a senior lecturer in the history of landscape and architecture at the GSD, joins the musicians for a conversation following the performance. The event is part of ArtsThursdays, a university-wide initiative supported by the Harvard University Committee on the Arts.
Boston Dance Theater (BDT) returns to the Garden this September for Plants: Solos for Native Species. On September 26, visitors are invited to experience immersive dance performances throughout the Garden, featuring 20-minute solo works inspired by native plant species. Four solo performances will loop throughout the day in different locations, allowing guests to discover each piece at their own pace and to come and go freely during regular Garden hours. Free with Garden Admission. For more information visit https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/plants-solos-for-native-species/
The search for sophisticated red, white, and blue floral arrangements continues, in an age where sticking American flags in things substitutes for art and sane political discourse. Enjoy the blue and red bouquet below by Italo Vale and have a happy and healthy holiday.
Do you want to know the name of that elusive yellow flower? Are you looking for an excuse to dance in the park like no one is watching? Are you a cardboard sculpture fanatic, looking to make a bumble bee puppet? Frozen with existential dread about the inclement heat and rising tides due to climate emergency?
Join the Greenway Public Art throughout the summer for a series of pop-up art making parties along with a monthly Climate Fiction Book Club hosted by our Eco-Art Cart in Dewey Square! For our first read we will be discussing Octavia E. Butler’s iconic 1993 speculative fiction novel, The Parable of the Sower. This work serves as a main source of inspiration for artist Misa Chhan, who will be installing work in Auntie Kay & Uncle Frank Chin Park on The Greenway later this month. In the novel, which is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth heavily affected by climate change and social inequality, a main tenet of the fictional Earthseed religion is, “All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change.” The June selection is The Seep by China Porter, and July is Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh.
Come to discuss what you make of these ideas, stay for the community! Make sure to check your local library or independent bookstore to grab your own copy of the book before May 27.
The Botanic Garden of Smith College is pleased to welcome John Berryhill as its new director. Berryhill has been serving as interim director since January as part of a career at the botanic garden that began over 27 years ago. He brings to this role an in-depth understanding of the botanic garden, a steadfast dedication to its mission and a strong commitment to the partnerships that are at the center of its work.
Berryhill has worked in many different roles during his tenure–as a garden steward tending to the outdoor collections, as an arborist caring for our historic arboretum, and most recently as landscape curator managing the outdoor team and launching several conservation initiatives. These projects and priorities have connected Smith students to the work of the botanic garden community at both a regional and national scale. In the summer of 2022, Berryhill earned a Master of Science from Smith making him the first Smithie to serve as director of the botanic garden. His research focused on mountain magnolia’s vulnerability to climate change, which led to the development of a conservation collection at Smith College. Berryhill has long been a proponent of social and environmental justice as being central to the botanic garden’s work. This priority has led to outreach and collaborations with local Indigenous leadership and conservation organizations, which will help shape the future direction of the Botanic Garden of Smith College.
Join The Friends of the Public Garden at The Founders Monument on Boston Common on September 25, 6 pm – 8 pm – for the opening of Revealing a Deeper History, an engaging public art intervention. This free event will feature collaborative storytelling, movement, and film, revealing marginalized voices and hidden histories. There will be a special presentation that includes remarks from FOPG President Liz Vizza, and film producer and storyteller Shanda Foster, a choreographed translation of the deeper story of the Founders Monument by educator, dancer, and choreographer Jenny Oliver, and a talkback session where the audience will have a chance to engage with the artists. Register today, and please indicate on your registration if you require accessible seating. https://friendsofthepublicgarden.org/founders-register/
Free event at The Rink at 401 Park – Barbie on Ice, Skate the Kenway. The event stars MILK, and takes place Friday, February 9 at 7 pm. This professional ice skating show is sanctioned by US Figure Skating, and you have the opportunity to skate with the stars after the show. Rental skates available. Raindate Saturday February 10 at 7 pm.
The Garden Conservancy’s Open Day program returns to Essex County on September 4 with two beautiful gardens, The Stevens-Coolidge House and Garden in North Andover, and The Sedgwick Gardens at Long Hill in Beverly. Register HERE.
In North Andover, enter a world of a former farm that became an early-20th-century estate, where a newly expanded array of bountiful gardens and plantings complements a gracious and refined home. Stevens-Coolidge House & Gardens was the summer home of Helen Stevens Coolidge and her husband, John Gardner Coolidge – a diplomat descended from Thomas Jefferson and a nephew to Isabella Stewart Gardner – from 1914 to 1962.
Long Hill was owned and cared for by the Sedgwick family from 1916 to 1979, their beloved summer home that, in the 1950s, became their year-round haven. Mabel Cabot Sedgwick, an accomplished gardener and author of The Garden Month by Month, and her husband, Ellery Sedgwick, noted author and editor of The Atlantic Monthly, summered here until Mabel passed in 1937. After Mabel’s death, Ellery married Marjorie Russell Sedgwick, a rare plants specialist. The combined creative vision of these two women led to the design of Long Hill’s enchanting gardens, surrounded by more than 100 acres of woodland.
Today, visitors delight in the beauty of Long Hill’s structured and naturalistic gardens as well as a network of woodland trails. A diverse collection of trees, shrubs, and distinctive perennial plants provide color during the growing season, peaking in May and June and providing structure and beauty throughout the year. With an ever-growing calendar of public events and festivities, you’ll find ample reason for frequent returns.
Pre-registration is REQUIRED for each garden. Pre-register for each on this website, except where specifically indicated otherwise. Children under 12 are free and do not need to be pre-registered if accompanied by pre-registered adult.
Capacity is limited. Sorry, no walk-ins allowed; no paper tickets or cash payments will be accepted on-site.
Masks are required, at the discretion of the garden owners, and social distancing is encouraged at all in-person events.
