Things to Do This Week in Boston

MUSIC

Boston Symphony Orchestra: Mozart Jupiter Symphony and Strauss Ein Heldenleben
Andris Nelson’s BSO performs Mozart’s 41^st and final symphony, nicknamed Jupiter because (on one account) its opening salvo reminded an early listener of the thunder of Zeus. It’s paired with Strauss’ tone poem Ein Heldenleben, a sort of mixtape of the composer’s career with bits of many of his famous works peppered throughout.
$53.99-$195.99, Thursday through Saturday, September 25-27, Symphony Hall, 301 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

COMEDY

Joe Machi
Wide-eyed comic Joe Machi’s stage presence is that of a guy random guy you might find yourself stuck in a long, strange conversation with, perhaps at a party or in line at the grocery checkout—but instead of being tedious, the one-sided chat is unexpectedly funny.
$40.46, 9 p.m., Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston

FOOD + DRINK

Sam Adams Octoberfest Celebration
There are many local brewery Oktoberfests to choose from this time of year, but few can boast the local brand recognition of Sam Adams. In additional to beer (your ticket gets you a can of Octoberfest to start), you can enjoy stein-hoisting, bratwurst and Bavarian-style pretzels, and live music—and for a bit extra, you can opt for the Tour Experience.
$12.45-$17.79, Friday through Sunday, September 26-28, Samuel Adams Boston Brewery, 30 Germania St., Jamaica Plain

ATTRACTIONS

King Richard’s Faire
One sign of autumn’s approach on the South Shore is the return of New England’s premiere Renaissance fair, with jousting matches, street performers, circus attractions, exotic vendors, games and rides, hearty food and drink, psychic readings, special themed events catering to popular fandoms, and much more.
$26-$51.99, through Sunday, October 19, Edaville Entertainment Venue, 5 Pine St., Carver

Boston Lights: A Lantern Experience
Each year, Boston Lights transforms the Franklin Park Zoo into an after-dark dreamworld, with elaborate handmade lanterns representing real and imaginary creatures from across the world. 2025’s highlighted country is China, with pandas, pheasants, peacocks, and dragons; the signature lantern is a glorious 22-foot-tall owl.
$19.95-$21.95, through November 2, Franklin Park Zoo, 1 Franklin Park Rd., Roxbury

THEATER

Hamilton
One of the most talked-about musicals so far this century, Hamilton continues to offer its provocative interpretation of America’s origins in a political landscape quite different from that of its 2015 Broadway debut. It’s also the only musical in which the Founding Fathers rap, and that never stops being cool. Tip: download the app to learn how to enter a lottery for $10 tickets.
$66.85-$339.95, Tuesday, September 23 through November 2, Citizens Opera House, 539 Washington St., Boston

The Mountaintop
Maurice Emmanuel Parent directs Katori Hall’s imagining of the night of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination in this Front Porch Arts Collective Production. In the midst of a storm, King, alone in his hotel room, receives a strange, prophetic visit demanding a reconciliation with his life on Earth before its last moments.
$40-$58.78, through October 12, The Modern Theater, 525 Washington St., Boston

Our Town
The Lyric Stage goes with a classic to open their 2025-26 season: Thornton Wilder’s haunting, earnest plea to appreciate ordinary life, banal as it can be, before it slips away. First performed in 1938, Our Town ran at Boston’s Wilbur Theater before hitting Broadway, ultimately winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
$25-$95, through October 19, Lyric Stage Company, 140 Clarendon St., Boston

Silent Sky
The latest entry in Central Square Theater’s Catalyst Collaborative project with MIT takes place 125 years ago in Cambridge, where real-life Harvard astronomer Henrietta Leavitt pushes past the sexism of her supervisors to make a crucial discovery related to calculating enormous cosmic distances. Sarah Shin directs the Lauren Gunderson play.
$27-$103, through October 5, Central Square Theater, 450 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

The Hills of California
The Huntington brings Jez Butterworth’s family dramedy, a critical success in London and New York, to Boston. Despite the title, it actually takes place in Blackpool, England, where the four Webb sisters grew up and have returned in anticipation of the death of their intense mother, Veronica, who trained them to be a singing group as kids.
$29-$286, through October 12, The Huntington Theater, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston

Primary Trust
Eboni Booth’s Pulitzer-winning play, directed here by Dawn M. Simmons for SpeakEasy Stage Company, centers on Kenneth, whose predictable, solitary life gets shaken up by an unexpected layoff. Fortunately, he’s still got his drinking buddy, Bert, and it’s not long before he finds a new job—but also new challenges.
$25-$93.75, through October 11, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., Boston

Passengers
The American Repertory Theater hosts renowned Montreal-based circus theater outfit The 7 Fingers, who combine the visual thrills of circus arts with the compelling nature of narrative. In the case of Passengers, that narrative is one in which “travel is a metaphor for life’s ever-changing landscape.”
$35-$158, through September 26, Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge

ATTRACTIONS

King Richard’s Faire
One sign of autumn’s approach on the South Shore is the return of New England’s premiere Renaissance fair, with jousting matches, street performers, circus attractions, exotic vendors, games and rides, hearty food and drink, psychic readings, special themed events catering to popular fandoms, and much more.
$26-$51.99, opens August 30 through Sunday, October 19, 5 Pine St., Carver

Boston Lights: A Lantern Experience
Each year, Boston Lights transforms the Franklin Park Zoo into an after-dark dreamworld, with elaborate handmade lanterns representing real and imaginary creatures from across the world. 2025’s highlighted country is China, with pandas, pheasants, peacocks, and dragons; the signature lantern is a glorious 22-foot-tall owl.
$19.95-$21.95, through November 2, Franklin Park Zoo, 1 Franklin Park Rd., Roxbury

MOVIES

CineFest Latino Boston
Highlights of this annual selection of films from across the Latin American world include Comparsa (Wednesday), about a pair of Guatemalan sisters who use colorful street performance to protest government injustice, La bachata de biónico (Friday), a story of life on the edge in the Dominican Republic, Prison Beauty Contest (Sunday), a documentary about the titular competition in Brazil, and Mistura (Sunday), based on a true story of class and cuisine.
Free-$19.75 (per screening) or $105 (festival pass), Wednesday through Sunday, September 24-28, various locations, Boston area

One Battle After Another
Paul Thomas Anderson returns to Thomas Pynchon for inspiration in this loose adaptation of the legendary novelist’s Vineland. Leonardo DiCaprio stars in his first film with the auteur as washed-up political radical whose daughter (Chase Infiniti) gets kidnapped. What’s going on, and does his former rival (Sean Penn), who’s suddenly back in the picture, have anything to do with it?
$12-$19, opens Wednesday, September 24, Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville

Eleanor the Great
After delighting in the action comedy Thelma last year, 95-year-old June Squibb is back in another starring role as Eleanor, who moves to New York from Florida after her close friend and roommate passes away. In the city, she gets herself caught in an audacious lie that isn’t so easy to back out of. The drama is also Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut.
$15-$19.75, opens Friday, September 26, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

Boston Film Festival
Boston highlights of this fest include opening World War I thriller The Fallow Few (Friday), animal documentaries Blue Zeus and Heart of a Lion (Saturday), and Remembering Big, a documentary on golfer Chi-Chi Rodríguez (Sunday). The final two screenings, on Monday, take place out of town at Rockport’s Shalin Liu Performance Center.
Free-$16.78 (per screening), through Monday, September 19-22, various locations, Boston and Rockport

Taiwan Film Festival of Boston
Take a peek at life on a long-contested island suspended between its Chinese heritage and its Western allegiances. This festival opens September 19 with Daughter’s Daughter, about a mother beset by new and old losses. Other highlights include a pair of documentary shorts about stunt biking and green energy, respectively (September 21), and Salli, a tale of online romance (September 23).
$12-$15 (per screening), Friday, September 19 through September 25, various venues, Boston area

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
In this romantic fantasy from one-named director Kogonada (After Yang), Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell star as pair of single wedding guests whose chance meeting turns, via a strange door in the middle of the woods, into an edifying journey through time and the meaning of memory.
$14.25-$18.75,  Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge

The Baltimorons
An unlikely friendship—and maybe more—forms at Christmastime between a prematurely retired comedian and the dentist who fixes his cracked tooth in this new comedy from writer-director Jay Duplass, his first feature as a director without his brother Mark, with whom he made The Puffy Chair, Baghead, Jeff Who Lives at Home, and other films.
$15-$17, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
One of an increasing number of way-after-the-fact sequels to see recent release, Spinal Tap II catches up with the world’s worst metal band (Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer) as they attempt a reunion show in New Orleans.
$13.99-$19.48, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

Splitsville
In this comedy of (failed) marriage, wife Ashley (Adria Arjona) asks for a divorce from husband Carey (Kyle Marvin), who reacts by suggesting, inspired by fellow couple Julie and Paul (Dakota Johnson and Michael Angelo Covino), that they open the marriage. It could be a good idea, but it’s not long before Julie and Carey link up, causing new headaches for all.
$13.99-$19.48, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

The Roses
An apparently successful and happy couple turn against each other when the wife (Olivia Coleman) professionally outpaces the husband (Benedict Cumberbatch) in this darkly comic adaptation of Warren Adler’s novel The War of the Roses from director Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents). Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon also appear. Note: for early access tickets, check here.
$16.25-$18.75, Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge

Caught Stealing
Darren Aronofsky takes a break from his usual emotionally heavy fare for this period crime romp starring Austin Butler as a former professional baseball player who gets mixed up with the wrong crowd in New York City circa 1998. The wonderfully random cast also includes Regina King, Zoë Kravitz. Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Carol Kane.
$12.79-$18.18, AMC Boston Common, 175 Tremont St., Boston

Honey Don’t!
Collapsing the femme fatale and hardboiled detective into a single figure, Maragret Qualley returns to star in the second installment of what Ethan Coen has dubbed his “lesbian B-movie trilogy.” This time, she’s a private investigator digging into a series of murders related to a sketchy church in Bakesfield, California.
$12-$16, Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville

Weapons
Zach Cregger’s follow-up to Barbarian is another creepy tale that begins with a mystery: overnight, almost all the children in a particular elementary school class get up and leave their homes, their destination unknown. Their teacher is one of the people who tries to solve the mystery—but she and the rest of the town soon realize they’re in way over their heads.
$12.79-$18.18, AMC Boston Common, 175 Tremont St., Boston

MONDAY (9/22/25)

MUSIC

Shoreline Mafia
Originally a four-man crew, this Los Angeles rap group impressed with early mixtape tracks like “Nun Major,” but they fell apart in 2020, shortly before the release of their first album, Mafia Bidness. They partially reunited last year with just two members, OhGeesy and Fenix Flexin, who released a second album, Back in Bidness, this past April.
$39-$253.75, 8 p.m., Citizens House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston

BOOKS + READINGS

Mona Awad
Mona Awad has returned to the world of her 2019 novel Bunny, soon to be made into a film by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions. Her new sequel We Love You, Bunny catches up with MFA graduate Sam as she’s about to publish her first novel. It’s all going well until she’s kidnapped by her former classmates, who aren’t happy with their portrayals in the book…
$12-$13.59 (admission only) or $40-$42.99 (book included), 6 p.m., Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge

TUESDAY (9/23/25)

MUSIC

spill tab
An international child raised in Asia, Europe, and North America, spill tab’s Claire Chicha slowly but steadily built her reputation for minimalist alternative pop with a series of singles throughout the 2020s, leading to the release of her debut full-length Angie this past May. Its latest single is the vocally rich “Want Me.”
$22-$29, 8 p.m., Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave., Allston

WEDNESDAY (9/24/25)

MUSIC

NxWorries
Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge released their second album as a superduo, Why Lawd?, in 2024 after teasing it for a couple of years. The sonically wide-ranging, impeccably produced record, both more low-key and more artful than their first, went on to win the Grammy for Best Progressive R&B Album.
$68-$195, 8 p.m., Citizens House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston

COMEDY

Matt Shore Does Songs at You: A Musical Comedy Show
Stuff is often funnier when you sing about it, and local comic Matt Shore is taking that fact all the way to the bank—or at least as close as he can get. You’ll hear both pre-written songs and improvised ditties inspired by audience suggestions, such as this little number about the frustrations of riding the T.
$32.22, 8 p.m., Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston

THURSDAY (9/25/25)

MUSIC

The Stews
If rock is dead, nobody bothered to tell this Alabama band, whose most recent album, 2024’s Chicken Fight, is a roaring combination of 70s arena riffage, reverby 80s post-punk and pop, 90s shoegaze and grunge, 21^st century white boy soul, and whatever else seems fun. Singer Preston Hall is their ace in the hole, caterwauling through every track, halfway between Joe Cocker and Eddie Vedder.
$25-$35.66, 8 p.m., Royale, 279 Tremont St., Boston

Thee Phantom & The Illharmonic Orchestra
This ensemble puts on a hip hop show worthy of black-tie attire, with strings, woodwinds, brass and even a harp in addition to a singer, MC, and DJ, covering classics from across the history of the genre in grand fashion, even when they don’t express the grandest sentiments—here they are, for example, fleshing out Juvenile’s “Back That Azz Up.”
$59.78-$187.88, 8 p.m., Emerson Colonial Theater, 106 Boylston St., Boston

COMEDY

Wally Baram
Familiar as Carmen on the college comedy Overcompensating, Wally Baram made her late-night debut with Stephen Colbert at the precocious age of 23—but rather than boast, she took the opportunity to joke about her immaturity. “I had to write out my first rent check recently,” she says. “Turns out I don’t know how to spell numbers.”
$38, 7:30 p.m., Crystal Ballroom, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville

BOOKS + READINGS

Eliana Ramage
Eliana Ramage’s debut novel To the Moon and Back centers on Steph, a Cherokee woman determined to become an astronaut, but we also follow the paths of the three key women in her life—her mother, sister, and close friend—and their complex reactions to Steph’s relentless ambition.
Free, 7 p.m., Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

FRIDAY (9/26/25)

MUSIC

Durand Jones & The Indications
After a couple solo tangents from Durand Jones and drummer Aaron Frazer, these Indiana soul revivalists returned to their roots in June with a new album, Flowers. The smooth and mellow set of 70s-inspired tunes is a welcome vibe check in the wild year of 2025 and a fine soundtrack for waving the summer goodbye.
$30-$171.65, 8 p.m., Citizens House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston

Dylan Gossett
Austin-based country singer-songwriter Dylan Gossett began building his audience with TikTok covers before releasing originals like 2023’s “Coal,” his first viral success. With its passionate vocals and poignantly straightforward lyrics like “Love is tough, but loneliness is twice as hard,” the solo acoustic track feels like nothing less than the real deal. Gossett’s debut album, Westward, dropped in July.
$46.30-$251.85, 7 p.m., MGM Music Hall, 2 Lansdowne St., Boston

COMEDY

Molly Brenner
Standup and fringe festival comic Molly Brenner is a classic observational comic, diagnosing phenomena like the uncanny experience of the most boring man she’s ever met, her dentist’s oddly possessive attitude toward her teeth, and her own excuses for putting off the grind.
$25.85, 7:30 p.m., White Bull Tavern, 1 Union St., Boston

GAMES

Are You Smarter Than AI?
Theoretical cosmologist and science popularizer Paul M. Sutter hosts this lighthearted battle between humans and machines, with rounds like Reverse Engineer (guess the prompt for an off-the-wall AI image), Unknown Author (guess whether a quote was said by Shakespeare or Chat GPT), and In On the Joke (can you come up with a better punchline than the computer?).
$10, 7:30 p.m., Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston

SATURDAY (9/27/25)

FESTIVALS

Ignite Festival
Back in a revised form for its 13^th year, this literally fiery mainstay of the Somerville festival season features an international program of cooking classes and dance performances, a diverse array of food vendors, an after-dark fire show from Boston Circus Guild, additional pop-up performances, a giant bird named Muchos Colores, and more.
Free, 3:30 p.m.-7 p.m., Union Square Plaza, 90 Union Sq., Somerville

MUSIC

The Floozies & Dirtwire
This double header brings together two fusion EDM bands known for playing live instruments on stage: the Floozies combine rock and funk with dubstep while Dirtwire integrates global folk traditions. Fomerly local beatbox wizard Honeycomb, now resident in Las Vegas, rounds out the lineup as opener and should not be missed.
$30-$39.25, 7 p.m., Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Boston

Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country
Raised mostly in Nashville, guitar wiz Daniel Donato brings a strong country emphasis to the usual jam band mixture of rock, jazz, and funk—the result, on tracks like “Hi-Country,” is what country might sound like if more of its artists preferred weed over whiskey.
$30-$44.11, 8 p.m., Royale, 279 Tremont St., Boston

COMEDY

Matt Friend
Inspired by the Austin Powers films as a kid, Matt Friend began teaching himself the art of impressions. Today, he boasts a catalogue of 250 celebrities, which he regularly shares with his million-plus social media following. In this recent clip, he rattles off a scarily dead-on string of reactions to Jimmy Kimmel’s ouster from ABC, incarnating everyone from Donald Trump to Bernie Sanders.
$45.15-$55.25, 7 p.m., The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St., Boston

SUNDAY (9/28/25)

MUSIC

Matt Maltese
British singer-songwriter Matt Maltese made a splash in 2017 with his satirical song “As the World Caves In,” imagining a last-minute tryst between Teresa May and Donald Trump before they hit the nuclear button. In the years since, he’s perfected a gentle, classy crooner style, but he’s never quite wiped the smirk off his face. His fifth album, Hers, arrived in May.
$34-$94.95, 8 p.m., Citizens House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston

Mipso
Hailing from the college town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, alternative string band Mipso became one of the most popular bluegrass acts in the country in the 2010s—they’ve even played the KFC float at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. In August, they dropped their latest single, the wistful, atmospheric “Singing Song.”
$25-$35.42, 7:30 p.m., The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge

COMEDY

Zainab Johnson
Known to TV viewers as Aleesha from the recently concluded sci-fi comedy series Upload, Zainab Johnson also hosts her own podcast, I’m Reasonable. In this fresh standup clip, she covers the question of how to celebrate Juneteenth in 2025 and offers her takes on recent political dramas.
$25-$40, 7:30 p.m., City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston

FOOD + DRINK

Smoke This Rib Fest
Some of the area’s finest pitmasters are once again going head-to-head in East Cambridge to determine, by popular vote, who truly makes the best BBQ. If you want to vote, you’ll have to get a taste ticket, but if they’re sold out, you can still buy some deliciousness from your choice of restaurant. There will also be live music and kids’ activities.
Free or $37.05 (Taste Ticket), 12-4 p.m., Cambridge St. between Fulkerson St. and 5^th St., Cambridge

BOOKS + READINGS

Samin Nosrat
The former New York Times Magazine food columnist, author of kitchen staple Salt Fat Acid Heat, and host of the podcast Home Cooking will discuss her latest book, Good Things, sharing her recipe inspirations and some of her own cooking rituals.
$59.78-$200.08, 7 p.m., Emerson Colonial Theater, 106 Boylston St., Boston

MONDAY (9/29/25)

MUSIC

Drake Bell
Yes, that Drake Bell, of Drake & Josh fame. The former child actor released his first album in 2005 and has returned to music sporadically since the 2000s, most recently with 2024’s Non-Stop Flight, a bright and shiny collection influenced by the ambitious pop groups of the 60s, particularly the Beach Boys.
$35-$100, 7:30 p.m., City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston

BOOKS + READINGS

Let the Stories Be Told: A Conversation with Author Bill Janovitz and Members of the Cars
Buffalo Tom frontman and longtime music journalist Bill Janovitz will discuss The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told, his biography of the Boston new wave icons, with original Cars members David Robinson (drums) and Greg Hawkes (keyboards). The book details how the band helped usher in 80s pop rock but failed to survive the decade.
$51.50 (book included), 7 p.m., Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass. Ave., Boston

Ongoing

OUTDOORS

Berklee Summer in the City Concert Series
Each summer, the amazingly talented students, faculty, and alumni of Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory are dispersed throughout the area to perform in parks, neighborhood squares, on the waterfront, and even on Spectacle Island. With performances ranging from jazz to R&B to pop to folk classical, there’s sure to be something up your alley.
Free, through September 16, various venues, Boston area

Kayak and Paddleboard Rentals at Community Boating
You’ve seen the river from the city more times than you could count, but have you ever seen the city from the river? Rent a vessel, explore the Charles River basin and esplanade lagoon system at your leisure, and take in a view of Boston like no other.
$40, through October 31, Community Boating, 21 David G Mugar Way, Boston

SHOPPING

Courtesy

SoWa Open Market
This popular Sunday event features more than 250 farmers and vendors selling their own food, jewelry, clothing, household items, art, and more, plus special performances and events, a chance to check out the nearby open studios of dozens of local artists, and a rotating selection of food trucks.
Free, Sundays rain or shine through October 26, 11 a.m-5 p.m., 500 Harrison Ave., Boston

Copley Square Farmers Market
The Boston area has no shortage of farmers markets in the warmer months, but Copley Square hosts the largest, offering a cornucopia of local produce, meats, dairy, baked goods, and prepared meals, as well as some non-edible products. It opens for the season this Friday, May 16.
Free, Tuesdays and Fridays through November 25, Copley Square, 227-230 Dartmouth St., Boston

FITNESS

Seaport Sweat
Get a little closer to your best self with the help of these outdoor classes, taking place Monday through Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings until the end of summer. The regular weekday schedule features Pilates, yoga, Zumba, athletic conditioning, and more; some of Saturday’s rotating classes include dance cardio/sculpting workout Sculpt That Sass, the high-intensity Broncore Bootcamp, “endorphin boosting” mainstay Booty by Brabants, and the kickboxing-inspired Kick It By Eliza. New this year: the Sweatapalooza.
Free, through September 30, Seaport Common, 85 Northern Ave., Boston

ATTRACTIONS

Putt Across America
If you’ve ever visited Faneuil Hall Marketplace and thought, “What this place needs is a mini golf course,” your prayers have been answered. Familiar American landmarks dot the 18 holes, making for plenty of fun photo ops.
$25, open daily, 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Faneuil Hall Marketplace, 4 S Market St., Boston

Courtesy

Museum of Ice Cream
Yes, you can eat as much ice cream as you want at the Museum of Ice Cream, but there’s a lot more to this escapist wonderland, billed as “a place free from distractions, expectations, and inhibitions.” There are several colorful, slightly surreal spaces to explore at your leisure, including the Diner, Creamliner (an imaginary airplane interior), Hall of Freezers, Carnival, and Sprinkle Pool.
$25-$51, 121 Seaport Blvd., Boston

Courtesy Museum of Illusions

Museum of Illusions
Experience the delights of confusing your brain at this new downtown attraction, featuring a set of images, installations, and “illusion rooms” designed to make reality feel a little less normal—and to provide some fun and crazy photo ops for the Gram.
$38, 200 State St., Boston

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, which is decked out for the holidays. 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 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 arrange for a private tour via an online form or opt for a self-guided experience whenever you want.
Free (self-guided), starts in Central Square, Cambridge or Downtown Crossing, Boston

WNDR Museum
This gallery space in Downtown Crossing features 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

ART + EXHIBITIONS (Ongoing)

Martin Puryear: Nexus
These 45 works provide an excellent introduction to the world of contemporary artist Martin Puryear. The 84-year-old has been producing geometrically complex and precise sculptures, mostly using wood, for over 50 years, and he continues to reach new heights: in 2016, New York City’s Madison Square Park hosted one of his largest sculptures ever; in 2019, he represented the U.S. at the Venice Biennale.
$27, Saturday, September 27 through February 8, 2026, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Courtesy MIT List

List Projects 33: Every Ocean Hughes
The middle part of a death-themed trilogy that began with 2019’s Help the Dead and concluded with 2023’s River, Every Ocean Hughes’ 2021 video installation One Big Bag depicts a monologue from a death doula, who explains the tools of her trade in a pragmatic, candid manner, presenting death, in the words of the synopsis, “as a brute and beautiful fact.”
Free, Thursday, September 18 through December 14, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames St., Bldg. E15-109, Cambridge

Medieval | Renaissance: A Dialogue on Early Italian Painting
What exactly marks the border between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance? Generations of scholarly discourse tell us there should be one, but it’s not so easy to find in art. The 19 paintings on display here, from the Frascione Collection in Florence, have been sorted into both eras, making them perfect examples of an imperfect delineation.
Free, Tuesday, September 2 through December 7, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, 2101 Comm. Ave., Brighton

Portia Zvavahera: Hidden Battles / Hondo dzakavanzika
Zimbabwean painter Portia Zvavahera bases her work on dreams, something evident in her suspended landscapes, strange, idiosyncratically archetypical figures, and forms resembling Rorschach ink blots. Her incorporation of printing techniques and use of wax, lace, and other materials create a textural richness. This is her first solo exhibition at an American museum.
$20, through January 19, 2026, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

Edna Andrade: Imagination Is Never Static
A wide-ranging fascination with structure, whether found in science, math, or the humanities, informed the geometric work of 20th century artist Edna Andrade, an important figure in the op art movement. The colorful drawings on display here, as much theoretical experiments as beautiful images, were donated to Harvard Art Museums by her estate.
Free, through January 4, 2026, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Rachel Ruysch: Artist, Naturalist, and Pioneer
This 17th and 18th century Dutch painter Rachel Ruysch’s lively, tactile depictions of plants and animals reflected upon a growing European awareness of global biodiversity. Today, they’re also a valuable testament to the role of European women of her time in both art and science. 35 of her paintings are here, alongside work by female contemporaries.
$27, through December 7, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Paradise/Mash-Up: Andrae Green
In this set of paintings, Boston-based artist Andrae Green compares his home city, Kingston, Jamaica, with his adopted one, particularly its Jamaican community. His somewhat surreal technique involves expressive color choices and fragmentation of images, blending emotions, time periods, and places to convey a sense of experience that transcends physical coordinates.
Free, through November 8, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, 551 Tremont St., Boston

Knowing Nature: Stories of the Boreal Forest
The Peabody Essex Museum casts a spotlight on one of Earth’s largest biome, which stretches nearly all the way around the world, from Canada through Siberia and into Scandinavia. You’ll learn about the region’s significance and diversity through personal testimonies, commissioned objects, photos and video, and interactive areas.
$25, through September 27, 2026, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

The Bold and the Beautiful: 16th-Century Prints and Drawings from the Myron Miller Collection
Featuring close 70 etchings, engravings, woodcuts, and drawings, many newly acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, this show demonstrates the beauty and sophistication of the art of printmaking at the dawn of modern European consciousness. Hendrick Goltzius’s immense and fascinatingly complex The Wedding of Cupid and Psyche is a major highlight.
$27, through April 13, 2026, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Photo by Justin Sutcliffe

The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks
The latest immersive journey from Lightroom Experiences, The Moonwalkers takes audiences back to one of the most remarkable achievements of the 20th century—NASA’s Apollo moon landings. Apollo 13 star Tom Hanks is your guide to the science and history of the program, as well as its successor, Artemis, which aims both to return to the Moon and travel to Mars.
$36.50-$46.50, through January 4, 2026, The Saunders Castle at Park Plaza, 130 Columbus Ave., Boston

ETERNAL RETURN
This site-specific installation might look like a café, but, as EXIT Galleries explains on their website, it’s actually “art meant to be lived inside,” a down-to-earth bulwark against all manner of irony-ridden attitude, and a place to rebuild a sense of meaning in a burnt-out-culture. In short: “public space as a vessel for consciousness.”
Free, through November 15, EXIT Galleries, 99 Franklin St., Allston

Monsters of the Deep: Between Imagination and Science
Tracing our understanding of whales through prints dating from the 1500s through the 1800s, the MIT Museum explores the process, informed both by scientific study and amateur observation, that brought the enormous creatures up from the quasi-mythical depths of the human imagination and into the light of day.
$18, through January 1, 2026, MIT Museum, 314 Main St., Bldg. E-28, Cambridge

Boston Public Art Triennial’s The Exchange
This sprawling indoor and outdoor art show will be held every three years. The highly varied, eye-popping works on display for 2025, from a mix of local, national, and international artists, are strewn across town, but easily accessible via the T over the course of a day—check the map for full details.
Free, through October 31, various locations, Boston area

GENERATIONS
Three local artists, L’Merchie Frazier, Daniela Rivera, and Wen-ti Tsen, recipients of the first Wagner Arts Fellowship, take the spotlight. There’s something here for every taste, from Frazier’s narratively rich mixed-media quilts to Rivera’s challenging geometric sculptures to Tsen’s Hopper-esque realist paintings.
Free, through November 30, MassArt Art Museum, 621 Huntington Ave., Boston

Jung Yeondoo: Building Dreams
At a time of increasing social atomization, multimedia artist Jung Yeondoo has made it his project to break the ice with the people in his vicinity, photographing folks in his hometown of Seoul and asking them about their inner lives. Often capturing his subjects in their home or workplace, he has a knack for finding the idealism hidden in ordinary life.
$25, through January 26, 2026, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

The Visionary Art of Minnie Evans
The 20th century Black North Carolinian artist Minnie Evans fused a passion for religion and mythology with close studies of her material surroundings. Though mystical and dreamlike, her art is also haunted by history—specifically, the white supremacist coup that took place in her hometown, Wilmington, when she was six years old.
$27, through October 26, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Qi Baishi: Inspiration in Ink
Born in the Qing dynasty and dying under Communist rule, Qi Baishi, sometimes called “the Picasso of China,” was recognized as an innovator whose lively, charming depictions of animals and plants pushed the well-worn tradition of nature scenes toward modernity. Almost 40 of his works are on display here, most on loan from China.
$27, through September 28, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

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ImPRINTING: The Artist’s Brain
Artist Beatie Wolfe created this “sonic self-portrait” in the form of a “thinking cap” that broadcasts the activity of different parts of the human brain. At listening station, you can pick up a phone receiver and hear for yourself. The data, encoded in glass inside the cap, could be preserved for as long as 10,000 years.
$31, through December 31, Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston

Portraits from the ICA Collection
The ICA shares recent acquisitions from artists like Rania Matar, Aliza Nisenbaum, and Didier William, as well as popular longtime holdings by Marlene Dumas, Nan Goldin, Alice Neel, and others, creating a complex, multimedia portrait of portraiture itself, in all its many purposes and effects.
$20, through January 4, 2026, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

Sea Monsters: Wonders of Nature and Imagination
Using historic illustrations, maps, artifacts, and specimens, this exhibition explores the exotic marine beasts cooked up in the dreams of sailors and bards down the centuries, as well as the real-life creatures, like the giant squid, whose scarcely believable existence inspired many of these legends.
$15, through June 26, 2026, Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge

The Salem Witch Trials 1692
Even when the story of the Salem Witch Trials is told with accuracy, the distance of centuries can make it hard to imagine. With this ongoing exhibition, the Peabody Essex Museum tries to close that gap a bit, bringing the timeline and context of the infamous miscarriage of justice to life through original documents and artifacts.
$25, ongoing, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

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