Things to Do This Week in Boston

COMEDY

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Big Irish Jay and Friends
With a name like Big Irish Jay, you’d be forgiven for guessing this gregarious comic was from Boston, but he’s actually a Pacific Northwesterner who moved here—and he fits in just fine. He’ll be joined in these shows by Kalea McNeill, Todd Royce, and Carlos Anthony.
$20-$33, Friday and Saturday, March 14-15, Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston

MUSIC

Dropkick Murphys
It wouldn’t be St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Boston without a run of Dropkick Murphys shows. The legendary Irish punk act is still riding on their last pair of albums, 2022’s This Machine Still Kills Fascists and 2023’s Okemah Rising, both of whose songs, recorded in the same sessions, use Woody Guthrie lyrics.
Friday through Sunday, March 14-16: $47.75-$585, MGM Music Hall, 2 Lansdowne St., Boston
Monday, March 17: $87.73-$112.32, 6 p.m., Citizens House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston

Linda May Han Oh / Courtesy

Celebrity Series Jazz Festival
Four of the hottest young voices in international jazz are coming to Arrow Street Arts for this set of separately ticketed concerts. The lineup includes pianist Sean Mason (Thursday), Grammy-winning bassist Linda May Han Oh (Friday), bassist Mali Obomsawin (Saturday), and, saving perhaps the coolest for last, harpist Brandee Younger (Sunday).
$44-$119, Thursday through Sunday, March 13-16, Arrow Street Arts, 2 Arrow St., Cambridge

DANCE

Back to the Funk
DJs Moe Dee and Take Flyte will be pumping out the beats for these back-to-back street dance battles, MC’d by Voltron and Snap Boogie and judged by Floor Lords members Shallow, Dash, and Megatron. Friday’s waving battle has a $100 grand prize; Saturday’s popping battle will earn the winner a cool $1500.
$10-$20, Friday and Saturday, March 14-15, Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second St., Cambridge

Boston Dance Theater: Red is a feeling
The boldness of the color red unites this selection of short works, symbolizing love, yearning, and fighting spirit—in the case of the titular commissioned work from Roya Carreras Fereshtehnejad, the spirit to beat cancer. Another highlight is Jessie Jeanne Stinnett’s joyful Fifties, set to pop music from the 1950s.
$55, Friday and Saturday, March 14-15, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

Swan Lake
Mikko Nissinen’s choreography and Robert Perdziola’s costumes combine to provide a sumptuous visual complement to Tchaikovsky’s immortal score. Nissinen’s version of this dark folktale includes a prologue depicting heroine Odette’s abduction and transformation into a swan by the sorcerous Von Rothbart.
$35-$275, through March 16, Citizens Opera House, 539 Washington St., Boston

THEATER

The Seasons
Playwright Sarah Ruhl and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo came together to dream up this work of operatic theater, drawing on Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons to tell the story of five artists, on retreat in the country, who find themselves beset, thanks to climate change, by unfavorable weather. Zack Winokur directs, with choreography by Pam Tanowitz.
$27.50-$308, Wednesday through Sunday, March 12-16, Emerson Paramount Center, 559 Washington St., Boston

Parade
The 2023 Tony winner for Best Revival of a Musical, director Michael Arden’s Parade revisits the grim story of Leo Frank, a Jewish American resident of Georgia who was wrongly convicted, imprisoned, and ultimately lynched in the 1910s for the murder of a child.
$49-$214, Tuesday, March 11 through March 23, Emerson Colonial Theater, 106 Boylston St., Boston

The Triumph of Love
The Huntington’s Loretta Greco takes on Marivaux’s tale of a princess who, for reasons we won’t get into here, disguises herself as a man in order to pursue a younger man who’s caught her fancy, causing all sorts of amusing mayhem. Originally viewed as scandalous, the play had to wait until the 20^th century for its brilliance to find redemption.
$29-$165, through April 6, The Huntington Theater, 264 Huntington Ave. Boston

Julius Caesar
Deadword Theater Company has picked a fertile moment to mount a production of Shakespeare’s political tragedy. In shifting the setting from ancient Rome to the corporate world of the 1980s, they provide an opportunity to reflect on more recent power struggles and allegations of tyranny.
$20, through March 16, Plaza Theater, Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont St., Boston

A Man of No Importance
First performed in 2002, this musical adaptation of Albert Finney’s 1994 dramedy film tells the story of a community theater director in 1960s Dublin whose fondness for Oscar Wilde leads to a crackdown by the Church. SpeakEasy Stage’s version, based on a recent reimagining, will be the musical’s New England premiere.
$25-$85, through March 22, Roberts Studio Theater, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., Boston

ART
Yasmina Reza’s smart comedy pits three friends against each other over the merits of an extremely minimalist painting that one of them just happily purchased for a rather large amount of money. Will aesthetic pride win over mutual affection? With these guys, maybe. Courtney O’Connor directs this Lyric Stage production, with Remo Airaldi, Michael Kaye, and John Kuntz as the trio.
$30-$80, through March 22, Lyric Stage Company, 140 Clarendon St., Boston

The Odyssey
Already a recent subject of online debate thanks to Emily Wilson’s new translation, Homer’s immortal epic is getting another fresh look in this American Repertory Theater adaptation by Kate Hamill (Sense and Sensibility, Dracula), emphasizing the role of Penelope, Odysseus’ long-suffering wife, and the struggle toward healing and forgiveness.
$35-$150, through March 16, Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge

MOVIES

Opus
Ayo Edebiri is a journalist invited to the compound of a Moretti (John Malkovich), a reclusive former pop star, in this A24 thriller from writer-director Mark Anthony Green. Soon, she realizes that in his time away from the limelight, Moretti’s taken on a new hobby: cult leader.
$10.99-$14.49, opens Thursday, March 13, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

Eephus
Set in the Worcester County town of Douglas in the mid-90s, New Hampshire native and Emerson grad Carson Lund’s bittersweet directorial debut depicts a group of middle-aged recreational baseball enthusiasts who take to the diamond for one last game before the county demolishes their field to build a new school.
$15-$17, opens Friday, March 14, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

Black Bag
After the innovative ghost thriller Prescence, Steven Soderbergh is already back with this spy drama, in which a highly regarded intelligence agent (Michael Fassbender) is forced to choose between his loyalty to his work and his loyalty to his wife (Cate Blanchett), a fellow agent now suspected of treason.
$16.75-$18.75, opens Thursday, March 13, Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge

Mickey 17
Six years after Parasite became an international sensation, Bong Joon-ho is back with a sci-fi tale starring Robert Pattinson as a desperate, out of work citizen of a dark future who signs up to become an “expendable” in a space colony, Niflheim. Each time his work inevitably kills him, he’s replaced by a clone—a system that works fine until the 17th in this succession turns out not to be dead.
$16.75-$18.75, Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge

The Rule of Jenny Pen
Based on a short story by Owen Marshall, James Ashcroft’s retirement home nightmare gives John Lithgow one of his most sinister turns yet as Dave Crealy, a deranged resident who subjects the entire institution to a reign of terror through a twisted game involving his creepy little dementia doll. Geoffrey Rush stars opposite Lithgow as new arrival Stefan Mortensen.
$14.49, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

True Tales of Wonder Women
Guest curated by the local feminist film appreciation society Strictly Brohibited, this International Women’s Day series focuses on dramatized stories of famous women like Emily Dickinson (Wild Nights with Emily) and Frida Kahlo (Frida), alongside stories of women who should be more famous, like 19th century Chinese American pioneer Polly Bemis (Thousand Pieces of Gold) and whistleblower Karen Silkood (Silkwood).
$13-$15, Friday through Sunday, March 7-9, Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge

Last Breath
Woody Harrelson heads up the cast of this survival thriller based on the true story of deep sea diver Chris Lemons (Finn Cole), rescued by his crewmates from seemingly certain doom in 2012 after a series of mishaps left him stranded on the frigid ocean floor without oxygen.
$10.99-$14.49, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

The Monkey
Combining the fiction of Stephen King with the entertainingly deranged imagination of writer-director Osgood Perkins (Longlegs) seems like a winning recipe for horror, and that’s what you’ve got with this wild tale of a cursed old toy with a penchant for causing deviously creative murders.
$12.99-$16.49, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

Paddington in Peru
Everyone’s favorite CGI bear sets off to his homeland with his custodians, the Brown family, to search for his aunt Lucy, who’s vanished from her retirement home. It’s not going to be easy, though—all he has to guide him is a rather mysterious map.
$10.99-$14.49, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

No Other Land
Made by four different directors over five years, this documentary provides a close-up look at the horrific experience of a cluster of Palestinian villages in the West Bank as the Israel Defense Forces destroy their neighborhoods to clear space for a military training ground.
$15-$17, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

I’m Still Here
Not to be confused with the 2010 Joaquin Phoenix mockumentary of the same name, this 2024 drama focuses on a family, the Paivas, living in Brazil in the early 70s, a time when the country’s military dictatorship was intensifying. In their beach house, the Paivas have mostly been able to avoid the worst. Then, one day, the worst comes knocking at their door.
$15-$17, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

A Complete Unknown
Timothée Chalamet steps into Bob Dylan’s intimidating shoes for the first conventional biopic on the legendary singer-songwriter. Rather than rushing through his whole storied career, the film focuses on his early days and romances, including with Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). Chalamet provides his own vocals for the songs.
$16.25-$18.75, Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge

The Brutalist
Brady Corbet’s epic period piece, examining the life of fictional architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody), screens at the Somerville Theater in gloriously crisp 70mm. Formerly well-established, László arrives as Holocaust survivor in the United States with nothing, rebuilding his life over many years—but not without further adversity.
$17-$19, Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville

Anora
The winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes, this rags-to-riches romance from Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine) weds a New York sex worker (Mikey Madison) to the scion of a Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn). They’re happy—until his scandalized parents are determined to undo the marriage.
$7, Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St, Cambridge

ALSO

• Where to Eat in Greater Boston This Month
• The Best Restaurants in Boston’s North End
• The Ultimate Guide to Candlepin Bowling in and around Boston

Want to suggest an event? Email us.

MONDAY (3/10/25)

MUSIC

Kim Deal
As bassist for the Pixies and frontwoman for the Breeders, Kim Deal is a certified legend of 80s and 90s alternative rock. In 2024, she finally released her first solo album, Nobody Loves You More, which finds her trying on an eclectic set of sonic masks, from bossa nova to synth punk to chamber pop.
$69.50-$85.50, 8 p.m., The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St., Boston

TALKS

Luis Elizondo: Universal Truth, The Evidence Is Clear: We Are Not Alone
As an investigator of unidentified anomalous phenomena, former intelligence official Luis Elizondo got about as close to anyone in the real-life government has gotten to having Scully and Mulder’s jobs on The X-Files. Today, he’s sharing what he learned on assignment, and it’s as strange as any fiction on the subject could be.
$35-$55, 7:30 p.m., City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston

TUESDAY (3/11/25)

MUSIC

Kraftwerk
With their robotic appearance and mechanistic (yet oddly funky) beats, this German group was a major force in popularizing electronic music in the 70s and 80s, and their songs about humans and technology intermeshing feel more prophetic with each passing year. Currently, they’re touring for the 50^th anniversary of their masterpiece Autobahn.
$53.70-$182.45, 8 p.m., Boch Center Wang Theater, 270 Tremont St., Boston

Peter Wolf
Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf is a certified Boston music icon who helped keep old school rock alive in the new wave era with singles like “Love Stinks” and “Centerfold.” In his new memoir Waiting on the Moon, he shares tales of the “Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses” he’s known and loved over his life.
$40.86 (book included), 7 p.m., First Parish Church, 1446 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

WEDNESDAY (3/12/25)

MUSIC

Tiffany Day
Once a teenage pop prodigy from Wichita, Kansas, singer-songwriter Tiffany Day reveals a mature, unpredictable style on her 2024 debut full-length, Lover Tofu Fruit, an invigorating mix of sweetness and harshness, with glitchy digital noise giving way to earnest feelings and hooks. In a post-Brat pop landscape, Day seems poised to become a much bigger star.
$31.61, 8 p.m., The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge

COMEDY

Shane Todd
Self-appointed as Northern Ireland’s “Prince of Comedy,” Shane Todd is back on the road with a new set, Full House. In this clip, he jokes about Americans having a suspiciously hard time deciphering his accent, to the point that he starts gaslighting himself: “Do I speak English, or do I just make noises?”
$33, 7 p.m., Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston

THURSDAY (3/13/25)

MUSIC

A R I Z O N A
Don’t be fooled by their name or the desert setting in some of their videos—this electro pop band is actually from New Jersey, but the panoramic ecstasy of their music demands a landscape with a wider horizon, so Arizona it is, with a space between each letter. If you’re looking for music to inspire you to think and feel bigger, check out their most popular track, “Oceans Away.”
$49.25-$253.70, 7:30 p.m., Citizens House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston

COMEDY

Craig Ferguson
Best known as Drew Carey’s TV boss Nigel Wick before his decade-long run as a CBS late night host, Scotsman (and, since 2008, certified American citizen) Craig Ferguson has returned to the mic for a new show, Pants on Fire, whose title implies not so much a big confession as a refusal to let the truth get in the way of a good story.
$43.50-$53.50, 7:30 p.m., The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St., Boston

TALKS

Amy Sedaris: At Home
While her brother David has focused almost entirely on writing, Amy Sedaris has had a much more varied career, from her notorious character Jerri Blank on Strangers with Candy to her more dramatic role as Peli Motto in Disney+’s Star Wars series to her comedic books on topics like hospitality and crafting. She’ll talk here with WBUR’s Robin Young.
$50, 7 p.m., Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

BOOKS + READINGS

Torrey Peters
The author of Detransition Baby has done fans waiting for a follow-up novel one better: her new book, Stag Dance, includes the titular novel and three short stories. In the novel, a group of lumberjacks wants to hold a dance, but with no men around, some will have to attend as women—and a couple of them are more than eager.
$7.18-$33.70, 6 p.m., Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

FRIDAY (3/14/25)

MUSIC

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K.Flay
K.Flay has spent her career straddling the border between rock and rap. Her biggest hit was 2016’s “Blood in the Cut,” a starkly dynamic modern blues track with an industrial rock intensity. In 2023, she announced a diagnosis of hearing loss, but rather than being fatal for her career, the condition inspired more music, including the EP I’m Making Friends With The Silence.
$39.25-$120.95, 8 p.m., Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Boston

Chris Janson
This Missouri-raised country singer-songwriter burst on the charts in 2015 with the iconic declaration that “Money can’t buy happiness/ But it can buy me a boat.” He scored bigger hits later on with “Done” and “Good Vibes.” His latest single, off an upcoming album, is the personal statement “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get.”
$53.50-$79.05, 8 p.m., Citizens House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston

COMEDY

Dusty Slay
“Dusty Slay” might sound like a drag queen moniker, but it’s actually the name of an everyman comedian from Alabama, heir apparent to the Blue Collar Comedy legacy. In this recently-posted clip, he talks about telling fish jokes in an audition for Last Comic Standing—a decision that, “in hindsight, was a bit of a mistake.”
$49.85-$73.15, 7 p.m., Boch Center Shubert Theater, 265 Tremont St., Boston

Wes Barker
Comedy magicians are often better at one of their two professions, but roguish Canadian Wes Barker, winner of a second season episode of Penn & Teller: Fool Us, draws equal parts laughter and amazement from his crowds. In this clip, he teaches a buddy how to roll up a frying pan like a newspaper and coaxes an audience member into reading his mind.
$20-$35, 7 p.m., The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Somerville

ALSO: Margaret Cho @ the Wilbur Theatre

FANDOM

Alton Brown
One of the deans of food television, Alton Brown of Good Eats fame will share culinary mega-hacks, comedy songs about food, and more amusements. A prolific author, Brown has published over a dozen books, the most recent of which was 2022’s Good Eats 4: The Final Years.
$76-.45-$97.95, 7:30 p.m., Boch Center Wang Theater, 270 Tremont St., Boston

BOOKS + READINGS

Sloane Crosley
This novelist (Cult Classic, The Clasp) has pulled back the veil of fiction for her new memoir, Grief Is for People, detailing the various shapes of her mourning for a friend who committed suicide. Rejecting the “stages of grief” cliché, she seeks insights in art and philosophy, and relief in candor and grim humor.
Free, 7 p.m., Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

SATURDAY (3/15/25)

MUSIC

The Main Squeeze
Purveyors of exclusively good vibes, this funk outfit emerged about a decade ago from the party scene in the college town of Bloomington, Indiana. They dropped a new album, Panorama, in January. From the opening riff of the first song, “Descent,” they deliver the goods, turning in a mostly lowkey but richly colored-in set of tracks.
$31.61, 8 p.m., The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge

Naghash Ensemble
This Armenian group combines their national folk tradition, contemporary classical music, and medieval polyphony to create an emotionally intense, cinematic sound that transcends past, present, and future in its expression of human drama. Their music, written by pianist and composer John Hodian, is set to poetry by 16^th century Armenian mystic Mkrtich Naghash.
$36-$66, 8 p.m., Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass. Ave., Boston

COMEDY

Sarah Keyworth
Popular in the U.K., this standup comic is beginning to make headway across the pond as well. In this recent Comedy Central clip, they joke about being confused for a teenage boy occasionally and recount how they awkwardly threw up the Communion wafer at a church service as a kid.
$41.50, 7 p.m., Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville

FOOD + DRINK

Starkbierfest at Notch Brewing
Traditionally celebrated during Lent in Munich, this festival of strong beer arrives in Boston courtesy of Notch Brewing, who’ll be offering bock bier, Bavarian food, a performance by the Tuba Frau Hofbräu Band, and, most importantly, the hot poke, a bock bier enhancement involving the insertion of a hot steel rod that creates a pillowy foam while keeping the beer cold.
Free, 12 p.m.-6 p.m., Notch Brewing, 525 Western Ave., Brighton

SUNDAY (3/16/25)

THEATER

From Baghdad to Brooklyn
Michelle Azar, who’s had several one-shot roles in shows like NCIS: Los Angeles and Criminal Minds and co-starred in the webseries How To Beat Your Sister-In-Law (At Everything), wrote and performs this autobiographical one-woman musical telling the story of her Ashkenazi and Sephardic family lineage.
$34, 6 p.m., Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville

MUSIC

Wax Tailor
This French DJ-producer is known for his extremely cool, sample-dense compositions and ambitious projects like his Phonovisions Symphonic Orchestra, which included 35 instrumentalists and 17 vocalists. He’s also collaborated with several prominent alternative rappers, including Del The Funky Homosapien, Mr. Lif, and Mick Jenkins. 2023’s Fishing for Accidents was his last full-length album.
$31.09, 7 p.m., The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge

FESTIVALS

South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade
Held in Southie since 1901, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade has long served as an expression of Irish American civic pride, even if it’s gained a reputation more recently for hooliganry. As always, the route cuts a long, roughly U-shaped path through the heart of the neighborhood, beginning at Broadway Station and ending in Andrew Square.
Free, 11:30 a.m., various locations, South Boston

MONDAY (3/17/25)

MUSIC

Darkside
Conveying the enervated fragmentation of 21st century experience, New York City duo Darkside impressed critics with the mysterious, semi-ambient compositions on their 2013 debut album, Psychic, only to vanish for lengthy hiatus not long after. In 2021, they returned, apparently rejuvenated, with new music. Their latest mind journey, Nothing, arrived at the end of February.
$63.29, 8 p.m., Royale, 279 Tremont St., Boston

Ongoing

SHOPPING

Somerville Winter Farmers Market
With many outdoor farmers markets moving into hibernation, this weekly indoor market, with close to 70 vendors offering produce, dairy, meat, pastries, coffee, specialty items, and more, is an excellent cold weather alternative.
Free, Saturdays through April 12, Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville

ATTRACTIONS

Harry Potter: The Exhibition
Kids and adults awaiting the next nugget Harry Potter media can visit the Wizarding World in spirit at this interactive show, a wonderland of props, costumes, and recreated sets and scenes from the main films, the Fantastic Beasts series, and the stage show Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
$25-$51, through April 27, CambridgeSide, 100 CambridgeSide Pl., Cambridge

Blue Man Group
They’re hardly the newest act on the scene, but there’s still nothing like Blue Man Group, that trio of funny, expressive bald dudes who don’t seem to know how to talk but do seem to know how to make percussion instruments out of just about anything—and Boston is one of just a handful of cities with their own Blue Man chapter performing in apparent perpetuity.
$49-$150, Charles Playhouse, 74 Warrenton St., Boston

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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 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

WNDR Museum
This Downtown Crossing gallery space 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

ART + EXHIBITIONS (Ongoing)

Edvard Munch, “Two Human Beings (The Lonely Ones),” 1906–08. Oil on canvas. Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, The Philip and Lynn Straus Collection.

Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking
While The Scream made Edvard Munch a household name in art history, its fame has come somewhat at the expense of the rest of his large and remarkable oeuvre. Featuring around 70 works, many from Harvard Art Museums’ own collection, this exhibition highlights the emotive Norwegian expressionist’s innovations in materials and techniques.
Free, Friday, March 7 through July 27, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory
Harvard’s Cooper Gallery casts a spotlight on the role of photography and film in shaping our cultural memory of slavery and the post-emancipation era, from the work of 19th century photographer James Presley Ball to the reflections of contemporary figures like William Earle Williams and Omar Victor Diop.
Free, through June 30, Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, 102 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge

Waters of the Abyss: An Intersection of Spirit and Freedom
Haitian artist Fabiola Jean-Louis’ vibrant, multimedia, Vodou reflection of the Gardner Museum’s collection of predominantly European Catholic uses all three temporary exhibition areas to create an autobiographical, historical, spiritual, and political journey, asking two key questions: “What lies at the heart of Black freedom? How are liberation and spirituality intertwined?”
$22, through May 25, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 Evans Way, Boston

Janiva Ellis: Fear Corroded Ape
For Fear Corroded Ape, Janiva Ellis dusted off a group of old, unfinished paintings, each of which she’s struggled repeatedly, over many years, to bring to completion. In their lack of integration, they become a powerful way for Ellis to depict a materially and ideologically crumbling world and the violence, both hidden and overt, that has always undergirded it.
Free, through April 6, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge

Joana Choumali: Languages of West African Marketplaces
There’s a strange disjuncture in this set of 12 hand-quilted and embroidered portraits by Ivorian artist Joana Choumali, whose earnest young West African subjects wear t-shirts printed with silly American slogans and jokes that they don’t know how to translate. From this side of the Atlantic, it’s a surreal and revealing look in the mirror.
Free, through May 11, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Pedro Gómez-Egaña: The Great Learning
Columbian artist Pedro Gómez-Egaña’s first American museum exhibition explores our contemporary experience of time, as he puts it, “in an age when contrasting temporalities coexist with an intensity that often feels irreconcilable.” To convey the idea, he transposes this fracture of time into a space whose solidity is constantly interrupted, multiplied, and otherwise messed with.
Free, through July 27, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames St., Bldg. E15-109, Cambridge

Believers: Artists and the Shakers
Known for their celibacy, their craftsmanship, and not often much else, the monastic and pacifist Shakers, only two of whom remain, are a benignly mysterious presence in American religion. Building on a previous ICA show, this exhibition brings together 10 artists reflecting on the gap between the Shakers’ ideals and their place in the popular imagination.
$20, through August 3, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., 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

John Wilson, The Young Americans: Gabrielle (detail), 1975. Colored crayon and charcoal on paper. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. © Estate of John Wilson.

Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson
Throughout his career, Roxbury-born artist John Wilson documented the impacts of racism on Black communities and individuals with defiant power and dignity. Co-organized with the Met in New York, this is the largest exhibition his work to date, with 110 pieces on display, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, and prints, spanning 60 years.
$27, through June 22, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World
Bringing together works from an international assortment of 20 lenders, this show investigates the exchange between art and science in Islamic societies from the Middle Ages to the present, with special reference to the concept of wonder in the work of medieval scholar Zakariyya al-Qazwini. Its 170 works range from scientific instruments to maps to paintings to reputedly demon-repelling “magic bowls.”
Free, through June 1, McMullen Museum of Art, 2101 Comm. Ave., Brighton

Frank M. Costantino: Visionary Projects
The Boston Athenaeum provides a look behind the scenes of the architectural process through this spotlight on local illustrator Frank M. Costantino, whose 50-year career has included many close-to-home projects, including Hynes Convention Center, the Esplanade, and the Old State House.
$10, through May 3, Boston Athenaeum, 10 ½ Beacon St., Boston

List Projects 31: Kite
The work of the artist Kite, running the gamut from experimental music to video to sculpture to performance, is not easy to summarize, but several themes return, including emergent technology, the philosophical tradition of her people, the Lakȟóta, and the act of close listening—not only to other people, but to dreams and other intelligent entities as well.
Free, through May 18, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames St., Bldg. E15-109, Cambridge

Future Fossils
As climate change and other very reasonable fears prompt anxiety about the future of global civilization, it’s worth asking: what will the people of the future think of us? In this show, eighteen artists from around the world, including Ai Weiwei, Sanford Biggers, Do Ho Suh, and Nari Ward, take up that question, producing an uncanny portrait of contemporary life.
Free, through April 13, MassArt Art Museum, 621 Huntington Ave., 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

Waste Scenes
Maia Chao and Fred Schmidt-Arenales’ project for Recycled Artist in Residency centers on a two-channel video installation contrasting various performances with material gathered from construction and demolition waste piles. The artists conceive of humans as the “counterpart” to trash, exploring our disavowed relationship to waste in both its tragic and comic dimensions.
Free, through March 29, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, 551 Tremont St., Boston 

Landscape and Labor: Dutch Works on Paper in Van Gogh’s Time
The Museum of Fine Arts examines the Hague School artists of the 19th century Netherlands, whose commitment to scenes of everyday rural life, partly a nostalgic reaction to the rise of industrialism, had a decisive influence on Van Gogh’s earthy early work.
$27, through June 22, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Robert Frank: Mary’s Book
Revealing a more intimate side of the Swiss American photographer, Mary’s Book focuses on a photo scrapbook Robert Frank made in 1949 for his eventual first wife, Mary Lockspeiser. Crucial to the experience of these images are Frank’s poetic inscriptions, which add a personal touch to a set of pictures with few human figures.
$27, through June 22, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks
When it comes to painting, nobody in Europe did it quite like the Flemish, inhabitants of modern-day Belgium who revolutionized the art between the 15th and 17th centuries, in terms both of technique and subject matter. Artists on display include Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Hans Memling, Jan Gossaert, Jan Brueghel, and many more. You’ll also get to see a recreated “cabinet of curiosities.”
$20, through May 4, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

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

Titanic: the Artifact Exhibition
Although Robert Ballad, the leader of the team that discovered the wreck of the Titanic, hoped no one would ever go back look for cool stuff there, people totally did. This show, offering a fascinating and intimate glimpse into the famous ocean liner’s lost world, is the first chance Bostonians have had in several years to view these objects.
$39.50-$65, through May 26, The Castle at Park Plaza, 130 Columbus Ave., Boston

Hugh Hayden, Hedges, 2019. Sculpted wood, lumber, hardware, mirror, and carpet. / Hugh Hayden; Courtesy of the Shed Open Call and Lisson Gallery. Photo by Mark Waldhauser Photograph by Mark Waldhauser.

Hugh Hayden: Home Work
Artist Hugh Hayden‘s first New England exhibition is now at Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum. The surrealist sculptor’s show explores the complexities of the American Dream through unsettling transformations of everyday objects. Taking up 7,000 square feet of gallery space, the exhibition turns familiar items like tables and school desks into challenging artworks. The centerpiece, “Hedges (2019),” features a model suburban house with branches bursting through its walls, placed in a mirrored infinity room that creates endless reflections. Through these works, Hayden comments on both psychological barriers and social inequalities that make the American Dream nearly impossible to achieve for so many today. —JACI CONRY
Rose Art Museum, through June 1, 415 South St., Waltham, 781-736-3434.

Charles Atlas: About Time
Immerse yourself in the 50-year career of Missouri-born interdisciplinary artist Charles Atlas, who made his name filming the dances of Merce Cunningham. Eventually, he struck out on his own, but capturing dance and other performances—often in ways that challenged sexual and gender norms—remained central to his practice.
$20, through March 16, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

The elusive narwhal with its magnificent spiral tooth has inspired art, legend, and cultural practice for centuries. / Glenn Williams, Narwhal Tusk Research

Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend
Instantly recognizable among cetaceans for its remarkably long horn, the narwhal is unlike any other sea creature, seemingly ripped from the pages of a fanciful medieval world map. Not satisfied to stop at the narwhal’s mere oddness, this Smithsonian exhibition dives deep into its changing artic world, with input from scientists and members of the Inuit communities who’ve known it the longest.
$20, through June 15, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

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.
$20, ongoing, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

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