Things to Do This Week in Boston

Frog Pond Skating Rink
The Frog Pond’s rink, a classic choice for winter dates and family outings in the heart of historic downtown Boston, might be the city’s most iconic skate spot. It’s open seven days a week throughout the season and until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Free-$10 (skate rentals extra), through March 10, Boston Common, 38 Beacon St., Boston
See also: Where to Find Outdoor Skating Rinks in Boston This Winter

Boston’s Winter Fest
The folks behind Boston’s Wicked Haunt Fest have switched holiday masks, offering an ice rink, an Aspen-themed Après Ski Veuve Clicquot Gondola Lounge, seasonal food and drink (including the all-important hot chocolate), photo ops, a life-sized ice castle and a life-sized gingerbread house, a stage with live holiday music, and more.
Free, through January 25, Hood Park, 100 Hood Park, Charlestown
See also: The Ultimate Holiday Guide to Eating, Drinking, and Merrymaking in Boston

Festival of Trees
The Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Garden at Elm Bank is set aglow for this popular annual fundraiser, featuring lovingly decorated trees from local institutions and families, beautiful outdoor lighting displays, and, perhaps most magical of all, the Snow Village, a model train world with a miniature Boston, North Pole, Dickensian village, and other fanciful details.
$22-$27, through December 29, The Garden at Elm Bank, 900 Washington St., Wellesley

Snowport
The Seaport’s winter transformation centers on the Holiday Market, featuring more than 120 vendors and a cocktail bar, but there’s also a tree market, iceless curling lanes (lessons) and lots of special events throughout the season—check the schedule for details.
Free, through February 28, 2025, Seaport Blvd., Boston
More: Snowport, a Hugely Popular Winter Holiday Market, Returns to Boston’s Seaport

THEATER

Diary of a Tap Dancer
Writer-choreographer Ayodele Casel and director Torya Beard, who worked together on a previous American Repertory Theater production, Chasing Magic, are back at the Loeb with this autobiographical work of dance theater, presenting Casel’s life in tap, her treasured influences, and the power of art to express and solidify a sense of identity.
$35-$150, through January 4, Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge

SIX
It’s been two years Bostonians got to see this Tony-winning Broadway musical. SIX reimagines the unfortunate wives of English king Henry VIII as a pop group arguing—through song, of course—over who should get to lead the band.
$45-$275, through December 29, Emerson Colonial Theater, 106 Boylston St., Boston

MUSIC

ISOxo
A trap producer with a rock star’s sense of showmanship, ISOxo made his name with 2021’s “Stinger,” a collaboration with RL Grime. His debut headline show in Los Angeles was so hyped that he needed to switch to a bigger venue to accommodate demand. The hype, evidently, was completely justified, and his shows continue to be some of the wildest in EDM.
$60-$80, Thursday and Friday, December 26-27, Big Night Live, 110 Causeway St., Boston

Bermuda Search Party
Describing themselves as “unapologetically energetic” in their bio, this local quartet earned four Boston Music Award nominations in 2022, the year they released their debut album Melancholy Flowers. Despite its emo title, the album is an upbeat, instantly endearing collection of horn-driven pop funk tracks. Their latest single is the gentle acoustic ditty “Shiver.”
$25, Friday and Saturday, December 27-28, The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge

Dar Williams
This veteran singer-songwriter has history in Massachusetts, where she lived and made her earliest recordings in the 90s. Support from Joan Baez, who covered a couple of her songs, raised her profile considerably. Over her career, she’s also found time to write five books, the last of which was 2002’s How to Write a Song That Matters.
$45-$58, Saturday and Sunday, City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston

Gregory Groover, Jr. Trio
The limber, expressive sounds of this local sax player will echo in the Institute of Contemporary Art for a pair of post-Christmas afternoons. As a preview, here’s a clip of Groover rocking out with his trio at WGBH in 2022. His latest album, Lovabye, dropped in April.
Free, Thursday and Friday, December 26-27, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

Holiday Pops
Keith Lockhart’s crowd-pleasing December treat includes holiday favorites like “Sleigh Ride” and “Jingle Bells,” special guest performances, a reading of the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” and the all-important visit from Santa. Note for parents: although performances are family friendly, the matinees are traditionally even more geared toward kids.
$51-$240, through December 24, Symphony Hall, 301 Mass. Ave., Boston

COMEDY

Jimmy Tingle: Humor & Hope for the Holidays
Longtime comic and one-time politician Jimmy Tingle returns for his holiday show, an annually updated mix of memoir and socio-political commentary displaying his remarkable talent for inspiring an audience, even while enumerating a set of dire circumstances—consider it more evidence that New England pessimism is really just optimism in disguise.
$30-$45, Thursday and Sunday, December 26 and 29, City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston

Des Bishop
New Yorker Des Bishop started his career in Ireland, where he became a well-known TV personality. In one section of his latest special, Of All People, he describes his experience visiting China and learning Mandarin for a TV series, which included getting a job as a waiter. “You don’t have call it a Chinese restaurant there—it’s just a restaurant,” he facetiously explains.
$33, Friday and Saturday, December 27-28, Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston

Holidazed and Confused
Let the comedy experts at Improv Asylum be your coaches in decompressing from the holiday season, with sketches recounting Santa’s lesser-known experiences, parodies of Hallmark Christmas romances, a celebration of the wonderful winter weather in New England, and more.
$35-$40, through Saturday, December 28, Improv Aslylum, 216 Hanover St., Boston

BURLESQUE

The Slutcracker
Although few have complained that the problem with Christmas is that it’s not sexy enough, Ballets Ruses went ahead and created this bawdy, hilarious skewering of The Nutcracker anyway, bringing balance to the Force each year in a city full of highbrow holiday fare and proving that sometimes you don’t know what you need until it shows up carrying a dildo.
$35, through January 5, Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville

DANCE

Urban Nutcracker
Tony Williams’ uniquely Bostonian spin on The Nutcracker uses Duke Ellington’s swingin’ version of Tchaikovsky’s score and embraces a range of dance styles including tap, hip hop, flamenco, and jazz. The December 20 show is a special LGBTQ+ edition, featuring local drag queen Patty Bourrée.
$29-$125, through December 22, Boch Center Shubert Theater, 265 Tremont St., Boston

Boston Ballet: The Nutcracker
Magical from top to bottom, Mikko Nissinen’s distinctive take on Tchaikovsky’s Christmas staple has more than earned its reputation as one of the best events of the Boston holiday season. Not much has changed this year, but when you’ve got something as dialed in as this, that’s a very good thing.
$35-$385, through December 29, Citizens Opera House, 539 Washington St., Boston

MULTIMEDIA

Genesis
A popular draw in Europe, Genesis transforms a Brookline synagogue into an immersive light and sound experience, bringing the biblical story of creation to life with high-tech projections on the ceiling and walls, synced with classical music by Joseph Haydn, Gustav Mahler, and Jacques Offenbach.
$16.50-$23, through January 5, Temple Ohabei Shalom, 1187 Beacon St., Brookline

KID-FRIENDLY

Disney on Ice: Mickeys Search Party
Combining world class skating with a host of iconic characters, Disney on Ice is a winter break treat for younger kids. In this production, Mickey leads a search through various Disney universes for the missing Tinkerbell. Along with Mickey’s gang, you’ll see characters from Moana, Coco, Frozen, Aladdin, Toy Story, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast.
$15-$155, through Monday, December 30, Agganis Arena, 925 Comm. Ave., Boston

FANDOM

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, 2025, CambridgeSide, 100 CambridgeSide Pl., Cambridge

The Friends Experience
If you’re ever watched Friends and dreamt of living in a perpetual ’90s New York full of spacious, mysteriously affordable apartments, cute cafés, and good times, this traveling exhibition, with recreated props and whole sets from the iconic sitcom—even the couch from the show’s intro—might be the closest you’ll get.
$29.54-$33.32, through January 19, 2025, 343 Newbury St., Boston

MOVIES

Mufasa: The Lion King
Disney returns to its computer animated Lion King universe to relate the never-before-told story of Simba’s father, Mufasa, and the origins of his epic beef with Scar. As it turns out, the great king had humble beginnings as an abandoned cub, and it was Scar, a prince, who found him.
$9.99-$15.49, opens Thursday, December 19, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

The Muppet Christmas Carol
Many have declared it to be the best cinematic adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” but whether or not that’s true, one thing’s for sure: this is the only adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” starring the Muppets—and Michael Caine, of course.
$8-$10, Saturday and Sunday, December 22-23, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

Unsilent Nights
If you’re more in the mood for action and adventure than holiday cheer, the Brattle has you covered this week with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, RRR, Pacific Rim, Speed Racer, The Dark Knight, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Mad Max: Fury Road, Die Hard, and Die Hard 2. Those last two, of course, famously do have a bit of holiday cheer, but that’s just how things come full circle.
$12.50-$14.50, Tuesday through Monday, December 17-23, Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge

Flow
This gorgeous Latvian animated feature has earned awards at multiple festivals. Entirely lacking dialogue, it follows a cat who, after its home is destroyed in a sudden flood, finds a boat and joins its animal crew in exploring a newly submerged world.
$9-$13, Capitol Theater, 204 Massachusetts Ave., Arlington

The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim
Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) directed this anime Lord of the Rings tale, based on notes from the appendices of J.R.R. Tolkein’s fantasy epic. Taking place 183 years before the main trilogy, The War of Rohirrim centers on Helm Hammerhand, king of Rohan, tasked with defending his country from the invading Dunlendings.
$10.99-$14.49, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

Queer
Call Me by Your Name director Luca Guadagnino takes on some rather different gay literature in this adaptation of Beat writer William S. Burroughs’ auto-fictional second novel. Queer takes place in the expat community of 1950s Mexico, where Burroughs’ stand-in, William Lee (Daniel Craig), meets a younger man (Drew Starkey) who breathes color into his stale life.
$12-$16, Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville

Y2K
Playing cleverly on early 2000s nostalgia and contemporary tech anxiety, Kyle Mooney’s comedy thriller imagines an alternate history in which the Y2K Bug, rather than turning out to be a nearly complete nothingburger, caused technology to awaken and attack humanity.
$14.49, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

Nightbitch
Amy Adams is a stressed-out suburban mom who responds to the pressures of life by literally turning into a dog in this surreal entry from director Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), based on the novel by Rachel Yoder.
$13.50-$15.50, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

Moana 2
Disney returns to ancient Polynesia for this sequel, which finds our heroine (Auliʻi Cravalho) teaming up once again with the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) to break a powerful curse. Along the way, the encounter the familiar Kakamora, as well as a new enemy, Matangi, a goddess of the underworld.
$7-$15.49, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

Maria Callas
Angelina Jolie takes on legendary opera singer Maria Callas in this biopic, focusing, with plenty of flashbacks, on the last days of a life that took Callas from a tense upbringing in a Greek immigrant family to the heights of international fame.
$13.50-$15.50, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

A Real Pain
In his second film as writer and director, Jesse Eisenberg casts himself and Kieran Culkin as a pair of Jewish American cousins who travel to their ancestral homeland of Poland to connect with their heritage—but these two very different guys may have more to teach each other than Poland had to teach either of them.
$17, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

Wicked
The long-awaited Hollywood version of the beloved Broadway smash—easily the most successful piece of Wizard of Oz fan fiction ever produced—is finally here and bigger than ever, with Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, future Wicked Witch of the West, opposite Ariana Grande as Glinda.
$13.99-$17.49, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

Gladiator II
Perhaps it was all those men thinking about the Roman Empire that manifested this belated sequel to Ridley Scott’s 2000 historical epic. Paul Mescal leads the cast as Lucius, son of Maximus, led by unfortunate events to carry on his father’s blood sport legacy.
$16.50-$18.50, Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge

Red One
If you think Hollywood ran out of Christmas ideas long ago, you obviously aren’t aware of the new action comedy Red One, in which Dwayne Johnson plays North Pole chief of security Callum Drift, who must team up with ace bounty hunter Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans) to rescue a kidnapped Santa (J.K. Simmons).
$10.99-$14.49, Alamo Drafthouse, 60 Seaport Blvd., Boston

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, but his scandalized parents are determined to undo the marriage.
$13.50-$15.50, Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

ALSO:

• The Ultimate Holiday Guide to Eating, Drinking, and Merrymaking in Boston
• The Ultimate Guide to Candlepin Bowling in and around Boston

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MONDAY (12/23/24)

MUSIC

Sons of Serendipity
This quartet met at Boston University, where they were studying law, cello, harp, and theology respectively. Their mix of classical and pop impressed the judges on America’s Got Talent, and it’s perfect for Christmastime. At this show, they’ll play songs from their alum Christmas: Beyond the Lights.
$25-$55, 7:30 p.m., City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston

TUESDAY (12/24/24)

COMEDY

The Chosen Show
This standup showcase is branded for the Jewish Christmas experience, right down to the food, courtesy of iconic Harvard Square establishment The Hong Kong. Dan Crohn hosts, with sets from Ellen Sugarman, Tooky Kavanagh, Mike Pincus, Jeff Medoff, Josh Goldstein., and others.
$35-$45, 8 p.m., The Comedy Studio, 5 ¾ John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge

GOING OUT

MatzoBall
Billed as “the nation’s #1 holiday party,” MatzoBall is the spot for Jewish young singles looking to party on Christmas Eve. First held in Boston in 1987, it’s spread since then to several other cities, and it’s been going on long enough that the kids of couples who met there are now trying their luck too—that’s the power of tradition for you.
$50-$400, 9 p.m.-2 a.m., The Grand, 58 Seaport Blvd., Boston

WEDNESDAY (12/25/24)

GOING OUT 

White Xmas
Whether you simply don’t celebrate or you’ve just had your fill of Christmas and want to get out of the house and dance, here’s one place to go. Just make sure you wear all white—that’s the theme of the party, so it’s what the holiday spirit demands.
$20, 10 p.m.-2 a.m., Venu, 100 Warrenton St., Boston

THURSDAY (12/26/24)

MUSIC

The Adam Ezra Group
This Boston folk outfit is so local they’ve even rewritten “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” with a Boston spin, complete with frontman Adam Ezra adopting The Accent—here’s a 2023 performance. When the lockdowns hit in mid-March 2020, they livestreamed for 500 consecutive nights. Since then, they’ve been doing it at a more manageable rate of twice weekly.
$35-$48, 7:30 p.m., City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston

COMEDY SPORTS 

The Harlem Globetrotters
Their moves may be NBA legal, but nobody plays basketball like these guys, the world’s premiere hoop clowns and court tricksters. Fun fact: the Globetrotters originated in Chicago, not Harlem, but their manager changed their hometown in 1929 to invoke Harlem’s reputation in those days as a center of Black culture.
$49.50-$541.50, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., TD Garden, 100 Legends Way, Boston

FRIDAY (12/27/24)

MUSIC

Kindred the Family Soul
Each half of this Philadelphia neo soul duo has been in the music industry since they were in their teens. They broke into the R&B charts a few times in the 2000s, most memorably with the tracks “Far Away” and “Where Would I Be (The Question)”, songs that capture the essence of neo soul at the height of its popularity. Their last album was 2021’s Auntie and Unc.
$35-$65, 7 p.m., City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston

Melissa Ferrick
Ipswich native Melissa Ferrick’s open queerness set her apart in the music industry of the 90s, when coming out still held a risk—almost quaint to imagine an age of Chappell Roans and Sam Smiths. This year, the folk pop singer-songwriter released a new, stripped-down version of her fourth album, Everything I Need, to commemorate its 25^th anniversary.
$35, 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Cambridge

COMEDY

Frank Santorelli
Frank Santorelli may be familiar to TV audiences as Georgie, the bartender at the Bada Bing in The Sopranos. In this clip from Godfathers of Comedy, he jokes about his questionable weight loss techniques, a bad time cross-country skiing, and some of his favorite words, which include “tweezers,” “plucked,” and “lozenge.”
$25, 7 p.m., Nick’s Comedy Stop, 100 Warrenton St., Boston

Dan Crohn
“You know we’re from Boston when we were voted Worst Traffic and we’re like, ‘Good!” jokes Dan Crohn in this 2024 set. He’s also an enjoyer of the fake out joke. Discussing his insomnia in the same clip, he says, “I get up, I check on the baby, and then I realize I don’t have a baby, and that relaxes me.”
$22.50, 7:30 p.m., White Bull Tavern, 1 Union St., Boston

SATURDAY (12/28/24)

MUSIC

Dalton & the Sheriffs
This homegrown country rock act is a popular draw across the region—they’ve even headlined at the Leader Bank Pavilion, which they refer to by its proper name in the title of their recent release Live at Harborlights. The album opens with the anthem “Boston”, and if you detect the influence of The Boss, you’ll be validated later on by their song  “Springsteen”.
$30-$50, 7 p.m., Roadrunner, 89 Guest St., Brighton

Mau P
This Dutch techno DJ-producer hit the ground running—his very first track, 2022’s “Drugs from Amsterdam”, shot to the top spot on the main Beatport chart. This year, he released a collab with Diplo, “Receipts”; his latest single is the rave-up “Merther”, built around a sample from Ini Kamoze’s “World-a-Reggae”.
$55, 9:30 p.m., Big Night Live, 110 Causeway St., Boston

Professor Caffeine & the Insecurities
Fans of Coheed and Cambria will immediately get this local band’s mix of mathy emo, metal, and progressive rock. Their speed and precision as a unit is top notch—witness the rapid runs on “The Spinz” and the dizzying riffage of “Wolf Fang Fist!”, both off their self-titled album, released this year.
$14, 7 p.m., Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

COMEDY

Big Jay Oakerson
This Legion of Skanks co-host’s 2023 self-released special Dog Belly provides a vivid glimpse into his raunchy but good-natured mind as he relates how he spiced up his sex life, his belated reactions to Bill Cosby’s crimes, his experiences with politically-motivated critics (“Don’t defend yourself—it never sounds great”), and other topics.
$39-$49, 7 p.m., The Wilbur, 246 Tremont St., Boston

SUNDAY (12/29/24)

MUSIC

Steve Aoki
One of the best-known names in EDM, Steve Aoki has shown his range collaborating with a motley crew of major artists, from Lil Jon to Taking Back Sunday to the Backstreet Boys. On his newest album, Paragon, he pairs himself up with several guest vocalists, including, on the track “ELECTROWAVEBABY 2.0”,  his frequent remix subject Kid Cudi.
$42.50, 9:30 p.m., Big Night Live, 110 Causeway St., Boston

MOVIES

Being Robin
Roger Kabler is no ordinary impressionist—since a strange experience in 2014, he’s held the conviction that he can channel the spirit of Robin Williams, who died that year. Thereafter, he began performing a one-man, all-Robin revue that’s part virtuoso copycat act, part heartfelt tribute. In this documentary, he tells his story.
$15, 3 p.m., Regent Theater, 7 Medford St., Arlington

MONDAY (12/30/24)

MUSIC

Gordo
DJ-producer Gordo spent most of his career working under the moniker Carnage; he fully switched to his current name in 2022, stepping back a bit from the limelight to focus on producing for other artists. Despite this shift in priorities, he’s still found time enough time to put together a new album, Diamante, which appeared this summer.
$40.25, 9:30 p.m., Big Night Live, 110 Causeway St., Boston

HOLIDAY FUN

Chanukah Celebration at Arsenal Yards
Experience a menorah lighting, a fire dance performance (this is the Festival of Lights, after all), live music, a gelt drop with help from the Watertown Fire Department, and an interactive lighting display from Brighter United.
Free, 4 p.m.-6 p.m., Arsenal Yards, 130 Arsenal Yards Blvd., Watertown

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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

Copley Square Farmers Market
Farmers markets spring up across the Boston area this time of year, 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.
Free, Tuesdays and Fridays through November 26, Copley Square, 227-230 Dartmouth St., Boston

ATTRACTIONS

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

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, opens Saturday, November 23, 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

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ART + EXHIBITIONS (Ongoing)

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, Saturday, December 21 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, 2025, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

Steina: Playback
A relatively rare solo exhibition from the one-named multidisciplinary Icelandic artist, Playback provides a crash course in Steina’s ongoing quest to imagine “machine vision,” i.e. non-human intelligence and perspectives. If you’re imagining AI here, try going more esoteric—what concerns Steina exists in nature as well as in cyberspace.
Free, through January 12, 2025, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames St., Bldg. E15-109, Cambridge

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

Art of the Black World
If you’ve ever wondered what might be like to take class at Harvard, this exhibition, a companion to the university’s undergraduate course of the same name may provide a small taste. Art of the Black World includes works by Romare Bearden, Gordon Parks, Elizabeth Catlett, and other great artists.
Free, through January 5, 2025, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Power of the People: Art and Democracy
The Museum of Fine Arts has scoured its extensive collection to assemble this eclectic exploration of the ways in which artists have celebrated democracy, exhorted viewers to participate, and raised the alarm about its health. Objects range from the silver work of Paul Revere to Roman coinage to the stylish posters of Shepard Fairey.
$27, through February 16, 2025, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

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 February 2, 2025, The Castle at Park Plaza, 130 Columbus Ave., Boston

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.

Mary Ellen Mark: A Seattle Family, 1983-2014
The Gardner devotes its Fenway Gallery to renowned photojournalist Mary Ellen Mark’s personal and artistic relationship with Erin “Tiny” Blackwell, a Seattle resident who met Mark as a teenage runaway and consented to having her life documented—a project that went on for a remarkable 30 years.
$22, through January 20, 2025, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 Evans Way, Boston

Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Moore
The San Diego Museum of Art assembled this traveling show comparing two of the biggest names in 20^th century art, with 60 works from O’Keeffe and 90 from Moore, alongside recreations of both artists’ studios. While Moore’s huge figurative sculptures and O’Keeffe’s portraits of flowers may seem unrelated, the pair prove to have a surprising amount in common.
$34, through January 20, 2025, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston

Manet: A Model Family
In the first exhibition of its kind, the Gardner Museum explores Édouard Manet’s frequent use of his family as models and subjects, delving into their relationships with him and each other—which, as with most families, were filled with both love and tension.
$22, through January 20, 2025, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 25 Evans Way, Boston

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, 2025, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

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, 2025, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

Conjuring the Spirit World: Art, Magic, and Mediums
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, a mania for contacting the dead spread across Europe and the United States—it was the era of Spiritualism. This show brings together a wide array of objects and art—paintings, posters, photos, stage contraptions, and more—to try to get to the bottom of this macabre and often sensationalist pop cultural epoch. See paintings, posters, photographs, stage apparatuses, costumes, film, publications, and other objects that transport visitors to the age of Harry Houdini, Margery the Medium, Howard Thurston, and the Fox Sisters, among others.
$20, through February 2, 2025, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

Made in Germany? Art and Identity in a Global Nation
What does it mean to be German today, as the monoculture of old gives way to increasing diversity? This selection of work from 23 different German artists, dating back to 1980, highlights the strains placed on traditional ideas of nationality by increased immigration and the plight of those economically left behind.
Free, through January 5, 2025, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge

Tau Lewis: Spirit Level
Toronto-born, Jamaican-descended artist Tau Lewis crafts densely textured objects from a variety of found materials with some personal meaning—fabrics, photos, stuff from the beach, etc. In doing so, she reclaims the power to produce in a factory-made world and participates in a diasporic tradition of upcycling ingenuity.
$20, through Jan 20, 2025, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston

Agustina Woodgate: Ballroom
Visitors to this installation pass over a set of globes on the floor, all carefully altered to erase national borders and other human-declared lines of divison. What’s the message—one of earthly unity, or humanity’s self-destruction? The answer is left for us to ponder.
$20, through February 23, 2025, Peabody Essex Museum, 161 Essex St., Salem

Innovation: Earth
Explore the newest advancements in sustainability at this interactive, “choose your own adventure”-style exhibit, part of the Museum of Science’s Year of the Earthshot. You’ll get the latest on urban farming, electric vehicles, and solar panels, as well as less-discussed topics, like using mushrooms to make leather, and you’ll get to simulate the impact of all of them.
$31, through December 31, Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston

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

Service and Sacrifice: World War II—A Shared Experience
World War II was a conflagration that not only brought millions of Americans into military service overseas but also pervaded every aspect of life at home. No one was left untouched, from the most marginalized citizens at the time to the highest echelons of society, including the Kennedy family. In this vast exhibition, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum highlights how all Americans were affected in both honorable and unjust ways. Amid countless artifacts and documents, visitors can see JFK’s U.S. Navy dress jacket and wartime correspondence, the flight suit worn by Tuskegee airman Woodrow W. Crockett, and Ansel Adams’s photographs of Japanese Americans held in an infamous internment camp. —MATTHEW REED BAKER
$3-$18, through January 5, 2025, Columbia Point, Boston, jfklibrary.org.

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

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OUT OF TOWN

Tony Sarg: Genius at Play
Organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in partnership with the Nantucket Historical Association, this exhibition opened this summer at the Nantucket Whaling Museum as the first comprehensive show exploring the life, art, and adventures of Tony Sarg (1880–1942). Known as the father of modern puppetry in North America and the originator of the iconic Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade balloons, Sarg was an accomplished illustrator, animator, designer, and nimble entrepreneur who summered on—and took inspiration from—Nantucket for nearly twenty years. “Genius at Play” features original artwork, illustrations, marionettes, animations, books, commercial products, archival photographs, and ephemera from Sarg’s dynamic life and career. Highlighting Sarg’s tremendous talent and legacy within the fields of puppetry and illustration, the exhibition also reveals how Nantucket inspired the many ways that this influential artist gave back to the island he loved so much. —JACI CONRY
Through January 31, 13 Broad St., Nantucket, 508-228-1894, nha.org.

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