Live music, Oaxacan wood carving, and festive decorations help to make this a joyful event designed to remember and welcome back the spirits of loved ones. Decorate a sugar skull (additional $6 fee); sip spicy chocolate; make papel picado (cut paper banners), cempasúchil flowers, and other artwork; and write a message in any language you choose to place upon the community altar. The community altar art will be created by students at the Rafael Hernández Dual Language School in Boston.

Regular museum admission rates apply. No advance...

Remember and celebrate your departed loved ones at this year’s Día de los Muertos altar, savor traditional Mexican hot chocolate and pan de muerto, and enjoy live music.

Free and open to the public. Reservations required; request a reservation on this page starting Tuesday, October 1 at 9:00 AM. 

Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street...

In 1938–1939, Harvard University funded an expedition to Australia aimed at understanding how colonization had affected Indigenous peoples and their physiology, and at informing government policy as it shifted from segregation to assimilation. Led by anthropologists Norman B. Tindale and Joseph Birdsell, the expedition gathered more than 6,000 individual records from Indigenous people on missions and settlements—records that have since inspired community-based research projects and land claims. Philip Jones will set the expedition within the context of anthropological history and explore...

Read the program description in Spanish/Lea la descripción del programa en español.

Back by popular demand! Learn to paint Zapotec design motifs with visiting artists from Oaxaca, Mexico. The father-son team of Ventura and Norberto Fabian continues the tradition of creating hand-carved and painted wooden figures known as alebrijes. This folk art is rooted in traditional aspects of rural village daily life and is now one of Mexico’s largest-selling craft...

Read the program description in Spanish/Lea la descripción del programa en español.

Back by popular demand! Learn to paint Zapotec design motifs with visiting artists from Oaxaca, Mexico. The father-son team of Ventura and Norberto Fabian continues the tradition of creating hand-carved and painted wooden figures known as alebrijes. This folk art is rooted in traditional aspects of rural village daily life and is now one of Mexico’s largest-selling craft...

In A Fool’s Errand (Smithsonian, 2019), Lonnie Bunch shares the vision and leadership he brought to the realization of the National Museum of African American History and Culture—a dream shared by many generations of Americans. Bunch’s deeply personal story reveals the triumphs and challenges of bringing the museum to life and taps into broader questions of the role of race in America—past, present, and future. In this program, he will engage in a conversation with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates to discuss the significance and impact of the museum at a time when...

Voices of the Rainforest is an experiential documentary about the ecological and aesthetic coevolution of Papua New Guinea’s Bosavi rainforest region and its inhabitants. The film immerses viewers in the rainforest, making myriad connections between the everyday sounds of the rainforest biosphere and the creative practices of the Bosavi people who sing to, with, and about it. Following the screening, Steven Feld will discuss the film with Amahl Bishara, an associate professor of anthropology at Tufts University.

Free admission, but tickets are required. Visit...

“Shrink” yourself down to “walk” into an ancient Maya vessel using augmented reality! Maya women were often essential for uniting kingdoms. When a marriage was arranged between Maya royal families, kings would exchange gifts like this ceramic three-legged plate for serving chocolate. Use the museum’s iPad as a “magic window” to discover fine details on one such plate that cannot be seen on the actual artifact. A gallery facilitator will guide you through the experience and will share more about the Maya.

Regular museum admission rates apply.
See the related virtual reality...

What does it mean to be a maker, artist, or artisan in the twenty-first century? In her new book, Almost Lost Arts (Chronicle Books, 2019), Emily Freidenrich explores the work of twenty artisans from points worldwide who practice their craft using traditional techniques and analog technologies. Three Boston-based artists who specialize in calligraphy and handmade signs will engage in a conversation with Freidenrich and museum curator Narayan Khandekar to discuss the rewards and challenges of using slow, intentional processes in a fast-paced digital world, and to...

In this special event, Juan Alonso Rodriguez will explain how to make a molinillo, the whisk-like wooden tool that is traditionally used in Mexico to make froth in chocolate beverages. Together with Ana Rita García-Lascuráin, he will discuss the history of chocolate production in Mexico and its current renaissance. Using molinillos, members of the Cambridge-based Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute will make three different chocolate beverages that participants can taste during the program.

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Adolescence is dangerous, difficult, and destiny-shaping for humans and other animals. In Wildhood (Simon & Schuster, 2019), Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers look across species and evolutionary time to find answers to a single, consequential question: Why do some adolescents safely, successfully, and independently enter the adult world, while so many others do not? The authors apply the results of their five-year study of wild animal adolescence to our species, presenting a new understanding of the dangers, stresses, and challenges we face on our...

Work Without Limits, The Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, and Disability:IN Massachusetts are excited to partner on the 7th Annual Raise the Bar HIRE! Conference. This annual conference features prominent national keynote speakers, education sessions, exhibitors, networking opportunities, and sharing of best practices on disability employment. Additional information.

Work Without Limits regularly offers education and networking events for employers, service providers, and individuals with disabilities. Their events include, but are not limited to, career fairs, our annual Raise the Bar HIRE! Conference, as well as our annual Disability Mentoring Day. The annual career fair, specifically, connects job seekers with disabilities with leading employers to hire....

Read the program description in Spanish/Lea la descripción del programa en español.

Family Program 

Watch a vibrant collection of animated shorts narrated in some of the 68 Indigenous languages of Mexico. Created by visiting Mexican designer Gabriela Badillo and selected from her project 68 Voices, 68 Hearts, these films foster pride, respect, and the use of Indigenous Mexican languages among speakers and non-speakers. The family-friendly stories are subtitled in...

Read the program description in Spanish/Lea la descripción del programa en español.

Open to all.

K–12 educators: Registration for K–12 educators is highly recommended. Participants will receive a certificate of attendance. Educators enter free-of-charge with a Massachusetts teacher ID. Arrive early and visit the Peabody Museum. Admission to the Peabody Museum and the connected...