Things to do in Cambridge
Green Cambridge - Green Cambridge focuses on creating sustainable cities and neighborhoods and protecting the environment to ensure the health of everyone in the community. Provide outdoor education using art and science, programs, and opportunities to volunteer at Cambridge neighborhood farms through Open Farm Hours.
Harvard Art Museums - Visit and explore collections spanning modern and contemporary art and works of artistic innovation from across the globe. Admission is free to the public on Sundays—and the museum hosts a wide variety of events, including gallery talks, workshops, and special programs.
Harvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology - Visit the Harvard Peabody Museum exhibit Resetting the Table: Food & Our Changing Tastes to learn about how social, economic, and political forces have shaped the ways Americans have eaten through time.
Urban park (UP) Roof Garden - The UP Roof Garden is a rooftop garden in Kendall Square filled with an assortment of vegetables, herbs, and flowers. The garden, located at the Kendall Center, offers free produce to any visitors, and is the site for community events including free fitness classes, food classes, and outdoor activities.
The Daily Table - Volunteer at The Daily Table, a nonprofit community-based grocery chain that provides healthy foods at low prices to low-income communities. There are multiple locations to volunteer at, and anyone can shop there.
Broad Discovery Center - The new Broad Discovery Center in Kendall Square is an active, public educational space that highlights how researchers at the Broad Institute—and around the globe—are working to understand and treat the causes of disease. The Center features five galleries, where visitors can view interactive exhibits spanning a range of topics, from infectious diseases to scientific technologies. Admission is free to the public.
Temporary Exhibits
In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss, Harvard Museum of Natural History - Open through May 20, 2024. On view at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, this multi-sensory exhibition combines art and science for visitors to explore the natural world and climate change. Providing a modern interpretation of Henry David Thoreau’s preserved plants, the exhibition urges visitors to connect the loss of natural diversity to human-induced climate change using art, science, and history.
Growing Islands, MIT Museum - On view at the MIT Museum, this installation presents a model for envisioning how the world’s coasts and coastal populations could be protected from the detrimental effects of climate change and deterioration. The installation presents a visual to imagine how natural solutions might be used to rebuild and protect coastlines globally.
Changing Landscapes: An Immersive Journey, Museum of Science - On view at the Museum of Science, this exhibition uses immersive, cutting-edge technology to explore four UNESCO World Heritage Sites affected by the global climate crisis. Using hands-on interactives and engaging multimedia, users can explore the scale and impact of climate threats on landscapes and populations around the world.
Things to do in Boston/Greater Boston
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum - Every first Thursday of the month, admission is free and the museum is open to the community, featuring special programming around a specific topic for the evening, centered around discovery. Community members can explore art and artist studios, hear from featured artists/speakers, and learn about new topics through interactive activities.
Waterworks Museum - Provides and interprets stories of Boston’s water system, through programming and exhibits on urban history, engineering, public health, and safe water access, using history to present challenges and current water issues.
Paul S. Russell Museum of Medical History and Innovation - Free and open to the public, the Museum of Medical History and Innovation presents the history of medical innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Emerald Necklace - Visit the Shattuck Visitor Center to learn about how Frederick Law Olmsted created the Emerald Necklace, a series of parks along a human-made riverway that doubles as public greenspace and a stormwater drainage system for the Boston area.
Arnold Arboretum - Take a walk around the Arnold Arboretum to enjoy the outdoors and learn about the arboretum’s extensive collection of plants. Admission is free and guided tours and exhibitions are frequently available.