Things to See & Do

Have a favorite book with torn pages, a loose cover, or minor binding issues? Bring it to our Book Repair Workshop and learn simple mending techniques with book conservator Luisa Granitto. Participants can bring one or two books for hands-on practice repairing torn pages and loose hinges using archival materials. You’ll also learn how to make an archival “phase box” to protect a family heirloom.

Join the editors and essayists of Thoreau & Philosophy for a conversation exploring Thoreau as one of America's most profound philosophical thinkers. Beyond his literary and naturalist legacy, Thoreau’s work engages philosophical questions that remain deeply relevant today, shaping conversations about ethics, freedom, society, and the environment. Together, the panelists share how situating Thoreau in a philosophical context allows one to more fully appreciate the depth of his thought.   Co-sponsored by the Thoreau Alliance.

Join OARS, Concord Free Public Library, and award-winning author and systems educator Dr. Linda Booth Sweeney for a lively book club conversation about how nature avoids waste and prevents pollution, free and open to all as part of OARS’ Egg Rock Readers book club. Drawing on renowned ecologist Thomas Crowther’s Nature’s Echo and Sweeney’s new children’s book, Do Bees Pee?, we’ll explore nature’s brilliant closed-loop designs, how living systems heal and regenerate, and how to share these ideas with the next generation.

Celebrate the harvest with The Food Project! Join us for Shindig, our intergenerational Harvest Festival Fundraiser, full of music, dancing, delicious food, a beer and cider garden, a pick-your-own pumpkin patch, and more! Enjoy a fun fall afternoon on the farm while empowering young people to make changes in their community by building a sustainable food system.

Join the OARS Team and community members from across the watershed for a day of impact. Gather at your chosen site along one of our three rivers with your OARS staff and board site leaders to pick up trash and debris, restoring habitats and supporting safe access to our waterways. Cleanup equipment will be provided by OARS. All volunteers must register in advance and sign a volunteer waiver to participate.

In conjunction with their 15th anniversary, Artisans Way in Concord Center will be hosting Diane Whitman of Sandia East over the weekend of Sept 26-27 for a show and sale of Native American jewelry and craft. Through her more than 35 years in the Native American jewelry business, Whitman has established relationships with artisans from various tribes and pueblos in New Mexico. She travels to the Southwest several times a year to hand-select hundreds of pieces of jewelry, accessories, and pottery and has been the exclusive source of Native American craft for Artisans Way since its opening in Concord in 2011.

Step into the vibrant fall landscape of Brewster's Woods Wildlife Sanctuary, where mixed forests, open meadows, and riverside habitat create a haven for migrating birds. Take a leisurely guided walk through the sanctuary to look for woodpeckers and warblers flitting through the trees, raptors soaring in the sky, and ducks gliding over the marsh—the property was originally managed to create habitat for migrating waterfowl. Around every bend, the changing season reveals new sights and sounds as birds pause here on their southbound journey.

Minute Man Arc is hosting its 22nd annual Minute Man March! The one-mile, inclusive walk through Concord Center raises funds and awareness each year for the nonprofit’s life-changing programs supporting over 1,400 adults and children with disabilities in Middlesex County. An outdoor celebration will have food, music, silent auction prizes, and activities for all ages.

Join the Concord Museum an evening with Megan Kate Nelson as she explores the captivating lives of women and men moving through the American West—Indigenous peoples, Black Americans, Mexican Americans, and Canadian and Asian immigrants—in the nineteenth century. Her new book, The Westerners, tracks the attempts of many Americans to remove these individuals from history, through a frontier myth that lionized individualism and conquest and celebrated white settlers traveling west in search of prosperity.

It is never too late to bring music into your life. Whether you are an adult beginner, a returning musician, or curious about digital music production, you are invited to a relaxed evening to tour our spaces and meet our world-class faculty. This year, we are thrilled to showcase both our main campus and our brand-new CCM 2 space — featuring our state-of-the-art Media Lab. Find your perfect musical match and explore your creative side!