What's happening at Penn State? Here's a look at some of the cultural events — both in-person and virtual — taking place across the University:
Performances
Concert and Symphonic Bands – 7:30 p.m., March 6, Eisenhower Auditorium, University Park campus. Join the Penn State School of Music for an evening of wind band music showcasing contemporary and classic works.
"How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" — Through March 7, Playhouse Theatre, University Park campus. Follow a young window-cleaner, J. Pierrepont Finch, as he begins a meteoric rise from the mail room to Vice President of Advertising at the World-Wide Wicket Company. Directed and choreographed by Christopher Campbell, music directed by Joseph Ivan.
"Dirty Dancing" in Concert – 7:30 p.m., March 12, Pullo Center, York campus. Enjoy the hit film “Dirty Dancing” on a full-size cinema screen, with a live band and singers performing the film’s iconic songs. Following the film, the band and singers will throw an encore party that will surely take you back to the time of your life as you sing and dance along to your favorite songs.
New Music Festival and Symposium — March 20-22, Recital Hall, University Park campus. The festival will consist of multiple concerts and research presentation sessions, featuring the work of composers and scholars selected through an international call for scores and research proposals. Selected composer participants will attend the festival, work with performers, network with other participants and within the Penn State community, and hear their compositions presented on a festival concert.
Events
Bike Den Women and Queer Night — 6:15-8:15 p.m., March 6, the Bike Den, University Park campus. Open to Penn State students, faculty and staff as well as local community members, attendees can work on their bikes, enjoy free pizza, talk to Bike Den staff and volunteers, and learn more about biking at Penn State and the surrounding area.
Café Laura Theme Dinner: Hell’s Kitchen: Bringing the Heat to Happy Valley — March 6, Café Laura, Mateer Building, University Park campus. Students in HM 430 Advanced Food Production and Service Management prepare a series of themed dinners throughout the semester to be served in the student-run Café Laura restaurant. Reservations required.
Creative Studio at the Palmer: A Nouveau Day for Sketching — 5:30-7:30 p.m., March 6, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. Get creative and take time to relax and rejuvenate through art-making processes. Hosted by museum educators, interns or guest artists, these sessions will focus on the practice of creativity, exploring artistic mediums, and making personal connections rather than on final products. Free.
Woskob Gallery reception for ‘Incident and Accident: Daily Drawings — 5 to 7 p.m., March 7, Woskob Family Gallery, 146 S. Allen St., Downtown State College. The College of Arts and Architecture’s Woskob Family Gallery will host an opening reception for the exhibition featuring works by former Department of Architecture faculty member Cathy Braasch.
Winter Jam 2025 – 7 p.m., March 8, Bryce Jordan Center, University Park campus. The Winter Jam 2025 Tour will bring Christian music’s biggest performances to Penn State, featuring Skillet, Anne Wilson, KB, Colton Dixon, Newsong, Micah Tyler and speaker Zane Black.
Café Laura Theme Dinner: Into the Garden - A Farm to Table Experience — March 18, Café Laura, Mateer Building, University Park campus. Students in HM 430 Advanced Food Production and Service Management prepare a series of themed dinners throughout the semester to be served in the student-run Café Laura restaurant. Reservations required.
Yoga + Mindfulness at the Palmer — Noon-1 p.m., March 19, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. Join Latisha Franklin for a free yoga class at the Palmer. All bodies are welcome, no experience is necessary.
"Mokita Dialogue: Health and Healing Through the Arts" — Noon, March 19, Eisenhower Auditorium, University Park campus. The Penn State Center for the Performing Arts is partnering with Jana Marie Foundation to hold a Mokita Dialogue conversation about health and healing through the arts. Featured speaker Bill Doan will host a screening of his award-winning animated film, "Crowboy," a contemporary parable about childhood loneliness. After the screening, attendees will gather to exchange ideas about the role of creative expression as a protective factor for mental health. Free. Registration required.
Café Laura Theme Dinner: Te Fiti’s Table - A Moana Adventure — March 20, Café Laura, Mateer Building, University Park campus. Students in HM 430 Advanced Food Production and Service Management prepare a series of themed dinners throughout the semester to be served in the student-run Café Laura restaurant. Reservations required.
Lectures
Gallery Talk: "Profiles of Vulnerability and Protection" — 4 p.m., March 6, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. Enjoy an in-depth engagement on special exhibition "Profiles of Vulnerability and Protection" with the theme “Vulnerable Labor and Protection” with Professor Karen Keifer-Boyd.
Guest Artist Masterclass: Meghan Bennett, Flute — 1:30 p.m., March 7, Esber Rehearsal Hall, University Park campus. Meghan Bennett serves as music assistant professor and director of woodwind Studies at New York University and on the flute faculty of the Music Advancement Program at The Juilliard School. She will give a free masterclass at Penn State March 7.
“Branching Out: The Power of Trees, Forest Ecology and Community Health” – 5 p.m., March 8, Great Valley campus. Renowned ecologist Nalini Nadkarni will discuss the power of trees to save lives and provide for the future along with Casey Sclar, director of the Commonwealth Arboreta Network and director for the Arboretum, and Thomas A. Smarr Jr., executive director of Jenkins Arboretum and Gardens.
Kate Messner – March 17, Madlyn L. Hanes Library, Harrisburg campus. Children's author Kate Messner will lecture on how to inspire lifelong reading through writing and sharing nonfiction for kids.
“Reclamation: From Coal Dust to Hope” book reading – 12:20-1:20 p.m., March 18, the Art Space, Schuylkill campus. Artist Robert McCormick, whose work showcases the landscapes, culture and history of the Anthracite Region and communities shaped by coal mining, will perform a book reading in conjunction with an exhibition of his artwork. Free.
The Supreme Court and Democracy – 4 p.m., March 18, Greg Sutliff Auditorium, Lewis Katz Building, University Park campus. Dahlia Lithwick, senior legal correspondent at Slate, will explore how the court’s decisions shaped the 2024 election and more.
“The Animal as Source of Human Excellence” – 2:30-4 p.m. March 20, Foster Auditorium, Pattee Library and Paterno Library, University Park or via Zoom. Professor Emeritus Glen Mazis will present ideas from his research that our distinctive human excellences are not the result of transcending our “animal nature,” but rather are founded upon the capacities of being an animal and part of the natural world.
In-person exhibits
"Visionary Visuals Re:Vamped” — Through March 6, Rouse Gallery, Stuckeman Family Building, University Park campus. The Stuckeman School will host exhibition looking at the future through the lens of a changing, modern architecture landscape, organized by Orsolya Gáspár, assistant professor of architecture, and Luisa Caldas, professor of architecture and director of the XR Lab at the University of California, Berkeley College of Environmental Design. Free.
"DVAL Presents" — Through March 14, Henry Art Gallery, Great Valley campus. The exhibit showcases the unfiltered imagination of the Delaware Valley Art League, an association of professional artists that promotes interest in the fine arts within the community and advances the skill and creativity of its membership.
"Reclamation: From Coal Dust to Hope" — Through March 29, the Art Space, Schuylkill campus. Artist Robert McCormick's exhibition, "Reclamation: From Coal Dust to Hope," showcases paintings that reflect the landscapes, culture and history of the Anthracite Region, capturing the evolution of the communities shaped by coal mining. From memories of his childhood in Big Mine Run — a historic Schuylkill County "Patchtown" — to the rural farmlands he now calls home, McCormick’s Modern Primitive paintings bring together acrylic, oil, watercolor, found materials and collage to depict both real and imagined landscapes.
"How Else Can I Tell You" — Through April 3, Sheetz Gallery, Misciagna Family Center for the Performing Arts, Altoona campus. Through layers of uncanny visual metaphors, sensory symbols and fragments of known things, Sophie Brenneman, assistant teaching professor of visual art studies at Penn State Altoona, creates a body of work that stems from the ache associated with the inability to articulate an idea beyond language; an attempt to try and show the feeling of time, trauma, nostalgia and other abstract ideas.
"Every Day Prey" — Through April 3, McLanahan Gallery, Misciagna Family Center for the Performing Arts, Altoona campus. As an Appalachian artist, Taylor Pate draws inspiration from the landscapes and cultural traditions of her homeland, weaving together the natural world and the narratives of human experience. Viewing nature as both subject and collaborator, she explores cycles of transformation — shedding, renewal and growth — mirroring the painful yet wondrous evolution of womanhood and girlhood.
"Defining the New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance a Century Later” — Through April 7, Pattee Library, University Park campus. Drawing upon the distinctive collections of Penn State University Libraries, the exhibition invites visitors to explore the works of featured Black authors and artists and their efforts to redefine Black identity, life and culture.
"The Global Majority" — Through April 13, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. The exhibition brings together a selection of photographs and contemporary works on paper to explore representation and the role it plays in fostering a sense of belonging, especially among communities that have been historically disempowered and excluded from museums, asking visitors to think about what it means to feel seen, to be pictured, or to have power over your own image.
"Profiles of Vulnerability and Protection" — Through April 20, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. The exhibition considers how perceived vulnerabilities — shaped by gender, racial, economic and other inequities — can become strengths that spark action and collective movement to change the course of injustice toward safe, peaceful and joyous living.
"A Fly on the Wall, A Story Untold: Objects Imbued with the Human Soul" — Through April 26, Ronald K. De Long Gallery, Lehigh Valley campus. The soulful, down-home spirit of American folk art will be on display, featuring pieces from the private collection of Vincent DiCicco, a passionate collector of Americana and American Folk Art. The items featured portray the likeness of people in paintings, photographs and objects that were used in human interaction.
"The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art" — Through May 11, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. Drawn from the rich holdings of the Chrysler Museum of Art’s Walter P. and Jean Chrysler collection, this exhibit showcases more than 120 glittering Art Nouveau objects — including furniture, paintings, sculpture, mosaics, posters, Japanese prints, lamps, jewelry and glass — that introduce the exuberant, radical, international Art Nouveau style and its celebration of beauty, nature and innovation.
"Capacities of Care" — Through June 1, HUB Gallery and Art Alley, HUB-Robeson Center, University Park campus. “Capacities of Care,” a group exhibition curated by Aaron Knochel, associate professor of art education in Penn State’s School of Visual Arts, is a concept framework to understand and explore how care relationships manifest in our lives in distinct and interconnected ways.
“Biomachine” — Through Spring 2025, Hite Lobby, Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts, Altoona campus. A collaboration between Daryl Branford and Talley Fisher of Huck SciArts offers a glimpse into the microscopic world of viruses and is a reaction to how humanity must learn to coexist with them.
"I Am a Penn Stater: Nittany Lions in World War II" — Through June 2025, Penn State All-Sports Museum, Beaver Stadium, University Park campus. Timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the conflict, "I Am a Penn Stater" chronicles the contributions of Nittany Lion varsity lettermen and Women’s Recreation Association athletes during the conflict and follows their service from training in the United States, to fighting on battlefields around the globe, to their postwar occupations. Free.
“Give us also the right to our existence: Collecting and Surfacing Queer Narratives” — Through Sept. 12, Eberly Family Special Collections Library, University Park campus. Gathering together a selection of materials that illustrate the varied formats and expansive time periods of queer history, “Give us also the right to our existence: Collecting and Surfacing Queer Narratives” explores the many facets of gender and sexuality. The exhibition — inspired by the Penn State motto “We Are” — provides context for how we collect, describe and represent our shared humanity in the library. Free.
Virtual exhibits
In addition to in-person events, a number of virtual exhibits are available through University departments. The Palmer Museum of Art and University Libraries offer a rotating selection of historical and artistic collections to view online.