Our popular Upstairs/Downstairs tours are back! Museum experts provide special access to upstairs, downstairs, and behind barriers, providing guests with an experience above and beyond the day-to-day offerings within the Historic Village. These exclusive tours will emphasize room use and will illuminate the daily experiences of our buildings’ former inhabitants.
Sometimes it is the very simple things that are affected by complete change over time. Knives were once a ubiquitous tool, used in shop, farm, or home by virtually everyone. In this workshop, participants will construct a sheath around a knife (provided). Do something 200 years old as you learn to stich and finish leather into a custom-formed knife cover.
Explore, see, and experience our Historic Village. We invite you to tour spaces and buildings representing home, civic, social, economic, farm, and religious life throughout the 1800s.
Throughout the 19th Century, many farm families desired to have something to sell each week throughout the year. In addition to crops and livestock, products from the woodlot might create winter time work. Often, other cottage industries would fill the hours and money bag during the winter hours. Broom making was sometimes that craft. Drift into history with us for a few hours as your hands partake in all the processes of making a hand-stitched whisk broom.
The national phenomenon Listen to Your Mother (LTYM) is coming to Rochester for a one night only performance at The Hochstein School on Saturday, May 9, at 7:30 pm. Founded by National Director Ann Imig in 2010, LTYM has been performed in 50+ cities around the country. The LTYM Rochester show is presented by the Flower City Writers Collective in association with The Center for Teen Empowerment. Co-producers are Christine Green, Terri Lee, Taylor Terrance, and Erin Waller.
Seneca Park Zoo is not only home to many animals from all over the globe but also an excellent habitat for our local birds! Unleash your inner birder and view the Zoo in a different way while learning about the different types of birds that call this park and Rochester home. Bring your own binoculars or borrow a pair. All birding skill levels welcome! The tour goes from 8:00 am to 9:30 am (remember, early bird catches the worm)!
The Iceplex Skating 101 Program provides an excellent opportunity to learn a new skill while staying active during the winter. This program is an ideal starting point for those interested in ice hockey, figure skating, or recreational skating.
What is CSA?
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) offers the opportunity for people, of a specific geographic region to support a local farm, the local community and the rural economy. Through annual enrollment (by purchasing a share) the share holder helps the farmer with much needed funds at the beginning of the growing season while knowing the share holder will receive (on a weekly basis once the picking season starts) the freshest possible produce grown by the farmer. It gives the share holder the chance to really learn about and know who is growing their food.
If you are interested in our 2026 CSA please email info@gandsorchards.com for information.
CenterStage at the JCC, May 2-17: In 1943, deportation orders of over 7,000 Danish Jews inspired their friends and neighbors to help them escape to Sweden across The Sound, sending ripples far beyond the waters that transported them to safety. Set in both past and present, this magical and heroic story of one family’s race against the clock to elude capture may restore your faith in humanity.
Opening Friday, May 8 and continuing Thursdays - Sundays through May 24: The acclaimed Tony-Award winning musical based on the real-life 1914 trial of Leo Frank. Alfred Uhry’s award-winning book and Jason Robert Brown’s rousing, colorful and haunting score illuminate a circus of conflicting accounts, false testimony and mishandled evidence in a country reeling with racial tension and sensationalized media.
One Night. One Legendary Artist. One 2000 Year Old Instrument. May is National Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, and we’re celebrating with a rare instrument and a legendary musician. The world’s greatest pipa player, Wu Man, joins your RPO for one incredible weekend. Join us on May 7 & 9 for an experience you’ll never forget!
On view this spring in the museum's community gallery, the Gallery Obscura, are photographs and writings by members of the 2025–2026 Studio 678 Photo Club at the Flower City Arts Center, reflecting the students’ unique visions of the world around them.
Over a professional life spanning seven decades, Edward Steichen (1879–1973) established himself as one of the most important figures in the history of photography. What is less known is that for much of that time Steichen also devoted himself to the nurturing of plants and gardens, an activity that sustained him and through which he developed ardently held beliefs regarding the relationship among art, nature, and creativity.
In the Project Gallery, the interrelated series Patterns and Fabrications show Baum's recent explorations of the visual and material culture of fashion and craft. In Patterns, the artist activates the lines, forms, patterns, colors, and texts found in the abstract world of mid-century sewing patterns. Fabrications continues from Patterns by opening into a broader visual culture of magazines, catalogs, and books related to fashion and craft, as well as the advertisements and coupons found within. Together, these series reframe the domestic imaginary present in the printed materials Baum recontextualizes. Engaging in textual and visual play, Baum invites us to experience what was once familiar in unexpected new ways.
Discover the incredible work of African American artist John Rhoden (1916–2001), one of the most prolific sculptors of the twentieth century. His first retrospective exhibition, Determined to Be: The Sculpture of John Rhoden, offers insights into his diverse creativity as well as his personal story.
Highlighting three significant prints—Portrait of a Young Woman after Cranach the Younger II, Pique II, and Bacchanal with Kid Goat and Onlooker—along with their various proofs, Picasso and the Progressive Proof: Linocuts from a Private Collection is an intimate exhibition that reveals how these works and subjects developed in the latter part of his career and his groundbreaking contributions to the medium.
This introductory course covers the basics of cat body language as well as how to have safe and successful interactions with cats of all temperaments. Cats are often misunderstood and at times, their behaviors can be difficult to understand, even for experienced cat owners. This course will explore the many ways in which our feline companions communicate and how we, as humans, can better understand them. This course will also discuss cat socialization and behavior modification.
In his seven-minute video, The Hikers (2019), Rashid Johnson presents a chance encounter between two Black men in an environment where they never expected to see each other. Two masked men—one ascending, the other descending—come upon each other in the mountains in Aspen, Colorado. They dance, and in an exquisite moment of recognition, they remove their masks that manifest anxiety. What unfolds is a narrative of connection, an exchange of platonic love, and independence.
American values take shape in the objects we make, desire, cherish, and discard. A table laden with ripe fruit, a meal served up at a luncheonette, the inside of a medicine cabinet—ordinary materials around us chronicle our lives. The still life, a genre of art that dates back to the ancient world, captures those objects of everyday life while often conveying deeper meanings and hidden messages.
Step back in time as you cruise along the historic Erie Canal. Live narration brings to life the bold vision that transformed a hare-brained idea into an engineering marvel that opened the American West. Travel through a working lock, soak in the scenery, and relax as history unfolds around you. Lunch is optional.
Step back in time as you cruise along the historic Erie Canal. Live narration brings to life the bold vision that transformed a hare-brained idea into an engineering marvel that opened the American West. Travel through a working lock, soak in the scenery, and relax as history unfolds around you.
Saturday, May 9, 2026 at Monroe Community College: You and your family & friends are invited to the 2026 Pink & Teal Challenge from the Breast Cancer Coality of Rochester! Includes a 5k Women only run or all-inclusive, family friendly walk. In-Person, or virtual - your choice!
Early Bird Registration Special – Save $10! Register Between December 1st – 31st and pay only $20 + processing fee (regularly $30).
Walk or Run and Have FUN!
Check this off your “To-Do” list and sign up today!
Highland Park in Rochester hosts the 128th Rochester Lilac Festival from May 8-17, 2026. This beloved 10-day celebration of spring brings the community together for live music, blooming lilacs, Art in the Park, the Lilac Parade, walking tours, the farmers market, family fun, and the annual Lilac Run. With Highland Park in full color and a festival schedule packed with things to see and do, the Rochester Lilac Festival is one of the city’s most treasured spring traditions and a favorite annual outing for visitors of all ages.
