Community Calendar

Science Story Time is geared toward listeners toddler through early elementary ages. This program uses children’s picture books to engage as well as support scientific concepts and experiments. Young scientists develop literacy and STEM skills as well as build vocabulary by actively participating in the hands-on program. Activities designed for ages 2-6. All are welcome. Activities vary monthly.

Recommended Ages: Children ages 2-6 and their caregivers

Curiosity Lab is an after-school, free play program for kids ages 6-10 years. Children are invited to explore, experiment, and engage in hands-on sensory activities at their own pace. No instructions, no pressure—just curiosity-driven play. Held in WonderLab (or sometimes outdoors weather permitting), the space is set up for exploration with a variety of rotating materials and stations.

There will be one main activity/installment/manipulative for the month that will be brought out every Thursday. This will rotate with the month and the month's theme.

Recommended Ages: Designed for children ages 6 - 10, but siblings are welcome.

Join Mersi on Thursday, September 03 at 6pm for Baking Up Memories! While making no-bake cookies, we will share our favorite memories around baking with our families. To participate in this fun cooking program, please email your favorite recipes to Mersi ahead of the program so the class can take home a community recipe book!
For ages 18 and up; registration required.

Please send your favorite recipe to Mersi at mcurtsinger@bedlib.com.

Constellation Stage & Screen presents “Heist” on stage September 3-20 at the Waldron Auditorium.

A band of criminals, torn apart by suspicion and betrayal, reunites for one last job. The target: a multi-million dollar ruby owned by an international jewel thief. When the plan goes sideways, they slowly realize that when stealing from a thief, there are no rules. Inspired by caper films like Ocean’s Eleven, The Italian Job, and The Sting, this high-stakes thriller is packed with double-crosses, disguises, and daring escapes.

See Constellation’s website for more information, including a detailed performance schedule. Learn more and find tickets at https://seeconstellation.org/mainstage/heist/

Get closer to the wild side with Animal Hour and Dive Deeper! These weekly programs let you chat with WonderLab’s animal experts, discover what it takes to care for creatures from around the globe, and meet snakes, lizards, insects, arachnids, and more—up close and out of their habitats.

Animal Hour takes place on most Fridays, while Dive Deeper happens on the last Friday of each month at WonderLab’s stunning coral reef aquarium.

2026 Hoosier Jazz Festival headliner and IU Jazz Studies alum, saxophonist Rahsaan Barber conducts a free master class for high school and college musicians at Pillar Arts Alliance Center in College Mall. Open to the public; seating is limited.

This September, Pictura presents Trace, a new photographic series by longtime Bloomington treasure Osamu James Nakagawa, distinguished Professor of Photography at Indiana University. The project connects Nakagawa’s present day experience as a Japanese-American with past generations. In 2022, he began a 25,000 mile pilgrimage from Bloomington to visit the sites of Japanese-American incarceration camps. Trace combines photographs taken at these sites with photograms of found objects and rubbings of the memorials. 

Using diptychs, Nakagawa pairs the past and the present, flattening the boundaries between them. Trace seeks to reveal what can’t be seen anymore, things that happened eighty years ago and have been quietly buried. Through a direct and immersive process, using actual objects and surfaces from the sites, Nakagawa unearths this history of forced incarceration.

Trace opens at Pictura Gallery on Friday September 4th 5-8pm, and will be on view until October 30th.

Join us for the opening of In Search of Freedom: Stories from Afghanistan, a new exhibition in the Process Gallery at the Gayle Karch Cook Center! Opening on September 4th, 5-8 pm, come check out the art and enjoy some light refreshments during our Gallery Walk hours. This exhibition will be up through December 4th, 2026.

In Search of Freedom: Stories from Afghanistan celebrates the beauty, resilience, and rich cultural heritage of Afghanistan through an exhibition of oil paintings by Afghan artist Qahar Behzad, alongside the collaborative mural, August 15: A Mural for Afghanistan. Organized in partnership with Indiana University’s Center for Refugee Studies and Exodus Refugee Immigration, the exhibition explores the humanity of the refugee experience through the lens of Afghanistan, inviting visitors to look beyond conflict and discover the stories and experiences of displaced people.

The exhibition brings together Qahar’s vibrant paintings - which honor Afghanistan’s history, traditions, and everyday beauty - with August 15: A Mural for Afghanistan, a collaborative project led by Tiffany Black Behzad in collaboration with 59 Afghan evacuees at Camp Atterbury following the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban on August 15, 2021. Developed through art therapy workshops with Afghan artists Zainab Ahmadi and Fawzia Abdaly, the mural preserves the participants’ voices, memories, hopes, and resilience. The mural stands as a record of collective experience and a tribute to those who continue to seek safety, dignity, and freedom against all odds.

Together, the artworks present a deeply human portrait of displacement, resilience, and belonging, inviting visitors to reflect on the the universal connections that unite us across borders, traditions, and generations, and the enduring human desire for freedom.

Constellation Stage & Screen presents “Heist” on stage September 3-20 at the Waldron Auditorium.

A band of criminals, torn apart by suspicion and betrayal, reunites for one last job. The target: a multi-million dollar ruby owned by an international jewel thief. When the plan goes sideways, they slowly realize that when stealing from a thief, there are no rules. Inspired by caper films like Ocean’s Eleven, The Italian Job, and The Sting, this high-stakes thriller is packed with double-crosses, disguises, and daring escapes.

See Constellation’s website for more information, including a detailed performance schedule. Learn more and find tickets at https://seeconstellation.org/mainstage/heist/

Travel back to the age of dinosaurs at DinoLab! Enjoy hands-on activities, science exploration, and creative workshops designed for dino enthusiasts of all ages. Choose a morning or afternoon session and dive into discovery.
Dates:
Saturday, September 5, 2026
Monday, September 7, 2026 (Also Labor Day/Half-Price Admission Day)