Swoop in and connect with your extended flock for an evening celebration of all things avian.

Here's the line-up:

• What does an engineer see when she looks at a bird? Find out with renowned MIT Professor Lorna Gibson as she explores fantastic feathers and remarkable bills.
• Create your own vibrant bird-inspired art using gel plates and artist-quality printmaking supplies with the Nest, Mass Audubon's Art Studio and Maker Space.
• Join representatives from MIT's Beery and Broderick Labs to explore how technology and generative AI can play a role in bird research, appreciation, and conservation.
• Test your knowledge of bird identification, migration patterns, and more through engaging digital and analog games with the MIT Game Lab.
• Enjoy a special pop-up exhibition curated by the Museum of American Bird Art, featuring the beauty and wonder of birds through the eyes of artists!
• Meet author Rosemary Mosco and check out her new book, The Birding Dictionary.
• Plus so much more!

Delicious dumplings from Mei Mei and local brews from Lamplighter will be available for purchase.

From 5:00 - 7:00pm, After Dark guests are also invited to join Birding 101, taking place in the MIT Open Space. The tours are available on a first come, first served basis.

Come to the MIT Museum this April as we unravel the mysteries of the deep sea and explore the great unknown.

Join artist Keith Ellenbogen for an extraordinary journey beneath the waves as he unveils a window into our local waters through photography.

Catch a talk with MIT Professor Julien De Wit on how scientists are searching for signs of oceans (and life!) beyond our solar system.

Plunge into the world of aquatic robotics with MIT Sea Grant or experience the dawn of sight as you journey through the ocean's history with the MIT Media Lab's Camera Culture group.

Plus, join MIT graduate student James Vincent Brice in a hands-on wave flume demonstration.

Tasty Spanish and Japanese inspired eats from Pagu, and local beer from Small Change Brewing Company will be available for purchase.

This March we're offering a special edition of our popular After Dark event in collaboration with MIT's Artfinity Festival of the Arts.

As part of Artfinity, this month's After Dark will celebrate the artistic and cultural community at MIT and is free and open to adult members of the public (18+).

Enjoy a variety of hands-on making demonstrations, conversation, and interactive play accompanied by live music and a pop-up cash bar. Come explore, create, and connect; whether you're an artist, a tech enthusiast, or simply curious, there's something there for you.

Don't miss this expanded celebration of art in all its forms, including activities available in the museum throughout the evening:

• Live DJ sets
• Food and drink available for purchase
• The galleries are open, including two exhibitions of work by MIT faculty.
  • Rania Ghosn's Cosmograph: Speculative Fictions for the New Space Age, and exhibition that brings art and science together to examine possible futures where outer space is both a frontier for human exploration and a new territory for exploitation and development by private enterprise.
  • Professor and Director of the Art, Culture and Technology program, Azra Akšamija's Hallucinating Traditions is a 5-channel video installation that utilizes AI to envision future iterations of traditional fashion. Akšamija's speculative designs blur cultural and temporal boundaries, prompting viewers to reconsider the notion of "traditional" as a construct of the imagination.
• Engage in a unique drawing experience with a Flash Portrait Session! You'll be paired with a stranger to carefully observe and draw them without looking at your paper or lifting your pencil. This will provide a preview of MIT Face to Face, a collective event and pop-up exhibition inspired by Congregation, an artwork by Es Devlin, the 2025 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts recipient.
• Challenge traditional ideas of solo artistry by embracing play and co-creating new forms alongside artist and MIT graduate student Coco Allred.
• Design textile patterns inspired by plant intelligence and explore how plants adapt to climate change, pollution, and migration with MIT Future Heritage Lab's Telltales of Tide and Terra co-creation project.
• Join us in creating climate critters as we think about sustainability with Interwoven, a data visualization exercise with Sara Wilson, Supreetha Krishnan, and Marwa Al Alawi.
• Take a closer look at Gaze to the Stars by award-winning designer Behnaz Farahi and her team at the Critical Matter Group at the Media Lab, which transforms the MIT dome into a living canvas that reflects the resilience and aspirations of those who have shaped, and been shaped by, the MIT experience. Join Farahi to explore how she is using technology in critical and transformative ways—sparking the imagination, provoking conversation, enhancing perception, augmenting social interaction, and empowering voices that have not been heard. The talk will be introduced by MIT Director Michael John Gorman.

No registration necessary; admission is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Space is limited.

Please note that backpacks and large bags are not permitted. A limited number of free lockers are available on first-come, first-served basis.

Join us for a night of humor, media literacy, and creative deception at our February After Dark. In a twist on "Two Truths and a Lie," three comedians challenge your gullible gauge to spot the one true news story.

MIT's Rand Lab will showcase interactive tools to help you spot fake news in real-time.

Explore deception in the animal kingdom up close and personal with Professor Bugman. Use our microscopes to explore specimens of animals that use deception for self-preservation.

Drinks from Marzae Wine and Philippine snacks from Lola's Pinoy Pastry will be available for purchase.

Come for fun, stay for creativity, and leave with a sharper eye for truth in today's media.

This event is co-hosted with MIT's Knight Science Journalism Program.

For our first After Dark of 2025, we're bringing together tinkerers, creators, and innovators to explore the art of making. Join us to design your own sew-able electronics, build with mechanical metamaterial, and make collaborative modular origami sculptures.

We'll also be showcasing the work of ingenious local makers, including DIY pinball machines and more.

Craft beers from Arlington Brewing Company and handmade lasagna from Mostly Pasta available for purchase.

Check out What's Happening Where during After Dark: DIY.

Before we dive into the New Year, join us for a night of nostalgia as we travel back to the '90s. Catch a performance of '90s video game music, try your hand at retro board games and consoles, and make your own (fuzzy) copy of Dolly the sheep to take home.

Take in a talk on '90s era space exploration with former Astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman and then test your knowledge with some out of this world trivia.

Dress to impress in your favorite '90s fashion, while enjoying sets by DJ Philip Tan. Local beers by Lamplighter Brewing Company and Jamaican eats from Cocobelly Bites will be available for purchase.

We're celebrating the art and the science of junk. Enjoy a performance by Reynaliz Herrera's "Ideas, Not Theories- Bicycle Rock Band;" learn from entrepreneurs creating fashion and design from chopsticks and banana crop waste; explore a special installation from the Footwear Collective; and transform "MIT junk" collected from across campus into kintsugi-inspired collages.

Plus, take in a talk from Peter Mui from Fixit Clinic on designing in durability and mingle with local “Fixit Coaches” in the galleries.

Brews from Aeronaut and dumplings from Mei Mei will be available for purchase.

Co-presented by MIT's Office of Sustainability.

Spend your evening at the Museum exploring the mysteries of vision. Best your friends in a blindfolded LEGO build-off, catch a talk with visual neuroscientist Pawan Sinha, and challenge your perceptions with a camera lucida.

Local beer from Winter Hill Brewing and BBQ from Scott Brothers available for purchase.

Venture into the third dimension at our September After Dark. Join us for a night of drinks, eats, and music while catching a talk on holograms, checking out 3D printed wonders, and diving into brand new VR experiences. Plus, visit our Maker Hub to create your own 3D illusion.

Tasty treats from Lola's Pinoy Pastry and quality craft beer from Arlington Brewing Company available for purchase.

Start August off with a splash (of color). Investigate the secrets of butterfly colors, check out polarized light mosaics, and make your own stained-glass window (minus the glass) to take home!

Look for the Shiny Objects with Tuft's Giulia Guidetti or explore how auroras form with the MIT Plasma Science & Fusion Center.

Local brews from Aeronaut and tasty rainbow (!!) dumplings from Mei Mei available for purchase.

Join us in July for a night filled with astro ants, Alaskan insects, and edible crickets. Catch a talk with Biologst Yukiko Yamashita on fruit flies and evolution, or enjoy an arthropod petting zoo. Then head over to our Maker Hub to build and race your own buzz bug.

Timeless pizza pies and delicious drinks from Johnny Pomodoro available for purchase.

Join us in June as we take on the science of speed. Explore high-speed photography with MIT Professor J. Kim Vandiver; meet MIT students building and racing solar cars, autonomous boats, aircrafts, and rockets; and construct, decorate, and battle your own spinning top.

Zippy tunes by DJ Philip Tan, plus tasty eats from Mostly Pasta and Lola's Pinoy Pastry, and local brews from Remnant available for purchase.

Join us as we explore science and technology at the smallest of scales. Meet Professor Kevin Chen, Head of MIT’s Soft and Micro Robotics Laboratory, and get a close-up look at his insect-inspired (and sized!) research. Then, head over to our learning labs to manipulate magnetic fluids or shrink a microbe to take home.

Local brews from Lamplighter and tasty pizza pies from Za available for purchase.

Calling all nature lovers. Celebrate an early earth day at the Museum and discover the growing world all around us. Learn about fungi, local foraging techniques, musical mushroom modulation, and more. Prepare for spring with a letter-locked seed packet or create your own tiny terrarium, plus meet an MIT trained architect trying to answer the question, can we grow buildings?

Handrolls from Pagu and craft beers from Arlington Brewing Company available for purchase.

At our March After Dark, weave your way through an exploration of traditional textile techniques, emerging technologies, and everything in between. Artist talks by Chloe Bensahel and Ganit Goldstein; felt painting activities; smart textile demos; and more.

Delicious dumplings from Mei Mei and tasty brews from Aeronaut available for purchase.

Investigate the art and the science of connections at our February After Dark. Join us for Tutti—a participatory music-making experience, meet someone new while speed friending, team up with AI in our very first poetry contest, and get creative as you learn how to wire a circuit.

Small batch beer from Winter Hill Brewing and unique pies from Za available for purchase.