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
“Eddie Griffin and Friends” – 8 p.m., Sept. 12, Bryce Jordan Center, University Park campus. Actor and comedian Eddie Griffin will bring his “Eddie Griffin and Friends” show to the Bryce Jordan Center, offering fans a night of comedy to kick off the weekend. Griffin is known for his energetic stage presence and sharp comedic style, in addition to memorable roles on screen.
PA Chamber Orchestra: Strings in Motion – 3-5 p.m., Sept. 14, Recital Hall, School of Music, University Park campus. Join PCO and the Nittany Ballet as they tell stories through sound and movement. Enjoy the lush sounds of Coleridge-Taylor’s Novelette No. 1 and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, contrasted with the crisp, rhythmic Danses Concertantes by Stravinsky.
Jazz Faculty Recital – 7:30 p.m., Sept. 14, Recital Hall, School of Music, University Park campus. Join us for an evening of swingin’ sounds featuring nearly every faculty member currently teaching jazz at Penn State this year. Wind faculty members George Carpten, Ben Carrasquillo and David Stambler will be featured throughout the program.
Kulkarni Cultural Series: Sanctuario — 7:30-9:30 p.m., Sept. 17, Kulkarni Theatre, Harrisburg campus. Sanctuario, featuring powerhouse vocalist Mónica Ortiz Rossi and her nine-piece Afro-Caribbean band, will deliver a night of music and movement that celebrates the richness of Dominican and Caribbean culture.
Bach's Lunch — 12:10-12:45 p.m., Sept. 18, Eisenhower Chapel, University Park campus. "Bach's Lunch" is a weekly concert series during the school year. These popular concerts are brief in order to make it possible for the University community to attend during the lunch hour. Free.
Events
Sept. 11 anniversary – Sept. 11, various campuses. Events are being offered for Penn State campus and community members around the commonwealth in remembrance of those who lost their lives during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and their aftermath.
National Hispanic Heritage Month – Through October, various campuses. Penn State units at campuses across the commonwealth will hold events in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrated as a time to honor and celebrate the historic background, culture, heritage and many influences of the Hispanic and Latino communities throughout the years.
Night at the Museums – 4-8 p.m., Sept. 11, various locations, University Park campus. The Penn State Museum Consortium's participating museums, galleries and performance spaces will be open extended hours. The event offers a chance for students, staff, faculty and the community to visit a variety of unique and interesting museums across campus. Free.
Drop-in Tour: America's Changing Environments – 3 p.m., Sept. 14, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. Drop in and discover the Palmer’s world-class collections and exhibitions with a friendly and knowledgeable museum guide.
Constitution Day – Sept. 17, various campuses. Constitution Day, Sept. 17, will be marked with several events at Penn State campuses. Established by law in 2004, Constitution Day is a federal observance that commemorates the U.S. Constitution on the day it was signed in 1787.
Gallery Talks: Structures, Systems, and Society – 5:30 p.m., Sept. 18, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. Enjoy an interdisciplinary gallery conversation with faculty and staff collaborators from “Structures, Systems, and Society: Work at the Interface of Art and Engineering” exhibition.
Lectures
“Visions of Emotion: Decoding Human Bodily Expressions” – 12:05-1:15 p.m., Sept. 11, E202 Westgate Building, University Park campus. James Wang will discuss his lab’s work to integrate knowledge from computing, psychology and the performing arts to enable AI technology to understand and analyze human emotion through body language.
"Synthetic Image and Video Generation for Data Augmentation and Sharing in Medical Applications" – 12:05-1:15 p.m., Sept. 11, E202 Westgate Building, University Park campus. Sharon Huang will discuss generative models that create realistic medical images and videos, highlighting their use for enhancing classification, enabling privacy-preserving data sharing and advancing large-scale medical artificial intelligence (AI) training.
Mary E. Rolling Reading Series: ‘Pemi Aguda – 6 p.m., Sept. 11, Foster Auditorium, University Park campus. Nationally recognized writer 'Pemi Aguda will offer a free reading to begin the Mary E. Rolling Reading Series for the fall semester. Aguda, who is from Lagos, Nigeria, has received several awards for her short stories and was a finalist for the 2024 National Book Awards in Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award.
Pamela Krayenbuhl – 4:30 p.m., Sept. 11, Kern Auditorium, University Park campus. Media historian and classically trained ballerina Pamela Krayenbuhl will discuss her academic work, which focuses on the aesthetics and politics of dance in relation to film, television and new media, during a free public lecture.
“Leveraging Technology to Conserve Pollinator Biodiversity” – Noon, Sept. 12, 401 Steidle Building, University Park campus and via Zoom. Christina M. Grozinger, Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State, will deliver a talk as part of the Department of Geography's Coffee Hour lecture series. Grozinger will discuss how multiple landscape-level stressors, including limited floral resources, pesticide exposure, disease and climate change, contribute to pollinator decline.
“The Cultural Roots of Rock ‘n’ Roll: From Blues and Jazz to Gospel and Soul" – 2:30-4 p.m., Sept. 17, Rooms 121 G&H, Outreach Building, University Park campus and via Zoom. Jerry Zolten has had an extensive career writing about, promoting and producing American roots music. This lecture will provide a highly visual, performance-oriented excursion into the early 20th century origins of rock ‘n’ roll in the music of Black America.
In-person exhibits
“Structures, Systems, and Society: Work at the Interface of Art and Engineering” – Sept. 11-Dec. 21, 2025, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. A diverse selection of objects from the Palmer’s collection appear alongside works by Penn State makers to investigate three intersections between art and engineering. Structures explores the physical forms and frameworks that support innovation, blending function and aesthetics in design. Systems examines the interconnected processes behind artistic and technological creation, highlighting shared methods like visualization and iteration. Society focuses on the cultural and ethical impact of engineering, showing how art fosters empathy, equity, and responsible innovation.
“Public Spaces / Private Lives” – Sept. 11-Dec. 21, 2025, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. “Public Spaces/Private Lives” presents a selection of works on paper that explore how we live, navigate and express ourselves in both private and public settings. Spanning from the mid-1800s to the early 2000s, the exhibition includes scenes of homes, neighborhoods, rooftops, sidewalks, city streets, parks, eateries, public institutions and transit systems mostly set in the United States, with a few works depicting Ireland and France.
“Tracking Trash: A Community Collection” – Through Sept. 25, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. The Palmer Museum of Art and the Arboretum at Penn State are turning litter into learning through a month-long citizen science project where every bottle cap, candy wrapper and coffee cup becomes part of our shared “collection.” By spotting and documenting discarded items in your community, you’ll sharpen your eye for detail, explore the real impact of humans on the more-than-human world, and help us build a visual record that’s equal parts science and art.
Rooted in Resilience: Artistic Perspectives on Alopecia in Women – Through Oct. 6, Henry Gallery, Great Valley campus. This exhibit aims to bring to light the emotional and psychological impact of hair loss, showcasing powerful visual narratives from women artists. This exhibit is curated by VERSIDA, a nonprofit organization that provides programs and services to women with alopecia.
“A Brief Moment in the Sun” – Through Oct. 14, HUB-Robeson Galleries, University Park campus. “A Brief Moment in the Sun” is an exhibition of paintings by Pittsburgh-based artist Jamie Earnest. Earnest's work hovers between the familiarity and ghostly incorporation of shadows, silhouettes and surfaces that serve as both material and metaphor.
“Parenthetic Passages” – Through Oct. 30, HUB Gallery, University Park campus. Camille Hoffman is a painter who critically reimagines the romantic American landscape through layered and immersive site-specific installation. In “Parenthetic Passages,” she creates an environment that emphasizes the wisdom of water and the concept of shell memory, reflecting on the evolving relationships and accumulated human experiences alongside oceanic knowledge.
“Fused: Works in Encased Wax” – Through Nov. 20, Friedman Art Gallery, Wilkes-Barre campus. A new solo exhibition by artist Terri Yacovelli, titled "Fused: Works in Encaustic Wax," examines themes of nature and spirituality through encaustic paintings created with vivid color, dramatic texture and luminosity. This ancient technique combines heated resin, beeswax and pigment applied in layers onto any porous surface.
Anna Boothe: “Icons for Sagacity” – Through Nov. 30, Exhibition Cases, HUB-Robeson Gallery, University Park campus. Anna Boothe creates icons out of cast glass and found objects referring to the female form of facets of herself. Boothe initially hand-carves individual elements in wax or case directly from botanicals. After being transformed into glass, the parts are combined with other glass components. The technique results in translucent objects that glow from within.
“A Puncher’s Chance” – Through Dec. 5, Abington Art Gallery, Abington campus. In this exhibit, interdisciplinary artist James Maurelle explores the “puncher’s chance” — a term used when an underdog has the potential to win by landing a powerful blow. In an instant, the smallest opportunity shifts the scales, defying the insurmountable odds.
“A Study of Movement: The Fleet, Fierce and Feathered” – Through Dec. 5, Abington Art Gallery, Abington campus. Penn State Abington student Sophie Bell mimics stop-motion animation of animals in movement through a series of graphite animal drawings. The works aim to allow viewers to truly appreciate the individual characteristics and personalities of each creature depicted in the work.
“Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld” – Through Dec. 7, Palmer Museum of Art, University Park campus. The first two-person survey exhibition of these renowned artists, “Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld” explores their shared allegiances and sustaining friendship over three decades. The exhibition will unite some 25 sculptures and paintings by both artists along with related works on paper and a major new collaborative piece, offering an absorbing journey into the depths of the threatened natural world.
“Dispositions” – Through Jan. 2, 2026, Woksob Family Gallery, downtown State College. “Dispositions” is an exhibition of art installations by Yasmine Abbas that explores the experience of existing between cultures and places, with a focus on "neo-nomads" and their strategies for navigating life between cultures and unfamiliar territories. Abbas is an assistant teaching professor of architecture in the College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School.
Virtual exhibits and online resources
In addition to in-person events, a number of virtual exhibits and online resources are available through University departments. The Palmer Museum of Art and Penn State University Libraries offer a rotating selection of historical and artistic collections to view via their websites, as well as other online resources.