Education and Workshops

Pull up a park bench for a casual conversation with Esplanade Association Executive Director Jen Mergel and staff about the riverfront park’s past and future. Refreshments are provided at this informal community gathering in the grove beside the Hatch Shell.

Spend a summer evening deadheading and pruning heritage roses alongside Emerald Necklace Conservancy staff and fellow volunteers in the Fens’ formal rose garden. Training and tools are provided, and registration is required to participate.

Catch sunset over the Charles on a guided small-group photo walk along the Esplanade, working side-by-side with an instructor on shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and composition. All levels welcome; camera rentals available. $95.

A small-group evening photo walk chasing golden-hour light around the Zakim Bridge, with an instructor coaching manual-mode settings and composition in the field. Open to all skill levels; bring a camera with manual mode. $95.

Cambridge’s Curio Spice Co. leads a hands-on blending bar where you mix and take home your own custom spice blends. A quick, sensory after-work workshop inside the Boston Public Market.

Historian Rory Browne leads a guided walking tour connecting the zoo’s animals and landscapes to 250 years of American history, from a prairie dog gifted to Thomas Jefferson by the Lewis and Clark Expedition to animal ties with George Washington and John Adams. The two-hour tour covers much of the zoo’s 72 acres and departs…

Zoo New England hosts an inspiring evening celebrating the remarkable comeback of the bald eagle in the Northeast. Learn how conservation efforts brought America’s national bird back from the brink in the region, with the zoo’s own resident eagles close at hand. A fitting way to mark America’s 250th anniversary summer.

This nonprofit’s volunteer guides turn a stroll past brownstones, cobblestones, and Bulfinch domes into a rolling seminar on how Boston built itself. Whether it’s the cow-path lanes of Beacon Hill or the Gilded-Age grandeur of Back Bay, you walk away reading the city’s facades like pages. Tours run April through November, rain or shine; register…

On the Esplanade’s iconic crescent of the Charles, America’s oldest public sailing program teaches landlubbers to read the wind and trim a sail against the downtown skyline. The free 45-minute dockside orientation walks you through the boats and program before you progress through rigging, shore school, and a guided sail on a Mercury dinghy. There…

Slurp, swirl, and compare single-origin pours at this free midday cupping led by the team behind one of New England’s most respected roasters. You’ll learn to read the cup the way a Q-grader does, picking out the bright citrus of an Ethiopian bean against the cocoa weight of a Latin American roast. A quick, caffeinated…