The Arboretum at Penn State, located at Penn State’s University Park campus, is a special Happy Valley treasure. The H.O. Smith Botanic Gardens, open daily from dawn until dusk, offer visitors ten acres of specialty gardens. Beyond the gardens lie fields and woodlands for hiking, biking, and observing wildlife. Admission is free.

Livestream tickets are available for one-time at-home viewing

UNIVERSITY PARK (Monday, January 10) — As part of its long-awaited in-person visit to Penn State, Calidore String Quartet will perform works by Ludwig van Beethoven and contemporary composer Anna Clyne at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, in School of Music Recital Hall.

The Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra’s second season concert “Dance Together” takes place on Sunday, January 30th at 3pm. Penn State faculty member, Anthony Costa, joins the PCO as soloist for Copland’s Clarinet Concerto.

Greg Guise puts a new meaning on the term ‘active retirement.’ After graduating from Penn State and working as a videographer in Detroit and then in Washington, D.C. for 40 years, he’s back in Happy Valley. And when I call him, he’s climbing Rattlesnake Mountain to install communications gear for the amateur radio community. It’s “just a way of giving back,” he says just before he drives out of cell phone range. When he calls back, he tells me just why community is so, so important. Read on.

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. (Nov. 11, 2022) - Penn State Homecoming is excited to announce Emily Sawtell as Logistics Officer and Hannah Gizenski as Outreach Officer for Homecoming 2022. This announcement follows the selection of Tim Nevil as Executive Director for Homecoming 2022.

On November 6, Penn State alumnus and actor Patrick Fabian will be appearing at the Centre Film Festival at the Rowland Theatre. And when Filmmaker and Festival Director Pearl Gluck reached out to Fabian to invite him to the festival, she already knew about both his extensive acting career and his connection to Happy Valley … or so she thought. As it turns out, the stories — and film magic — were so much better than she could have imagined.

A year ago our small but mighty downtown, like the rest of the country, was shuttered. With no end in sight, we persevered, we endured and became a stronger businesses community.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – For those who have been staying in one place throughout the last year and a half, the Palmer Museum of Art has an antidote for your wanderlust: the current special exhibition Place to Place: Recent Gifts of= American Drawings and Watercolors, 1900–1950. This exhibition of works on paper by American artists presents a wide array of geographical locales depicted with a dynamic range of mediums and artistic approaches, offering a jaunt around the United States and abroad during the first half of the twentieth century. The exhibition is on view at the Palmer now through December 12, 2021.

UNIVERSITY PARK (Wednesday, Sept. 29)—The Center for the Performing Arts invites community members to consider the lives of others—and their own origins—with an on-stage production of “Cartography.”