Winter Wellness Walks take place at the Morris Arboretum every Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. from November until March. Wellness Walks encourage visitors to step outside and get some exercise by walking the Arboretum’s paved paths, in a beautiful, safe environment. Guides point out specimen trees and other features during the brisk, two mile journey. Walkers meet at the Visitor’s Center.

Above: At the Morris Arboretum, a snow covered Katsura tree, which are native to Japan and China and known for their delicate heart shaped leaves and bright autumn colors.

“Silence Dogood: An Installation by Miler Lagos,” which opens at the University of Pennsylvania’s Arthur Ross Gallery on Jan. 27, transforms nearly four tons of recycled newspapers into a sculpted “forest.”

Burrison Gallery presents “Snow Traces by Francesca Pfister“ from January 11 through February 19, 2010.

Now through May, the Penn Museum will present The Goodlands: Young Photographers Inspiring Hope in North Philadelphia, a selection of more than 40 color photographs of people and places in the community, including the one above, taken between 2000 and 2009 by neighborhood children aged 5 to 13. The photography exhibition, on view in the Museum’s Kress gallery, challenges stereotypes and negative biases by highlighting hopeful images in the local community.

Righteous Dopefiend: An Anthropological Installation on Homelessness, Addiction and Poverty in Urban America, December 5 through May 2010 at the Penn Museum. © Jeff Schonberg 2009

Lenape Meesing Candle holder made of metal and paint. Each year, the Lenape of Pennsylvania honor Meesing, the protector of the woodlands, with a fall Meesing ceremony. At the ceremony, a member of the Medicine Society, a group of men responsible for organizing and performing the Meesing ceremony, represents Meesing as a dancer. The Meesing dancer prepares for his task during the year preceding the ceremony by meditating on Meesing and making objects with Meesing’s image, which are given to the Medicine Society.  

A Lenape fan made of beads, deerskin and feathers rests in the hands of Shelley DePaul, director of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania and co-curator of Penn Museum’s new exhibition, Fulfilling a Prophecy: the Past and Present of the Lenape in Pennsylvania.

Photos: Lauren Hansen-Flaschen.

Above: From the 1950s What In The World television show, Carleton Coon, Loren Eiseley, and Schuyler Cammann study an object, while Alfred Kidder II moderates. A cameraman is in right foreground. Photographed at WCAU TV Studios, ca. 1955. Photo courtesy of the Penn Museum.

Gold bull amulet (Height: 1.5 cm; Width: 1.5 cm) originally part of a necklace of gold. The bearded bull, considered divine in early Mesopotamia, is made of a thin sheet of gold wrapped over a bitumen core. Found loose in the soil at the Royal Cemetery, ca 2550 BCE.

Celebrate the music and dance of Africa and the African diaspora, storytelling, arts and crafts, games, culture, and cuisine, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. throughout the galleries of the Penn Museum.

The event is FREE with Museum admission donation ($10 for adults; $7 for seniors 65 and above; $6 for full-time students with ID and children 6-17; free for Museum members, children under 6, and PennCard holders).

Pictured: African Rhythms Dance Group

A world-renowned collection of ancient Maya painted pottery, excavated by the Penn Museum nearly a century ago and reinterpreted in light of recent research in the field, provides the centerpiece for Painted Metaphors: Pottery and Politics of the Ancient Maya.

Pictured is a Mayan Incense Burner from the exhibit.

MacArthur Genius Award fellow Elizabeth Streb melds slam dancing, extreme sports, the circus, and Hollywood stunt work into a one-of-a-kind performance at the Zellerbach Theatre, February 4-6.

It's an evening of exhilarating jazz as vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater returns to the Annenberg Center in a special tribute to Billie Holiday called "To Billie with Love - A Celebration of Lady Day." Praised by the Village Voice as “the most capable jazz singer of her generation” and “the gold standard by which all divas will now be measured—a total package entertainer,” Dee Dee Bridgewater is the winner of both Tony® and Grammy® Awards. The captivating host of National Public Radio’s JazzSet, she has captured the hearts of audiences around the world.

February 11 at the Annenberg Center

Sculptures from nine artists including Lanny Bergner, Fritz Dietel and Nancy Graves; first floor, Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine.

Nikon’s annual Small World photography contest, now in its 35th year, celebrates the complexity and beauty of the world as captured through the microscope. Today’s advanced microscopes are opening new windows on the intricate structures and subtle processes of life, leading to scientific discovery and medical progress. Winning images will be displayed in the main atrium at the Wistar Institute from January 8-March 12, and information will be presented on microscopy and photographic techniques. Seminars regarding advanced imaging technologies will take place on January 7 beginning at 1 p.m.

Above: 2009 Fourth Place winner: Anglerfish Ovary, 2-Channel Autofluorescence, 4X objective by James Hayden, The Wistar Institute Microscopy Core Facility.