MANSFIELD, CT — UConn's Storrs campus is the place to be in Mansfield this Halloween weekend. The Jorgensen opens a new gallery show before a Rubberband Dance performance, a professional forager leads a mushroom hunt through the HEEP and the Ballard Institute's Fall Puppet Slam brings experimental puppetry and a house band to the von der Mehden Recital Hall.
This Weekend's Arts & Entertainment
- "Bill Parker: A Matter of Influence" Opening Reception and Rubberband Dance — Thursday, Oct. 29; reception at 6 p.m. The Jorgensen Gallery's fall show, curated by Bob Martin, collects works by students, friends and colleagues of William E. Parker and runs through Dec. 11. Its opening reception comes before the evening's Rubberband Dance performance, which NEPM's community calendar lists at 7:30 p.m. Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, 2132 Hillside Road, Storrs
- Walktober: Halloween Mushrooms at the HEEP — Friday, Oct. 30, 1 to 3 p.m. Professional forager Karen Monger of The 3 Foragers, an officer of the Connecticut Valley Mycological Society, leads a Halloween foray covering the basics of mushroom identification. It's free, but registration is required and limited to 25; those under 18 need a chaperone. Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, Hillside Environmental Education Park, Storrs
- 2026 UConn Fall Puppet Slam — Friday, Oct. 30, 8 p.m. New and experimental short works by professional puppeteers, including New York-based J Hann and UConn alum Esme Roszel performing an excerpt from "Bequeathed," plus pieces by UConn professor John O'Donnell and Puppet Arts students. Mansfield's Waldron's Studio 88 is the house band. Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, 875 Coventry Road, Storrs
Catch the Parker show and Rubberband on Thursday, then spend Friday hunting mushrooms in the HEEP by day and short-form puppetry by night.
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