Check out a new exhibit by Chinese-born, Canada-based artist Xiaojing Yan, “Peregrination,” watch a performance of “Akeelah and the Bee” or visit the swamp for “Shrek” at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie — here’s what to do this weekend in Pittsburgh.

Visual Art
An internationally exhibited artist makes her Pittsburgh debut with “Peregrination: Xiaojing Yan,” a show at Contemporary Craft. The Chinese-born, Canada-based Xiaojing, who studied sculpture at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, uses unconventional materials from pine needles and freshwater pearls to Lingzhi mushrooms in her evocative abstract and representational sculptures exploring “the evolving relationship between identity, tradition and the natural world.” The exhibit continues through May 2.

Visual Art
Work by the next generation of visual artists will be on display at “Dream Sequence,” the new exhibit at SPACE Gallery. The show features work by 11 first- and second-year masters-of-fine-art students in Carnegie Mellon University’s prestigious School of Art. The artists use everything from artificial intelligence, film and virtual space to photography and tactile media, these works to evoke the subconscious world of dreams. The exhibit opens Fri., Feb. 13, with the opening reception set for Fri., Feb. 27.

Theater
Pittsburgh’s Alumni Theatre Company presents a stage adaptation of the beloved 2006 film “Akeelah and the Bee.” The story follows Akeelah Anderson, a Black girl confronting multiple obstacles on her path to the National Spelling Bee. Alumni’s staging of the adaptation by playwright Cheryl L. West includes a guest performance by WTAE’s Sheldon Ingram, as Dr. Larabee. There are four performances Fri., Feb. 13, through Sun., Feb. 15, including two matinees, at Alumni’s venue in Larimer.

Dance
At press time, a few seats were still remaining for a rare Pittsburgh appearance for Step Afrika! Courtesy of the Pittsburgh Dance Council, the acclaimed dance troupe performs its signature work, “The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence,” inspired by Lawrence’s classic series of paintings about the mass movement of African Americans from the South to the North in the early 20th century. The show is Fri., Feb. 13, at the Byham Theater.

Event
On the eve of Valentine’s Day, romance and science go out for drinks at Kamin Science Center. The former Carnegie Science Center invites couples and soloists to 21+ Night: Seductive Science. All five floors of the Center will be open on Fri., Feb. 13, with attractions including themed cocktails and mocktails; a hands-on cooking demo for a date-night dessert; dance lessons; and the stars up above at the Buhl Planetarium. There are also programs on “the anatomy of pleasure” (Science Center, my goodness!) and whether aphrodisiacs work.

Theater
That lovably grumpy ogre Shrek first appeared in a 1990 children’s book by cartoonist William Steig. Then he was re-imagined in a long-running film franchise and a Broadway musical comedy, with songs by famed composer Jeanne Tesori and a book by acclaimed playwright David Lindsay-Abaire. A Theater for Young Audiences adaptation with a shorter, more kid-friendly run time hits the stage courtesy of Stage 62. “Shrek” opens Fri., Feb. 14, and continues through Feb. 22 at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall, in Carnegie.