We've got great news for art lovers . . . Athens, Georgia, already known as a Top Arts Destination, has expanded the opportunities to enjoy great  events and exhibits at many of our favorite arts venues.  Here's the scoop, recently released by Michael Lachowski at the Georgia Museum of Art:

Six of Athens’ established venues for visual art are introducing “Third Thursday,” a monthly evening when art can be viewed in the evening hours on the third Thursday of the month. The GeorgiaMuseum of Art and the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia; the Lyndon House Arts Center, GlassCube & Gallery@Hotel Indigo-Athens and Ciné in downtown Athens; and Athens Institute for Contemporary Art (ATHICA) in the Chase Park Warehouses near the Boulevard neighborhood will be open from 6 until 9 p.m. on those days unless they are between installations or closed for a holiday or weather emergency.

The six art establishments will maintain a calendar of their programming at a soon-to-be-launched website, www.3Thurs.org. The website will provide links to the venue resources and a Google Calendar of all their exhibitions, receptions and events, such as kids’ events, lectures and gallery talks. Some opening receptions and special features will occur on Third Thursdays, but they will endeavor to prevent conflicts of critical exhibition elements.

The first iteration of Third Thursday will be on September 20. Opening receptions will be offered at the Lamar Dodd Schoolof Art galleries and at Ciné. ATHICA will be in-between exhibitions, but is opening to reveal its new logo and will offer new t-shirts for purchase and a performance of experimental ambient music. The Georgia Museum of Art, LyndonHouse Arts Center and Gallery@Hotel Indigo will be open with current exhibitions on view.

Events on September 20 are all free and open to the public. Following is the programming for each of the participating venues:


• George Beattie’s Agriculture Murals
• The Epic and the Intimate: French Drawings from the John D. Reilly Collection at the Snite Museum of Art
• Francisco de Goya’s “Disasters of War”
• The New York Collection for Stockholm
• The South in Black and White: The Graphic Works of James E. Routh Jr., 1939–1946 
• De Wain Valentine: Human Scale

• DUOLOGUES: Las Hermana Iglesias, Jihn Moon and Rachel Hayes, and SATAN'S CAMARO, Gallery 307, reception, 6–8 p.m.
• Colour as a Medium: Graphic Design by RAW COLOR (The Netherlands), Gallery 101, reception, 6–8 p.m.
• Costa Rica Study Abroad Program undergraduate student work, Suite Gallery
• NUE WRK: First-year graduate students show, Plaza and Bridge Galleries

• The Orphan Show—exhibition and silent auction of artworks abandoned by their artists at LHAC over the years, including paintings, photographs and assemblage
• Period Decorative Arts ca. 1840–1890 and Athens History Museum Display in the Ware-Lyndon House, ongoing

JT Bringardner.

• PLACE: photography—works by Michael Lachowski, Carl Martin and Stephen Scheer

• Works by Didi Dunphy, Carol John and Lou Kregel with an opening reception

For more information about Third Thursday schedules and plans at participating venues, please see the events calendar at  http://www.visitathensga.com/things-to-do/events/ or contact the venues directly. 

Georgia Museum of Art
90 Carlton Street, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602
Michael Lachowski
706-542-GMOA

Lamar Dodd School of Art Galleries
270 River Road, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602
Jeffrey Whittle
706- 542-0069

Lyndon House Arts Center
293 Hoyt Street, Athens, GA 30601
Nancy Lukasiewicz
706-613-3623

Athens Institute for Contemporary Art (ATHICA)
160 Tracy Street, Unit 4, Athens, GA 30601
Hope Hilton
706-208-1613

Ciné
234 W. Hancock Street, Athens, GA 30601
Carl Martin
706-353-7377

GlassCube & Gallery@Hotel Indigo-Athens
500 College Avenue, Athens, GA 30601
Didi Dunphy
706-546-0430