Whether you’re new to town or have simply been avoiding the summertime heat, Third Thursday is a wonderful opportunity to familiarize yourself with or catch up on the local arts scene. Currently approaching its third anniversary, Third Thursday is held—you guessed it—on the third Thursday of every month. From 6–9 p.m., Athens’ seven major visual art venues stay open late, frequently hosting special receptions and events. The initiative demonstrates the collaborative spirit between local curators and arts administrators, who benefit from the cross-promotion and increased visibility while promoting Athens as a significant destination for experiencing art in Georgia.

A free shuttle provided by the Classic Center Cultural Foundation will run a full circuit between venues every 45 minutes; look for a “3Thurs” yard sign out front to catch a ride. Information highlighting each month’s lineup can be found at 3thurs.org, and attendees are encouraged to use the hashtag #3thurs.

Georgia Museum of Art: In conjunction with “El Taller de Gráfica Popular: Vida y Arte,” the museum will host a special panel discussion at 7 p.m. with Michael Ricker, the collector whose pieces make up the exhibition, as well as scholars Helga Prignitz-Poda and Deborah Caplow and collector Peter Schneider. Artist Arturo García Bustos will be included by way of a pre-recorded video, and Spanish-English translators will be present. The beautifully presented exhibition, which is full of posters, flyers, satirical calavera newspapers and fine-art portfolios, examines the Mexican printmaking collective’s role in supporting communism, labor unions and workers’ rights between the late 1930s–‘60s. Prior to the discussion, the museum will host an hour-long reception, as well as “Thursday Twilight Tour: Highlights from the Permanent Collection.”

Michael Benedetti at the Lyndon House Arts Center

Lyndon House Arts Center: Two concurrent receptions from 6–8 p.m. will celebrate the opening of an exhibition of prints and paperworks by graduate student Michael Benedetti in the Lounge Gallery—a fairly new space reserved for quarterly solo shows by emerging artists—as well as the closing of a display of Hollywood movie stills collected by photographer Mike Landers in the center’s lobby. Investigating the role of symbols found in ancient artifacts and architecture, Benedetti creates illustrations that explore mysticism through stylistic influences of comic books, art nouveau and science fiction. As part of the Lyndon House’s rotating series, “40 of Something: Collections from the Community,” Landers’ 40 images include promotional stills and candid shots from classics such as King Kong, Cleopatra, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Psycho.

Lamar Dodd School of Art: In Gallery 101, “Video 101: Dani Levanthal” presents 54 Days this Winter 36 Days this Spring for 18 Minutes, a video montage of condensed footage created by Levanthal, an assistant professor in drawing at Ohio State University. A collection of works by students who recently completed Foundations, a preparatory course for intended art majors, can be found in the “2015 Foundations Exhibition” within the Orbit Spaces. Both shows will remain on view through Friday, Sept. 11. While on campus, swing by the College of Environmental Design’s Circle Gallery between 4:30–6:30 p.m. for an opening reception for “Afloat,” an exhibition of works by Dodd professor emeritus RG Brown that explore the notion of journey and memories of newfound places.

Ciné Barcafé: Swing by the art house theater for a sneak preview of new works by Jim Barsness, or hold off until the opening reception on Friday, Aug. 21 from 6–8 p.m. for an opportunity to meet the artist. Incorporating elements of collage, drawing and gold-leaf accents, his dense, visually complex paintings are full of metaphorical imagery, cultural references and transfixing patterns.

Athens Institute for Contemporary Art: This is the last week to check out ATHICA’s two current exhibitions, “Emerges VIII” and “Intoxicating Love,” which will remain on view through Sunday, Aug. 23. “Emerges VIII,” an annual show dedicated to debuting the works of rising local artists, features a large-scale painting by Michael Ross, a site-specific installation by Cameron Lyden, mixed-media pieces by Jessica Machacek and Saegan Moran, and photography by Winnie Gier and Ben Rouse. Located in The Box@ATHICA, “Intoxicating Love” is a solo show of portraits by community activist Broderick Flanigan. 

Jim Barsness at Ciné

Hotel Indigo: “Summer Vacation,” on view in the Gallery@Hotel Indigo through Thursday, Sept. 24, explores themes of leisure and nostalgia through photographs by Adam Forrester, Georgia Rhodes and Winnie Gier, rope sculptures by Jourdan Joly, a site-specific mural by Michael Levine and a collection of Dolly Parton portraits curated by Margot Ecke of Smokey Road Press. Outdoors in the GlassCube, “Scatterfield,” by Georgia Tech PhD student Zane Cochran, is a mesmerizing sea of suspended RGB LEDs capable of producing over 16 million colors. The installation is currently programmed to roll through gentle tones throughout the day, and shifts into dynamic visualizations in reaction to musical stimuli overnight from 7 p.m.–7 a.m.

The Classic Center: On view through October, two group exhibitions explore the diversity of the animal kingdom through a variety of mediums. In Classic Gallery I, “Peaceable Kingdom” includes paintings by Will Eskridge and Cheryl Washburn, digital prints by Lawson Grice, photography by Jená A. Johnson and collages by Susan Pelham. In Classic Gallery II, “Flight” focuses on the beauty of winged and feathered friends through silk paintings of butterflies by Margaret Agner, painted birds of prey by Eskridge, macro shots of insects by Johnson, Pennsylvania Dutch-inspired flocks by Maria Mueller and storybook collages of crowing roosters and waddling geese by Pelham.