We have plenty to do this first weekend in May.

      Start with First Thursday celebrations on Monte Sano Avenue where shops are open late tonight. At Knick Knack Paddy Whack Emporium, several artists have works on display. Sara Pollock Searle is the featured artist for May at KKPW. An instructor at St. Mary on the Hill Catholic School, she works in several media ranging from bead and button art to abstracted landscapes.

      Susan Johnston, a well-known Augusta artist, will be the first to be featured in a gallery at Peacock Alley for the Home and Garden, inside KKPW. There are several other artists represented in the emporium, including Pearl Bailie, Pat Tante and Panny Force.

      First Thursday events will also be held in the Midtown area near Kings Way and Central Avenue.

      Next, move on downtown for First Friday, where the popular gallery stroll and street vendors will be supplemented by Historic Augusta's annual Loft Tour.  In celebration of National Historic Preservation Month, the loft tour gives visitors a look at the upper floors of historic buildings on Broad Street where unique livings spaces that have been created above the storefronts. Selected lofts will be open from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. Maps and tickets will be available on tour days at 1002 Broad Street.

     In addition to the loft tour, several special events are on the calendar for Saturday. Artist and author Malaika Favorite will present a poetry reading and slide show of her work at 2 p.m. at the Discovery Center in Edgefield, S.C. Her exhibit will be on display there through May 15.

      Southern culinary celebrities Matt and Ted Lee will be at the Morris Museum of Art for a talk, cooking demonstration and book signing.  Their latest book is The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern: Knockout Dishes with Down-home Flavor. There are two price levels available, $35 and $75, with the the higher price including a signed book and a private reception. Paid advance registration is required. Call 706-828-3825 for information.

     Saturday also brings the 10th anniversary Derby Day fundraiser to benefit the Augusta Training Shop. The party begins at 4 p.m. at St. Paul's River Room, 605 Reynolds St.  Tickets are $50 in advance or $60 at the door. Call 706-738-1358 for tickets.

      The Art Factory has scheduled its spring cleaning sale from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at Hickman Park. Art and other items will be sold to benefit the scholarship fund for the Art Factory summer camp. The Art Factory recently announced its partnership with the Kroc Center to help develop programs in all art disciplines for both children and adults. The staff will be moving its offices to a recently renovated mill house next to the Kroc Center this summer.  

      Next weekend's events start out with the opening of a photography show by Augusta native Art Greene, May 12 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Sacred Heart Cultural Center. Greene's interest in photography dates to the 1990s when he moved to Savannah and began recording the landscapes, architecture and wildlife of the coastal area.  In 2009 he retired to western North Carolina, where he has photographed the mountain scenery and seasons in the Asheville area.

      Follow that with Art at lunch May 13 at the Morris Museum.  Dr. Edmund Taylor, nephew of artist Anna Heyward Taylor (1879-1956), and historian Alexander Moore will discuss their recently-published book about Taylor, one of the celebrated artists from the Charleston Renaissance. Lunch by Roux's Catering will begin at noon, with the program to follow. There is a $10 charge for museum members and $14 for others, and paid reservations are due by May 11.

      The talk will serve to spotlight the new exhibit in the Coggins Gallery at the Museum featuring works on paper by Taylor and other Charleston Renaissance artists including Alfred Hutty, Elizabeth O'Neill Verner and Alice Ravenel Huger Smith. 

      Solar printmaking will be the subject of two different workshops. At the Aiken Center for the Arts, Atlanta artist Suzy Schultz will do a one-day solar plating workshop May 14 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Adults and teens will learn to etch plates using the sun. The cost is $100 plus a supply fee. Call Cathy Rumble at 803-641-9094.

      At the Morris Museum of Art, Amelia Brooks will offer a solar plate printmaking workshop May 14 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and May 15 from noon to 4:30 p.m.  In addition to their own work, participants will take home a limited edition suite of prints created by their classmates. The fee of $70 for members and $85 for non-members includes materials. Paid registration is due tomorrow, May 6.  The museum also has Sunday Sketch on the calendar for May 15. Artists may sketch in the galleries with materials supplied by the museum. Or visitors can join pianist David Brown in the auditorium at 2 p.m. for an afternoon of classical music favorites.

      Looking ahead: Two events are scheduled for Thursday, May 19.  At the Morris Museum, New York-based artist Daniel Rozin will discuss his high-tech installations and sculptures in the Terra Cognita contemporary artists lecture series.  The lecture begins at 6 p.m. with a reception to follow. That same evening, the Aiken Artist Guild's annual Juried Exhibition will open at the Aiken Center for the Arts, with an awards ceremony and reception from 6 to 8 p.m.