It would be hard to fault Kesler Woodward if he had decided to skip his 40th high school reunion.

His home in Fairbanks, Alaska, is about as far as you can get from Aiken, but he'll be joining Linda Prior Hunley and Esther Randall next week at the Aiken Center for the Arts, where the three artists will be featured in a special Aiken High School Class of 1969 exhibit. A reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Sept. 10.

Ms. Prior Hunley earned a master's degree from Pratt Institute and spent seven years in New York, where she worked as an exhibit designer at the American Museum of Natural History. She will be exhibiting her large-scale charcoal drawings in the Aiken reunion show. Five of the graphite drawings are life-size studies of Jurassic fossils from the American Museum of Natural History, and others are studies of shell fragments found on the Carolina coast. The artist said she sees her drawings as mandalic maps, guiding and connecting the viewer to the hypnotic beauty of natural forms.

Sculptor Esther Randall has a bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia and master's from Indiana University, and now teaches at Eastern Kentucky University, where she is an associate professor in the art department and a gallery director. Kes Woodward is one of Alaska's best-known contemporary painters. He's also an author, curator and art historian. He was chairman of the art department at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, before retiring in 2000 with emeritus status. His paintings are in major art collections.

THE MORRIS MUSEUM of Art will be welcoming back one of its favorite artists when William Christenberry opens an exhibit of his photography on Saturday, Sept. 12. The museum has planned an opening party Southern style, beginning at 5 p.m. with his lecture in the auditorium, after which guests will move up to the galleries for shrimp and grits and music by the Threads. Cost for the event is $12 for members and $17 for non-members. Paid reservations are due by Friday. Call (706) 724-7501.

The exhibit spotlights Mr. Christenberry's scenes of Southern vernacular architecture, signs and landscape, photographed between 1961 and 2005.

The Morris Museum is also showing Present Substance: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of Personal Identity, an exhibition featuring the work of Claire Welborn Hancock, Rachel Chambers, Blaine Holder, and Rachel Lappe, in the Community Gallery, through Sunday.

SACRED HEART CULTURAL Cen- ter will hold an opening reception for a show titled Connections by Marianna Williams, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Ms. Williams has taught art at Heritage Academy and is currently a student at the Rhode Island School of Design.

ALSO OF NOTE: September is starting out with a couple of firsts:

First Thursday today at the Midtown Market on Kings Way from 5 to 8 p.m., and First Friday in downtown Augusta from late afternoon until late evening. Galleries on Artists Row and side streets will be open late to give visitors a look at art that will be showcased later this month at the Arts in the Heart and Westobou festivals. The Inner Bean Café on Davis Road is showing art by Pat Tante.

HISTORIC AUGUSTA'S annual Perfectly Aged: Antiques and Wine benefit auction will be held Sept. 10 in the River Room at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 605 Reynolds St.

The event begins at 6:30 p.m. with a wine tasting, cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, and a silent auction of antiques and fine wines. Offerings from more than 25 of Augusta's top restaurants and caterers will be paired with complementing wines.

Tickets are $100 per person, or $50 for ages 35 and younger. Call (706) 724-0436.

Preview auction items at www.historicaugusta.org.

Louise Keith Claussen is a former arts editor and museum director. Contact her at keith.claussen@morris.com.