See an emerging artist
Best Bets:Shaun Richards, Artspace's emerging artist-in-residence from January to July, has a new exhibit called "Sub Rosa" in the Upfront Gallery lobby at Artspace.
An artist's work
Best Bets:Treat yourself to views of some works by a North Carolina artist today. Charlotte native Paul Hartley has been a professor of art at East Carolina University for more than two decades.
Get your books' worth
Best Bets:Fantasy writers Lisa Shearin and James Maxey will be at the Barnes & Noble in Cary to read and sign their books.
Oh, the places he has painted
Best Bets:The exhibit features painted memories of rural North Carolina, nostalgic scenes of childhood, tobacco barns and cotton fields.
Hit the beach
Best Bets:If you're already missing summer, you can snag a little bit of the beach feeling with a game of beach volleyball. The Clayton Community Park in the Johnston County town has volleyball courts on sand and sponsors adult volleyball matches on Thursdays.
A personal story about a health care crisis
Best Bets:Maggi Ann Grace's new book, "State of the Heart: A Medical Tourist's True Story of Lifesaving Surgery in India," tackles a timely topic.
See the animals, not the crowds
Best Bets:With most of North Carolina's schoolchildren back in school, today might be a good day for grown-ups or for parents and preschoolers to visit the N.C. Zoo.
See a unique fossil
Best Bets:Visit the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences to see the world's only dinosaur specimen with a fossilized heart. The exhibit featuring the Thescelosaurus nicknamed Willo shows how advanced the structure of a dinosaur's heart was.
