Thanks for helping to make the first season of Art Gallery of Ontario’s 1^st Thursdays a runaway success! After a month off to catch our (and your) breath, get ready for a whole new season of 1^st Thursdays, starting May 2, when we celebrate the exhibition Revealing the Early Renaissance: Stories and Secrets in Florentine Art!

The musical headliner for the May show is ZEUS. With the help of vintage gear and a stellar ear for melody, the Toronto foursome has captivated rock fans around the world with the albums Say Us (2010) and follow up Busting Visions (2012), both released on Arts & Crafts. Well known for their airtight live show, sugary harmonies and carefully crafted pop rock arrangements, Zeus is one of rock’s rising elite. Fans of the band can also catch Zeus on June 8 at Field Trip Music & Arts Festival at Fork York and Garrison Common as part of the Arts & Crafts 10th Anniversary Celebration.

Other featured artist projects include visual artist Nicole Collins: will it go round in circles?, a choreographed drawing with Collins and two co-performers seeking to draw a perfect circle using their arms as compasses.

Jason Evans: Music for Looking features the AGO’s Grange Prize Photographer-in-Residence roaming the Galleries with a roving DJ station, playing records from his personal collection for artworks in the AGO collection.

And the AGO’s winter 2013 artists-in-residence Life of a Craphead will mark the closing of their exhibition Life of a Craphead Fifty Year Retrospective with a very special performance.

Plus, roll up your sleeves and join in special Early Renaissance-themed art making activities, including Renaissance Paint-by-Numbers and other in-gallery art experiences.

Other May 2 1^st Thursdays featured guests include:

• Toronto-based artist Iris Fraser-Gudrunas, who will continue her Gallery DJ project with a special set in Walker Court.

• Sophie Hackett, the AGO's Assistant Curator, Photography and Thierry Gervais, Head of Research at the Ryerson Image Centre will host an informal tour of Light My Fire: Some Propositions about Portraits and Photography, a Primary Exhibition in the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

• Revealing the Early Renaissance: Stories and Secrets in Florentine Art Pop-Up Talks: Hear 10-minute personal reactions and mini art history lessons from curators, artists and local personalities at every 1^st Thursday. This month, all of the pop-up talks are inside the Revealing the Early Renaissance exhibition. Please note that $10 admission applies.

• Out of the Vaults Renaissance Redux: From religious to secular, sacred to profane, pious to decadent, come trace the influence of the Renaissance on later artists such as William Blake, William Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, on view for one night only, in the Marvin Gelber Print & Drawing Study Centre.