We’ve long been fans of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, enough so that we’ve got two nicknames for it – ISGM when writing and “da gadnah” when speaking. The museum has been doing a lot in recent months to re-energize their image, though they’ll never lose sight of their founder (and Red Sox fanatic) Isabella, new programs are putting a new life into ISGM. Tonight marks the first in their new series, Gardner After Hours, which will take place the third Thursday of each month and keep the museum open late from 5 to 9 pm.

A different focus is promised for each month, tonight’s focus is “Journey to the East” and will include Japanese music in the courtyard, gallery tours focusing on the Asian art already in the ISGM collection – and the special exhibition “The Asian Shore”, to top it off a Butoh dance performance by Ledoh titled “Captivity Concealed” is scheduled for 7 pm. The ISGM has set up an event blog for After Hours, you can read entries about the upcoming program, including, for the inaugural date of the program, musings by the musician Phil James who will play shakuhachi in the courtyard.

Upcoming third Thursday’s will focus on music in October, food in November (and no, it doesn’t fall on Thanksgiving.

Members are admitted free, adults are $12, and college students are $5, if you want to check out the performance by Ledoh you’ll need to spring for the “After Hours Plus” package (which includes admission to the After Hours program) and is $15 for members, $23 for adults, and $10 for college students. Send a "gardner" in a text message to 22122 for a reminder about the event - we'll just leave you with this: it may behoove you to send your text before you pay admission tonight.