There’s a different type of back to school party going on at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art. Starting at five tonight, students can enjoy free refreshments and the museum’s new exhibits at the Fall Preview Party.

The Party showcases three new fall exhibits: Drawn toward the Avante-Garde, Old Master Drawings from the Collection, and Up To and Including Her Limits. Block will showcase both Avante-Garde and Old Master Drawings until Nov. 30, while Up to and Including Her Limits will remain at the musem until Dec. 14.

The museum’s main exhibit this quarter is Drawn toward the Avante-Garde, a traveling display of drawings from the Royal Museum in Copenhagen. The works are by artists who were either French or active in France between 1800 and 1950.

“France was pretty much the pinnacle of the art world in the 19th century,” said Corinne Granof, assistant curator.

The exhibit is arranged thematically rather than chronologically because there were not enough works to properly span the century-long period, according to Granof. It includes both preparatory sketches and full signed drawings and exhibits a partial survey of the different movements of the period.

The landscape section contains drawings from the early to mid 19th century from the Barbizon school outside Paris.

“The artists had gone to escape the city and draw from nature,” Granof said. “Basically they were rejecting the academic tradition which had artists paint nature in a studio and painting outdoors.”

The landscapes include several works based on Dutch countryside. A drawing by Jean-Francois Millet shows a tree in a storm, using very simple black and white elements that were later turned into a painting. The picture is based on a fable written on the back of the drawing about how reeds may bend in the wind but the oak in the picture will break.

Other prominent artists featured include Paul C