Margate's rich artistic heritage is celebrated in spectacular style this weekend with the opening of David Chipperfield's Turner Contemporary, perched on the site where JMW Turner once lodged, captivated by the skies he described as "the loveliest in all Europe".

But there's more to this corner of Kent than Turner and Tracey Emin. Turner's contemporary George Morland spent time in Margate after falling for a lady of dubious reputation; and Vincent van Gogh lodged along the coast in Ramsgate (in Spencer Square) after taking a teaching job in the town. Gothic revivalist Augustus Pugin designed much of the interior of the House of Lords while overlooking Goodwin Sands from his clifftop home.

Art and design eventually gave way to sea-bathing, donkey-rides and kiss-me-quick hats, before cheap flights to the continent helped usher in an era of social deprivation and boarded-up shops. But now it's back with a bang. New galleries are springing up and this spring and summer sees Margate play host to one of the busiest arts calendars outside London.

If you're heading to the Turner Contemporary, here are some of the other galleries, shops and events well worth visiting while you're in town.

I Scream and Rock

This brash new gallery housed in a former Chinese medicine shop spreads some of the regeneration fervour gripping the old town to Margate's much-neglected high street, showcasing the best of the local art scene alongside owner Mark Downing's paintings and upcycled furniture. I Scream and Rock celebrates the Turner Contemporary opening with an exhibition of Gulf war veteran Glenn Fitzpatrick's harrowing yet darkly comic murals and sculptures (pictured), previously seen in his acclaimed graphic novel Arts and Minds. Fitzpatrick honed his skills painting Viz characters on the side of tanks during Operation Desert Storm.
• 16-18 High Street (07935 102790, iscreamandrock.wordpress.com). Glenn Fitzpatrick's Symbols of Society runs from 15 April to 2 May

Pie Factory

For a couple of centuries the only industry taking place in this Tardis-like building involved pigs, pastry and buckets of pork jelly. These days you'll find local girl Zoe Murphy crafting her love letters to Margate by customising vintage G-Plan furniture with seaside imagery in the workshop upstairs, as well as studio and exhibition space, and a pop-up shop offering a changing calendar of retailers. A cafe is opening later in the year, and yes, they will be putting pies on the menu. There are open studios on 16, 17, 23 and 24 April, with a chance to see Zoe, Katie Welsford, Anna Baranowska and Ian Youngs at work.
• 5-7 Broad Street (07879 630257, piefactorymargate.co.uk)

Blackbird

Dazzlingly pretty shops are popping up in Margate's old town at an increasing rate of knots, but the pick of the bunch is Blackbird, the creation of talented textile designer Maxine Sutton. Upstairs from the shop, full of quirky impulse buys such as Gemma Correll's Pugs not Drugs tote bags and Emily Warren's papier-mâché busts, there's studio and workshop space, with screen-printing equipment and sewing machines for regular workshops of up to six people. Emerging textile maker and artist Emma Challacombe leads the first workshop in creative textiles on Saturday 21 May, with the three-hour session costing £40, including materials. Emma's work is also showcased in the shop until the end of May in Sad Stefano and Friends (pictured), an exhibition that promises to capture the bittersweet complexities and confusion of childhood.
• 2 Market Place (01843 229533, blackbird-england.com)

Limbo Arts at the Substation Project Space

From their home in the stark surroundings of a former electricity substation between the old town and the high street, Limbo celebrates the Turner opening with Art Lands On Alien Landscapes, a series of live art events examining how arts-led regeneration clashes with the town's history. Over the course of the month you'll be invited to become a crew member on the Starship Enterprise via Jessica Voorsanger's multimedia installation, and get to meet Frog Morris, a mad professor aiming to bring about nothing less than Margate's complete destruction with the help of some ancient sea monsters.
• Weekends of 30 April-1 May, 7-8 May and 14-15 May. 6 Bilton Square, High Street (07812 780984, limboarts.co.uk)

The Harbour Arm

Its close proximity to the Turner Contemporary places Margate's Harbour Arm – a 19th century stone pier – firmly at the centre of the opening festivities. The exhibition space – sandwiched between the BeBeached cafe and the Lighthouse Bar – hosts Being Digital, curated by Pat Wilson Smith who also has a studio on the Harbour Arm. The Kent Cultural Baton – a silver Airstream caravan that doubles up as a mobile art space – also rolls into town on its tour around Kent ahead of the 2012 Olympics, capturing the sights and sounds of each location it visits in a bid to create a "cultural map" of the county. Look out for the annual postcard auction later in the year, which sees a scattering of artists and celebrities put postcard-sized artwork up for sale in the name of a good cause. The artist remains a mystery until the bidding's over; high profile names including Emin have submitted work in the past. The postcard auction takes place on 11 September.
• 01843 260260, margateharbourarm.co.uk

Measure-ism & Measuring Margate

Measure-ism reflects artist Jenny Wiener's obsession with numbers and measurement (work pictured), more specifically her concern that ultimately we're all reduced to nothing more than a series of pin numbers, statistics and serial numbers. Wiener's used her intricate, almost architectural drawings to deconstruct anything from fairytales to Cézanne landscapes in the past, but her latest project is firmly fixed on Margate, and complemented by an interactive website where the public can add to a growing archive of information about the town by submitting their own measurements, whether it be the number of colours in Margate, or a radical new way of measuring the height of the Victorian clocktower. Ever wondered how to measure just how contemporary the Turner Contemporary really is? A session with the artist on 30 April promises to reveal all.
• The Pie Factory, 5–7 Broad Street (07879 630257, measuringmargate.co.uk)

Marine Studios & First Fridays

Marine Studios' regular workshops, talks and exhibitions make the first Friday of the month a big day in Margate's cultural calendar. Past events include Adventures in Comics, featuring a talk by graphic novels expert Paul Gravett, but April belongs to Pie Days and Holidays, a collection of local food stories illustrated by artist Sophie Herxheimer. Touching on themes such as love, greed, poverty, joy, embarrassment and rivalry, Sophie's work is also on show on hoardings that adjoin Arlington House, the spectacularly brutal 1960s tower block outside the train station. There's also a birthday feast for Turner himself later in the month, with the organisers promising a dazzling visual feast with jellies and cakes for visitors to draw, paint and even eat. It's an apt location, since this beautiful space has sweeping views across the sea and skies that inspired the artist.
• Marine Studios, 17 Albert Terrace (01843 282219, marinestudios.co.uk, pie-days.co.uk/index.htm)

The Community Pharmacy Gallery

Founded in 2001, The Community Pharmacy Gallery is the old town's most established art space, celebrating a decade of working not just with emerging and established artists, but with all sectors of the community. True to form, Beeping Bush – the organisation behind the gallery – is marking the Turner opening by exhibiting paintings by adults with learning difficulties. Beeping Bush also runs filmmaking services such as equipment hire, technical training and post-production from the first floor of this smart Georgian townhouse, and organises short film competitions such as the brilliant annual horror-fest, 2 Days Later.
• 16 Market Place (01843 223800, beepingbush.co.uk)

Artist's Alley at Margate Bazaar

"Come and show us what you've got …" is the challenge put out there by the people behind Artist's Alley, part of the promising new vintage, antiques and food market taking place every Sunday in Margate's old town from 17 April. The narrow space between the Mayor's Parlour and the museum becomes a ramshackle gallery, open to artists of any discipline looking for a space to show their work. Whether you're a sculptor, painter, photographer, or simply want to show off some impromptu acts of creative genius, the Alley wants to hear from you.
• Every Sunday. Margate Bazaar (07976 051915, margateoldtown.co.uk/markets.aspx)

Pushing Print

This annual celebration of print-making was an instant hit when it launched in 2009. As well an inspiring programme of exhibitions, workshops and talks, look out for the popular Giant Print event, which sees a steamroller employed as a mobile printing press on the streets of the old town. Pushing Print draws on Margate's long association with print for inspiration: with his Liber Studorium, Turner took the unusual step of etching his work directly onto some 70 printing plates, with the aim of producing a widely-distributed manifesto of landscape art.
• October, various venues in the old town (pushingprint.co.uk)

Stewart Turner is the editor of Discover Thanet (discoverthanet.co.uk, £7), a new, independently published guidebook to Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate