Attention past and future Art-monkeys! Grab a pen! Grab a calendar! Have a seat! Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-art School Philly is thrilled to announce the start of the next era of our branch with a session on Saturday, March 13th from 3 PM to 6 PM at World Cafe Live!

The session will feature the talents of previous Dr. Sketchy’s Philly models and fan favorites D’Arcy D’Lux and Candy Mayhem in a tribute to Alberto Vargas.

Buy tickets here: World Cafe Live Ticket Sales

Tickets are $15 ($12 + $3 service charge). Seating will be general admission. There are no reserved seats for this session.

We are ecstatic about the new venue and our first models.

In all your excitement, you may have some questions. Please send them to us here, or at our Facebookpage, or via @drsketchyphilly on Twitter. We’ll try to answer some right now.

Why World Cafe Live?
It’s an amazing space built with care for the audience experience and with artists in mind, from sight-lines to seating to acoustics. Originally built to be an exceptional music venue, we feel it will be a wonderful place to draw, drink, and win contests.

What venues did you look at?
All of them. We’ve spent the last few weeks finding the right place to host Dr. Sketchy’s Philly, considering your session experience and staying true to the dream of the founder of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-art School, artist Molly Crabapple. We’ve seen bands play, we’ve crashed private birthday parties, we’ve had a lot of drinks. We’ve endured strange looks as we’ve drawn floorplans and stepped around dance floors estimating seating capacity. We’ve been to Northern Liberties, South Philly, University City, Center City and places in between. We’ve listened to your suggestions and after factoring in visibility, lighting, seating, transportation, and overall atmosphere, World Cafe Live emerged as the best choice to provide the best time for you all. Special thanks to Jeremy Freeman for all the help. While we’re thanking people, Molly, Nicola Black, and Tanya Dakin were lifesavers setting up our new directorship.

Why Saturday?
A few reasons. One, we’ve heard that while some people wanted sessions to be on Fridays, it wasn’t always easy to fit in Dr. Sketchy’s, work, dinner, and going out all in one night. Two, Saturdays worked best, especially Saturday afternoon for the venues we explored. Three, once we understood that Saturdays would be easier, we learned on our travels that some of the smaller galleries in town are starting to celebrate Second Saturday and we thought it’d be a great combination for our Art-monkeys. Make some art, go see some art. Make a day of it and get some fancy dinner while you’re in town. Maybe Art-monkeys who meet at Dr. Sketchy’s will go out after and compare sketches, stories, and tattoos.
We will be moving the time to 4PM – 7PM starting with our second session.

How often are the sessions?
Monthly, starting in May. We’re not able to hold a session in April, but after that, you can sketch fascinating models and meet interesting people every Second Saturday.

Who are the sponsors?
We’re talking to several sponsors right now. If you are interested, please contact us! It’s a great way to connect with an exceptional group of people.

Why isn’t the event listed on the World Cafe Live website?
Update: tickets are available. World Cafe Live Ticket Sales.

How is this era of Dr. Sketchy’s Philly going to be different from the previous eras?
We want to preserve all the best aspects of the work that Nicola Black, the Midwives Collective and Genevive Zacconi put into creating the previous Philly branches of Molly Crabapple’s Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-art School. We’re also going to build on what they’ve all done and our hope is that we can provide a place for working artists, people who haven’t drawn in years and everyone across that spectrum to draw, drink, and win cool things. We also want to unite the different art-related groups across the Philly region including painters, sketchers, models, photographers, galleries, coffee shops that show art work, art schools, festivals, museums, and teachers into an explosion of Philly-flavored art fun. We plan to bring Dr. Sketchy’s to new places and feature local artists as guest Art Directors. We’ve got big plans and welcome your suggestions.

How can I help Dr. Sketchy’s Philly?
Make suggestions. Tell us what you like and don’t like about sessions. Convince your friend who always says they want to go to Dr. Sketchy’s to make it happen. Enjoy yourself. Draw.

That’s it for now. More details next week. Have a great weekend and thank you for your interest!

- Steve and Tricia