Dr Sketchy Anti-Art School

Dr. Sketchy’s South Florida Voted “Best Art Event - 2012” by the New Times!

2012-06-17T00:13:42+00:00

"For Brooklyn artists Molly Crabapple and A.V. Phibes, life drawing classes had become snoozeworthy: Sure, there was a naked model in the room, but said room was cold, fluorescent-lit, and filled with strangers.

The experience would be so much better with friends. And alcohol. Thus, the two wizards birthed Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School — a cure for the common, drab, drawing-class environment. The alternative art craze swept the nation, finally landing itself a home in South Florida at Stage 84.

Once a month, creative folk gather at the cozy hangout and feast their eyes on busty burlesque babes waiting to be sketched. The alcoholic drinks flow, cheering and shouting ensues, and five-foot-long balloons get swallowed by amazonian beauties.

This anything-goes artistic atmosphere certainly draws a unique crowd and has no room for snobby folk just looking to place a red dot on an expensive painting."

THANK YOU NEW TIMES AND MOLLY CRABAPPLE!!!! WHOOOO HOOOOOO!

Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School at Stage 84: Betty Pickle Wows the Crowd

2011-08-22T15:20:25+00:00

By Betsey Denberg Fri., Aug. 19 2011 at 2:44 PM Betty Pickle Knows Her Balloons Stage 84 is the type of place that you walk in and you're instantly taken back to your high school boyfriend's basement. AC/DC, Chicago, and various classic rock LPs decorate the walls, cozy couches fill the room, and the smell of incense tickle the nostrils. Every nook and cranny is filled with antique treasures and kitschy items and a tapestry curtain shields the outsiders from peeking in. The psychedelic decor and eye-catching art work makes you forget that you're inside a Davie strip mall off 595. An eclectic crowd of individuals has gathered tonight for the second installment of Dr.Sketchy's Anti-Art School, a monthly live drawing event that provides an alternative solution to the drab classroom environments. Tonight's live model is burlesque connoisseur Betty Pickle, a sassy lady known for her ability to swallow a 3-foot balloon. The cozy cafe is filled with folks from every social circle all coming together for a night of artistic debauchery. Tattooed couples, college students and a handful of 40-somethings set up their drawing stations and patiently wait for the night to begin. Emcee and event organizer Charlotte Sundquist takes the stage to explain the rules of the evening. Throughout the evening attendees will partake in a series of drawing exercises ranging from one minute to as long as 20 minutes. She encourages the crowd to show appreciation for the live model by cheering and applauding her hard work. Charlotte's booming voice and bubbly personality set the tone for the night, she's the art school teacher you've always wanted. The red-headed amazonian Betty Pickle approaches the stage in a black mini trench coat, golden leaves and feathers sit on top of her 1950's retro hair style. A dazzling rhinestone necklace drips down her chest, reflecting the spotlight onto the walls. After a series of minute long poses, she removes the coat to reveal black undergarments adorned with glittering appliques and golden chains wrapping her shoulders. To prove she doesn't take herself too seriously, she places a fake nose with glasses on her face and smiles wide at the crowd. Although I felt like I was reading someone's diary, watching the artists' different methods and styles of working was intriguing. The short-haired woman sharing my table moved slowly using graceful lines with little attention to detail while an older man on a couch worked with loud bursts of color. Betty saunters around the stage, moving the furniture while trying to figure out what pose will be the most comfortable to hold for the next ten minutes. Finally deciding on an upside down position on top of a tiny wooden side table, she points her fishnet covered leg in the air to balance the sparkly hula hoop and dangles her fiery red hair along the floor. "Everyone is drawing me skinny right?" Betty asks the crowd. "You can't get skinnier than a stick figure," yells a curly haired brunette from behind the bar. "So have you guys ever heard of assels?" questions Betty. "Those are like booby tassels but for your butt and you're supposed to shake them around...well you get the point." As the night progresses, the crowd begins to warm up, switching from sodas to frosty glasses of craft beer and red wine. Participants move closer to the stage, some on the floor, and partake in the playful banter incited by the boisterous model. From time to time our host for the evening Charlotte chimes in with some fun facts about Betty. She's a Southern Baptist, has a bachelors degree in science, and used to go-go dance for The Misfits and Public Enemy. Quite the impressive resume if you ask me. The extremely vocal Betty Pickle is clearly at ease with herself and the onlookers staring at her Marilyn Monroe figure. Every few moments she spews another priceless gem from her glittering crimson red lips. "So, I have a boil on my ass. Yup, it's true," Betty comfortably says. "So, I named it Susan because she's clearly not going away. Oh yeah, I can't wear g-strings anymore either." "You know where I get my sparkly things from? The $9.99 beauty store. Along with my weave. From the ghetto where I live. The life of luxury I know. If you never wanna get laid in your life, do burlesque," she explains. "Oh god, someone hand me a drink." During the half point break, Charlotte announces that Miss Pickle will be treating the audience with a little slice of her burlesque performance. The house lights go dark, Vaudeville music booms through the speakers, and the spotlight reveals the glistening performer. Betty glides along the stage, making bedroom eyes as she blows kisses into the crowd. She picks up a few of the candy colored 3-foot balloons and rubs them along her body, occasionally licking and kissing the latex apparatus. Standing profile, she places one leg behind the other and leans her head back wrapping her lips around a bright yellow balloon. Unsure of whether to cheer or remain silent, the crowd just stares and watches patiently to see what will happen next. It's safe to say we all had the same thing running through our minds, "Can she really swallow that entire balloon?". Sure enough, Betty gracefully moves the balloon inch by inch into the back of her throat until no longer visible. She removes her black sequined bra to reveal her gold tasseled breasts, raises her hands in the air and takes a bow. A roar of cheering and applause echoes throughout the cafe as the performer leaves the stage. Maybe it was the alcohol, but by the end of the night I became envious of the other attendees, wishing I had brought my own drawing tools along with me. There was just something about the relaxed and inviting atmosphere that got the creative juices flowing. With only two events underway -- both successful in attendance -- Dr.Sketchy's Anti-Art School is proving to be a remarkable addition to the burgeoning local art scene.

Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School draws a saucy crowd

2011-08-17T17:24:26+00:00

With burlesque dancers, drunken artists and a no-nonsense ringleader, the South Florida chapter of this international organization has arrived. by Phillip Valys 8:58 a.m. EDT, August 17, 2011 Betty Pickle (photos by Beth Black) It’s a balmy Thursday night at Davie’s Stage 84, a detail not even remotely helped by the sprawl of some 50-odd warm bodies — local artists, bartenders, scantily clad dancers — all wedged inside the quaint music café for a live sketching class. Sweat trickles down the glittery, cream-powdered cheek of Cupcake Burlesque dancer Jenna Beth as she describes, counting on glossy, white fingernails, the number of times some “pervy old man” has hit on her tonight. “My boyfriend — that photographer over there — thinks it’s really funny,” she says in a high-pitched, rapid-fire voice, adjusting a white, feather headdress sitting atop a well-coifed pompadour of golden curls. She’s wearing a lattice crystal necklace and a lacy, carnation-pink corset studded with multicolored jewels and Swarovski crystals — real ones, she claims, that she worked years to afford. “I hope nobody notices that I just ate three Wendy’s cheeseburgers right before I came here,” she deadpans, slapping her tummy. Rap, rap, rap. Stage lights dim as Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamonds Are a Girl‘s Best Friend” plays over the café’s loudspeakers. It’s this schmaltzy cabaret song that marks the newest incarnation of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School. It’s an alt-life drawing gathering, the concept of which corrupts just about any humdrum life-drawing class, the kind where half-naked, pasty-skinned models with placid facial expressions pose onstage under blinding fluorescent lights while artists quietly scratch with pencil points. Replacing that are drunken artists sketching a sexy parade of topless burlesque dancers, models unafraid to flaunt their personalities as they twist around in come-hither costumes — far removed from and more evolved than the vapid, starchy rooms that inspired the Drink and Draws. Charlotte Sundquist, herself a local artist who singlehandedly relaunched this South Florida chapter of Dr. Sketchy’s, likens the evening to a three-hour sketch-a-thon sliced into several lightning-paced drawing exercises. The Web site bills the “anti-art” program as a place where “life drawing meets cabaret.” The second such Sketchy’s outing will take place Thursday, Aug. 18 and will be headlined by former Hellion Burlesque dancer Betty Pickle. “The Dr. Sketchy’s concept is you do everything that isn’t your normal life-drawing class. You’ll have fun, have some martinis. Even if you’re not an artist, you’re going to be less uptight about being stupid when you’re drinking and drawing,” says Sundquist, a Lighthouse Point blonde who, lately, has organized art shows at other art-deprived locales in Broward. “The sketching is really celebrating uniqueness and the art of that underground subculture, be it tattooed fetish models, a punk rocker with a foot-high Mohawk or a man in a gorilla suit.” An earlier incarnation of Dr. Sketchy’s, launched almost three years ago under the management of a burlesque dancer named Torchy Taboo, is deader than scrap paper now, Sundquist says, taking a slurp of coffee at a Deerfield Beach Starbucks. So why rescue this chapter, which joins two others in Florida — Punta Gorda and Jacksonville — from South Florida’s version of artistic oblivion? “I just want to give artsy people a chance to network,” she says. Wait — what? It’s true: Sundquist traded her dead-end career teaching public speaking as a 20-year UPS employee for an artsier lifestyle in 2005, first founding a nonprofit networking meetup called the South Florida Artists Association — which boasts 1,271 members on its Meetup.com Web page — and a company devoted to creative types called Artistic Productions. Last year, in between her day job as a manager for a local marine company, she created the Vacant Spaces Project, which has brought art shows to empty retail stores at Pompano Citi Centre and Fort Lauderdale’s F.A.T. Village. She has no problem barking directives from the sidelines, either. Sundquist, who functions as emcee at these sketchy outings (she even shoehorns in a few competitions, such as drawing with the nondominant hand), lays down the ground rules thusly: several rapid-fire, one-minute “warm-up” sketches, followed by burlesque dancing and lengthier, more-serious 10- and 20-minute sketching blocks. “I’m definitely an ADD artist. I like to keep things going in different directions at once,” she says of her multitasking. “At Dr. Sketchy’s, you can be an artist or someone who has never picked up a pencil before. It’s not meant to be intimidating, crafting something out of nothing. There’s no time to make everything perfect. It’s OK to screw up. We’re not expecting there to be hecklers or douchebags.” Charlotte Sundquist Back inside Stage 84, Jenna Beth saunters down a narrow aisle and kneels against a topaz-colored curtain backdrop. The bedazzled blonde is the founder of Cupcake Burlesque, a Fort Lauderdale-based troupe of classic burlesquers, or dancers who enjoy stripteasing in campy, vintage garb. Tonight, she’s dropping brassieres to sizzling music with a trio of other Cupcake performers. Flung across the living room-reminiscent café, whose red walls are mounted with LP slipcovers of Peter Frampton and Tony Martin, are the sketchers, a cluster of twentysomething hipsters and late-career bloomers sporting tattoos, faux-hawks and, weirdly enough, a pipe cleaner-mustachioed man wearing a beret. There's a bourbon-flavored silence on this side: monstrous sketchpads perched on artists' laps, colored pencil tips pressed to paper as they quietly carve the human form. Beth says her retro-glamour, pinup-esque stripteasing sensationalizes kitsch instead of female flesh. She flaunts tasteful costumes while feeling empowered. “My style of burlesque is classy. Real sexy, flirtatious,” Beth says of her three-minute cabaret number. “There’s such a slow build to the art of the striptease. It’s not done in such a sexual manner, but a performance art rather than provoking sexual desire. I think that’s truly how it’s evolved over the decades. It’s stripteasing that can tell a story.” A 22-year-old art school dropout named Molly Crabapple created Dr. Sketchy’s in 2005, staging the first Drink and Draw at boozy dive bar Lucky Cats in Brooklyn, N.Y. She spread the alt-drawing movement globally, according to the Dr. Sketchy's Web site, with friend A.V. Phibes and a battery of “awesome helpers,” dropping about 130 chapters into 16 countries as far-flung as New Zealand and the Netherlands. “A life-drawing class is very educational but a very sterile experience, and you relate to these models as just a collection of tendons and shapes in gray rooms," the 27-year-old Crabapple says. "This is very objectifying in an object way. Instead of being bodies, I wanted the models to be celebrated, fierce personalities, like stars." Crabapple is blown away by the viral success of her Dr. Sketchy’s brand. “Artists are very isolated," she says. "We are kind of dorky, actually. We created an environment where we can draw in an atmosphere that’s glamorous and fun, and that’s why I think it took off so quickly. It provides an avenue for artists and performers to meet each other.” Next onstage, parked on a Victorian-style, scarlet fainting couch that looks pinched from a French bordello or the movie set of Moulin Rouge, is a smoky-eyed, raven-haired brunette named Buffy Pistol. She’s striking a pose in an onyx-black corset, black bow-tied thong, fishnet stockings and glossy pumps, a black-and-blue feather boa seductively dangling over her breasts. As Pistol stripteases to Peggy Lee’s “Fever,” sprawling on the lounge with arms coyly cupped around her head Kate-Winslet-in-Titanic-style, sketcher Jason Beck, a 22-year-old college graduate with a barbell nose piercing, is drawing a gaunt model with crooked legs and her femurs and rib cage showing. His female companion, Fort Lauderdale resident Lorraine Lowe, is trying to take the exercise more seriously: raising a thumb between her eyes, she sketches curved, dotted lines across the model’s symmetrical head, rendering the dancer’s form like she was taught as a student at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. She giggles, however, as Beck mounts a butternut-squash-shaped dinosaur with pointy teeth next to the crooked-legged Pistol. In a sketch for another model, he anthropomorphizes his burlesque muse into a female centaur wielding a trident, protecting a chocolaty treat from a predatorial pterodactyl. It looks like the work of Salvador Dali and Gabriel Garcia Marquez on an acid trip. “I have not made a single mistake so far. This is perfect,” he says with a grin. Pointing to a gravestone near the centaur’s left hoof, Beck says, “The centaur’s the queen of cupcakes, and here lies the Duke of Nuts.” Lowe chokes into her bottled water, face redder than the fainting couch. “Oh, my God, this is fantastic,” she says. “This is nothing like the life-drawing classes I’m used to.” A guitar riff from George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone” erupts from Sundquist’s cell phone timer to signal the end of the sketching round. “OK, everybody, breathe,” Sundquist says. Some of the huddled sketchers let out collective sighs. Others blink rapidly and rotate their arms, exaggeratedly nursing their wrists like carpal-tunnel sufferers. “You got this next one, right?” a photographer asks Beck, glancing over his fantastical landscape of decidedly not-burlesque dancers. “It’ll be just as good as the last one,” he replies as a red-satin-robe-wearing brunette dancer with cute braces takes the stage. Sitting catty-corner from Beck and Lowe’s table, Heathyre Perara has bundles of multicolored pastel pencils strewn around her paperback-size sketchpad. As sketchers scribble into their books, she’s busy shading the champagne-colored curtains behind the gyrating dancer with braces. Perara founded the Southwest Florida chapter of Dr. Sketchy’s this past December, gaining a loyal following of a dozen or so pencil-toting artists as she continues hunting for permanent hosting digs near the Fort Myers/Punta Gorda area. “I decided to come and share support,” Perara says, color shading the model’s ankle-strapped high heels with impressionistic flourishes. “In a life drawing, you focus on accuracy. In a Sketchy’s drawing, it’s a no-pressure thing because you’re not expected to churn out a masterpiece. It’s very fun and definitely not boring.” Betty Pickle will perform solo this month for Dr. Sketchy’s. Among other kinky activities, she specializes in deep-throating more fully inflated balloons than a sword-swallower with a latex fetish. Part of her act involves donning a prom queen’s dress and murdering a prom king with sharp objects. She says she learned balloon-swallowing from a clown named Karl Coppertop during a stint with a vaudeville show called Millionaire Tramp, which toured nationally with a ring of sideshow magicians and lounge singers. “I think sexuality is funny, or the definition of burlesque is funny, anyway. Those dancers, they wear tiny hats and mustaches when they striptease,” says Pickle, who lives in Wilton Manors. “Doing the live sketches is a kinesthetic thing. It’s something so fluid and dynamic of an experience that you’ll start seeing art from a different angle.” The next Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art Show Drink and Draw will take place from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 18 at Stage 84 Music Café, 9118 W. State Road 84, in Davie. The cover is $12. at the door Call 954-474-5040, or visit Drsketchysofla.com.

Life drawing meets sketchy burlesque at Stage 84 in Davie

2011-07-26T13:06:47+00:00

July 21, 2011|PHILLIP VALYS pvalys@tribune.com Tiki torches, totem poles and thatch-roofed island bars surround a spotlit stage at a downtown Fort Lauderdale restaurant. A beefy man with tanker truck-thick shoulders emerges from behind a curtain, and tucked within his pair of python arms is a topless blonde in a skin-tight mermaid costume. For the briefest of moments, doubt enters Charlotte Sundquist's mind. She's standing inside the Mai-Kai, this kitschy tropical-themed eatery, armed with fresh sketchpads and a fistful of colored pencils. She'd come to Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art Show Drink and Draw expecting anything except a humdrum life drawing class, the kind where half-naked, pasty-skinned models with placid facial expressions pose onstage under blinding fluorescent lights while artists quietly scratch their pencil points. That clearly wasn't this: the burly carrier plops the aquamarine-sequined mermaid onto a chair at center stage. She's wearing pasties, of course, since establishments that feature liquor and naked bosoms often run into legal snafus. A cluster of local artists - twentysomething hipsters, late-career bloomers – huddle around the beached mermaid and begin furiously sketching outlines in between sips of booze. "I was thinking, straight up, 'this isn't like your standard life drawing class,'" remembers Sundquist. "There's this strange mermaid that some guy carries out because she's in costume, and she interacts with the artists. The atmosphere just became so non-threatening." That version of Dr. Sketchy's is deader than scrap paper now, having gone defunct almost three years ago under the management of some burlesque dancer named Torchy Taboo. But Sundquist enjoys conjuring up that memory whenever she talks about the new incarnation of Dr. Sketchy's, which is relaunching this Thursday at Stage 84 coffeehouse in Davie and promises a night of drunken artists sketching a parade of near-topless burlesque dancers. "The Dr. Sketchy's concept is you do everything that isn't your normal life drawing class. You'll have fun, have some martinis. Even if you're not an artist, you're going to be less uptight about being stupid when you're drinking and drawing," said Sundquist, of Lighthouse Point. "The sketching is really celebrating uniqueness and the art of that underground subculture, be it tattooed fetish models, a punk rocker with a foot-high Mohawk or a man in a gorilla suit." A 22-year-old art school dropout named Molly Crabapple created Dr. Sketchy's in 2005, staging the first Drink & Draw at a boozy dive bar in Brooklyn. She spread the alt-drawing movement globally, according to its Website, with friend A.V. Phibes and a battery of "awesome helpers," dropping chapters into 16 countries as far-flung as Christchurch, Australia and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Sundquist's resurrected chapter joins two others in Florida: one in Punta Gorda and another in Jacksonville. Pressed as to why she brought Dr. Sketchy's back from artistic oblivion, she answered, "I'm definitely an ADD artist. I like to keep things going in different directions at once." During a recent interview over Starbucks coffee, she described the new Drink & Draw, a three-hour sketch-a-thon sliced into several lightning-paced drawing exercises, thusly: "I'll be up emceeing, laying down the ground rules. There will be a few one-minute sketches, pausing in between for dancing. Then you'll have a five-minute sketch of, like, a burlesque dancer in a weird 'Thinker' pose." Then we progress to serious sketching, 15 to 20 minutes long." She said she doesn't expect artists – at least, within the initial haze of hard liquor – to sketch something more detailed than the dancer's outline. Those are "warm-up" rounds, and they're interspersed with "Sketch-tinis" (a martini variant they mixed just for the event) and dance segments by Fort Lauderdale-based troupe Cupcake Burlesque. Jenna Beth, Cupcake Burlesque's founder, said the Drink and Draw might better resemble a French bordello or a scene from "Moulin Rouge," with a quartet of burlesque dancers stripteasing in sparkling, Swarovski crystal-adorned bras, thigh-high hosiery, corsets and feather boas. "It's slightly campy. My style of burlesque is classy. One of the girls is more jazzy and cabaret-ish. One may use a chain or a baton. Everyone is sassy onstage, and all of us are a real tease. Real sexy, flirtacious," said Beth of Fort Lauderdale. "It's not entertainment that's just geared towards men; it's a show that anyone can enjoy." To keep Dr. Sketchy's interesting, Sundquist said she'll throw in a few competitions, such as drawing with the non-dominant hand. "You'll never know what I'm going to ask them," she added. "It could reference something someone said that night. Or I might tell the artists, 'draw her, but make her an undersea creature, like a mermaid.'" Sounds sketchy. Wonder where she got that?

New Times Promotes the Launch of South Florida Branch!

2011-07-18T22:33:58+00:00

Wanted: Artistic Debauchery By Betsey Denberg The thought of a life drawing class makes us yawn: spending our free night in a cold, fluorescent-lit room staring at a stale model surrounded by strangers. It did for artists Molly Crabapple and A.V. Phibes as well, and their alternative solution to the drab drawing-class environment became Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School. The duo got rid of using the same old stick-figure models: A wild array of ladies — burlesque babes, fetish beauties, roller derby girls, and drag queens — are brought in for your drawing pleasure. Everyone is welcome to drink and cheer and socialize (no awkward silences!). And don’t even begin to worry about skill level — no formal training necessary. This craze, created in 2005 and originally based in Brooklyn, quickly swept the globe. It now totals more than 100 branches, and Thursday, it finally hits South Florida. The launch of Southeast Florida’s Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, put together by curator and President of Artistic Productions Charlotte Sundquist, will take place from 7 to 9:45 p.m. at Stage 84 Music Cafe (9118 W. State Road 84, Davie). For this debut event, four glamorous ladies from the Cupcake Burlesque Troupe will be on stage posing for your sketching enjoyment. Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School will be a monthly event, occurring every third Thursday, at Stage 84. Tickets are available in advance for $10 or can be purchased at the door for $12. Attendees should bring a drawing board or something sturdy to sketch on, a sketch pad, and drawing materials. Paparazzi, beware: There is a strict no-photography rule. Visit drsketchy.com/branch/southflorida.

First South Florida Session - South Florida!

2011-06-13T11:20:26+00:00

On July 21st from 7pm to 9:45, Stage 84 Music Cafe will host the opening launch session of Dr. Sketchy’s South Florida. It’s been a long time since our area has had the pleasure of experiencing what is easily the most exciting and creative anti-art school alternative life drawing sessions. You will want to bring a drawing board, sketch pad or something sturdy to draw on....also, any dry materials - such as colored pencils, charcoal, pencil, etc. We will be doing a series of short poses (1, 2 and 5 minutes) and then work up to some longer 20 minute poses. Models will typically be costumed or wearing clothing to a point, as this is not a nude drawing session. Some models during our sessions will be theatre performers and burlesque dancers that will be scantily clad. We do have to adhere to a no photography rule, however, we will have an official photographer taking professional shots for reference material for you after the event. We hope to see you…please reserve a spot, as space is limited! Stage 84 Music Cafe is located at 9118 W. State Road 84 Davie, FL 33324 Directions: At Pine Ridge Plaza, the same shopping center as Round Up Entrance at I-595 & Pine Ridge Dr. Get to Interstate 595 in Broward. From the East, exit at Pine Island Road and turn left (south) at the light. Turn right into the Publix plaza, then drive through that plaza. Cross Pine Ridge Drive into the RoundUp plaza, and continue west until you see Dunkin’ Donuts on your right and the lighted red sign MUSIC CAFÉ on your left. That’s Stage 84! From the West, exit Interstate 595 at Nob Hill Road and continue straight on the service road. Turn right into the plaza when you see Dunkin’ Donuts. You’ll see the lighted red sign MUSIC CAFÉ in front of you. That’s Stage 84!

Dr. Sketchy’s Returns to South Florida

2011-06-03T11:44:36+00:00

It's been a while, but the South Florida Market is ready once again to welcome a Dr. Sketchy's branch!! Whoo hoo! We are currently looking for interested volunteers, models and, of course lots of art monkeys to join the alternative life drawing revolution! Please contact us directly if you are interested in getting involved via email at drsketchysofla@gmail.com. The anticipated launch date for our first session is July 21st, and we expect to have one or two sessions per month in addition to special venues to host through the tri-county area.