We need you

I have recently taken up the role of "photo-monkey" for the Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School in Edinburgh which meets on the first Sunday of every month at The Jazz Bar on Chambers Street. It allows artists of all standards to draw a model in 5 or 6 different poses as well as enjoy a drink and maybe the odd biscuit or cup-cake.

The theme this month was a call to arms and fingers everywhere! Dr Sketchy Edinburgh needs you and your artistic talents to help save one of the most loved arts venues in the city. Known to most as ?The Old Odeon? on Clerk Street, the New Victoria has spent most of the last decade as an empty and abandoned theatre. It is a piece of Edinburgh's history and a beautiful building that is worth saving, and we are hoping that you can raise awareness of a new group hoping to do just that.

Dr Sketchy enlisted the help of the delicious Miss Hannah La Rouge and, together, we will be seeking out new recruits and outrageously creative talent to help save that wonderful building. The New Victoria are a group of creatives from various backgrounds and positions within the arts, and they are all working extra hard to try and re-open The New Victoria and turn it into one of the best entertainment venues in Edinburgh.

The New Victoria aim to raise enough funds to purchase the building (an incredible task at £2.93 million?) and work collaboratively with many other organisations to reopen it as a community and open arts centre/venue for all of Edinburgh to enjoy. In their own words, ?The New Victoria will be a space for everybody; open to the community and committed to the development of the arts. Space will be allocated for the use of community education groups, meetings, societies and clubs, alongside the specialist music, cinema and cabaret auditoriums.? A most brilliant idea and one that Dr Sketchy Edinburgh will be supporting with all its might.