They want your doodles

WORDS Malibongwe Tyilo

The epic creative crowd-sourcing project that blew the Mother City away in 2009, 1 000 Drawings, is back and an official World Design Capital 2014 project. A series of public doodle sessions has been launched and, well, they want your doodles. Yes you read right. Before you roll your eyes and think “there go those Capetonians again, what’s next…” read on.

The idea started back in 2006 when Paballo ya Batho, a Johannesburg-based innercity soup kitchen’s truck was stolen, and they found themselves without a way to feed the hundreds of homeless people they fed daily. So “The Night of a 1 000 Drawings” was born as a rescue plan. People were invited to donate A5 drawings of anything, which were then sold for R100 to raise funds. By the end of that first evening, enough money had been raised for a new truck. These days the concept has grown beyond Johannesburg to Cape Town (in 2009) and also runs in Berlin, Munich, Amsterdam, Tuscany, Belgium, Dubai and Bloemfontein.

This year’s Night of a 1000 Drawings will be held in Cape Town on the 28 August at the Good Hope Centre and the proceeds will go towards the upgrading of the Thomas Wildschutt School in Retreat. Expect doodles, graffiti, sketches, paintings, and other conceptual and experimental works, all available for R100 each. Who knows, you might even pick up work by a famous – or soon-to-be-famous – artist.

Leading up to the event, in an effort to generate the artworks, several doodle sessions have been organised around the city, in venues such as co-working office Twenty Fifty (that we featured here) and on top of Table Mountain. They’re generally pretty social events with drinks, music and an all-round awesome vibe. The next session is at Field Office on Thursday 22 May, but if you want to get involved and can’t make it to the events there are several drop off points around Cape Town.

Says organiser Shani Judes: “It’s a great honour to be making this happen during 2014 and to be chosen as one of the World Design Capital projects. Our cause now has the platform it deserves to reach more countries around the world. 1000 Drawings is a very simple concept that can change lives and we hope to encourage everyone, young and old, individuals and companies in Cape Town and the rest of the country to send us their doodles and artworks.”

Keep posted on upcoming events by following them on Twitter @1000drawingsSA and liking the 1000 Drawings Cape Town page on Facebook, 1000drawingsct.co.za