The Joburg Art Project That Started With a Soup Kitchen's Stolen Van

Photo Credit: 1000 Drawings

You don’t have to be an artist to participate in this one. Just make a doodle, donate it, and do good!

Johannesburg, South Africa (29 September 2026) – One of the city’s biggest art movements for charity – 1000 Drawings – turns 20 this year. It needs your doodles. But first, let’s get into its origin story – because it’s incredible!

Two decades ago, Paballo Ya Batho, an inner-city soup kitchen in Joburg, had its delivery van stolen. That was the vehicle they used to get meals to hundreds of people – losing it was a problem. A group of creatives decided to do what creatives do, and they made something. They asked everyone and anyone to donate an A5 drawing, gathered 1000 of them, and sold them at an exhibition. It raised enough to replace the van, and it worked so well it became an annual project.

Now it’s one of the world’s largest inner-city art exhibitions for charity, and the idea has travelled beyond Joburg and Cape Town to Los Angeles, Copenhagen, Rome, Berlin, Amsterdam, Daejeon and Dubai. But Jozi is where it all started.

For the two decade anniversary, the aim is to collect more than 10,000 original A5 artworks from everyday South Africans, like you and me. You don’t have to be an artist at all. The only rule is that it has to be A5. Past contributions have included sketches, paintings, photographs, etchings and embroidery, and even pewter.

At the exhibition, every piece is then sold for charity. In the last edition they went for as little as R200 each, so it’s a rare chance to go home with original art without a gallery price tag.

Schools, businesses, tattoo parlours, design colleges, restaurants and community groups are being asked to host doodle sessions, which are just informal get-togethers where people make art to donate. There will also be doodle boxes in coffee shops, studios and public spaces around the city, so you could drop something off while grabbing your coffee.

The public gets to nominate which charities will benefit from the proceeds – because the creative community has the power to direct its generosity, and the public should have a voice in where it goes.

You may spot a new three-eyed character around Jozi on posters and installations. That’s iji, the face of the anniversary campaign, and it’s there to make joining in easy, with QR codes that take you straight to the participation and donation pages.