International Child Art Foundation

Our Mission

Founded in 1997, the International Child Art Foundation (ICAF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with Federal Tax ID 52-2032649. ICAF serves American children as their national arts organization and the world’s children as their global arts organization.

Mission To foster American children’s creativity and develop mutual empathy among them and their peers worldwide for a prosperous and peaceful future.

Vision To democratize creativity for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and grow mutual empathy for “a more perfect union.”

Services ICAF organizes the Arts Olympiad, a school art program that has grown over the years into the world’s largest. Every four years, ICAF produces the World Children’s Festival as the “Olympics” of children’s imagination at the National Mall across the U.S. Capitol. Since 1998, ICAF has published the ChildArt quarterly free of commercial advertisements for children’s creative and empathic development.

ICAF’s Healing Art Programs revive faith in nature of child victims of natural disasters. ICAF’s Peace through Art Programs restore trust in humanity of children living in conflict zones.

To give voice to children and promote their imagination, ICAF organizes children’s panels at major conferences and interactive exhibitions that kindle professionals’ “inner child.” For children’s holistic development, ICAF has pioneered STEAMS education to integrate Art (creative activities) and Sport (physical activities) with the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Impact Over the past twenty-five years, ICAF has changed the world for children. More than five million schoolchildren have participated in and benefited from ICAF’s free-of-charge programs. An estimated two million students, parents, and teachers have attended ICAF festivals, exhibitions, and conferences in over twenty major cities worldwide. The readership of ChildArt quarterly has grown to an estimated 220,000. Through ICAF, children gain a sense of self-worth and confidence in themselves as creators. They come to recognize that they are the future and their imagination a seedbed for discovery and innovation. ICAF promotes their art as the most honest and pure form of human creative expression.

Funding The National Endowment of the Art, the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Susan Zirkl Memorial Charitable Foundation, the Skillman Foundation, the Keith Campbell Foundation, and the Robert J. Bauer Family Foundation have supported ICAF this year. Current in-kind supporters include Penguin Random House, Winsor & Newtown, and Kuretake, Ltd. of Japan. Since none of the largest private foundations support ICAF, creative-empathic individuals provide the lion’s share of funding.