NEWS RELEASE

June 29, 2007

CONTACT:
Phone: (202) 530-1000
Fax: (202) 530-1080
E-mail: media@icaf.org
Url: www.icaf.org

THE 2007 FESTIVAL A TRULY GLOBAL EVENT

The World Children’s Festival on the National Mall in Washington, DC on June 23-25, 2007 was a huge success for the International Child Art Foundation. Approximately 10,000 attendees enjoyed a variety of workshops and hands-on activities, including craft-making, drumming circles, and exercises for peace and cultural understanding. They enjoyed performances by youth groups from around the world and created a piece of America with LEGO.

The Festival included an exhibition of children’s art on the theme My Favorite Sport, held right across the National Gallery of Art. Exhibited were finalist artworks from the ICAF’s third Arts Olympiad, chosen from more than three million entries. Seventy-four finalists from U.S. states and foreign countries came together at the Festival, along with their teachers and parents. These visual artists were joined by more than 200 youth performers as well as educators and experts from Adler School of Professional Psychology, California State University Los Angeles, Columbia University, Georgetown University, The George Washington University, Nazareth College, NC State University, The Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo (Representative from Guam), General Jim Campbell (Director of the Army Staff) and Fred Lazarus IV (President, Maryland Institute, College of Art) were among the speakers who gave welcoming remarks. Sponsored by creative global companies including Adidas and LEGO, the World Children’s Festival was covered by CNN, Fox, Voice of America, Al Jazeira, Sharjah TV, Canal Futura as well as the Washington Post, the Washington Times, Kuwait News and several other media outlets.

“The 2007 World Children’s Festival was the largest celebration in the world of children’s creativity and imagination,” said Dr. Ashfaq Ishaq, ICAF executive director. “The 2007 Festival attracted far more media coverage than the ICAF’s previous international festivals in 1999 and 2003. This shows that the public is paying more attention now to children’s creative development and the need to foster cross-cultural empathy.”

The ICAF serves as the national art and creativity organization for American children and the only international art for the world’s children. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization registered in April 1997 in the District of Columbia, the ICAF integrates the art with science, sport and technology to nurture children’s creativity and develop empathy - preconditions for a more just, prosperous and nonviolent world. www.icaf.org