Wikipedia
The International Children’s Art Archive, popularly known as PapaInk, served as the archival home of children's art between 1999-2006. Prior to its closing, the nonprofit organization's archival website documented and exhibited children's art collections from its own physical holdings as well as presenting works donated or shared by organizations and individuals worldwide. The result was to bring to public view collections that would otherwise remain largely unseen, and to bring together widely dispersed works of children's art in a single, dedicated context.
PapaInk made available an international sampling of historical children's art, works by contemporary children and the childhood work of professional artists. Selected holdings, from important partnerships the organization formed, such as the Jewish Museum in Prague's WWII era Terezín collection and the Christian Children's Fund collection spanning 60 years, provided works of established historical value a long-term broad-based public exposure for the first time through presentation on the organization’s online archive. Other holdings, such as works contributed by nonprofits, businesses, professional artists, educators and young artists themselves, were brought within the purview of historical and contemporary appreciation by virtue of The PapaInk’s exhibition and preservation efforts.
The depth and breadth of the organization’s holdings gave rise to an often noted unique and surprisingly profound experience of children's art which attracted the attention of important arbiters of culture and art such as the New York Times and Art in America. The dignity of each piece and each collection was heightened by its placement within—and relationship to – the organization’s substantial, respectfully presented body of children's work. The total effect was a transformed sense of children's art and of children's expressive capacities. During its years of operation, PapaInk attracted in excess of 12 million visitors to digital archive. As the singularly rich resource of children's expression and experience during its time of operation, PapaInk attracted a world audience of libraries, schools, academicians, parents, children and members of arts communities.
In addition to its collection of children’s art, PapaInk’s online magazine dedicated to parenting contained a wealth of resources, included an eclectic blend of interviews conducted by the organization’s founder Marc Feldman, including interviews with Maurice Sendak (Where The Wild Things Are), Stuart Kauffman (At Home In the Universe), Max Oelschlaeger (The Idea of Wilderness) Taj Mahal (Señor Blues), Watts Whacker (The 500-Year Delta), Stephen Kellogg (A Rose For Pinkerton), and Walter Cronkite (CBS News).
PapaInk!'s published interviews were part of its "iPapa Project," a project which PapaInk described as "an independent initiative that seeks to foster the fullest possible involvement by fathers and society in encouraging the creative spirit of children. The project recognizes the critical role that men play in children's lives. Interviews with noted individuals as well as excerpts from thinkers in different disciplines on the topics of fathering and creativity form the heart of this project. Fathering=Life!"
Beyond engaging the public as viewers and appreciators of children's works, PapaInk provided a venue for young artists, their families and communities to exhibit and preserve their art. The organization also worked with 200+ businesses, nonprofits and libraries to sponsor children's art collections that were displayed and archived on PapaInk. Central to PapaInk's collection development activities was the efforts of a worldwide network of 500+ volunteers who contributed personal and institutional collections, and gathered children's art from their local communities for archival exhibition on PapaInk. PapaInk provided its archival, display, marketing and PR services at no-cost In helping to reconstitute the legacy of children's art, PapaInk furthered its vision of a world encouraging of and revitalized by the creative spirit of youth.