How it works

We partner with local schools, organizations, and businesses to create and collect original artwork created by children ages 3 to 12 ( We are also exploring limited opportunities for older youth to participate). Each piece is carefully curated and displayed in gallery-style settings to honor their creativity the way real art deserves to be honored.

With family consent, the child’s artwork is displayed and made available for sponsorship. When someone chooses to sponsor an original art piece, 100% of the proceeds goes toward the young artist.

To receive the funds, families must have a college savings plan in place or be willing to open one if and when their child’s artwork is sponsored. We’ll provide resources and guidance to help make the process simple.

To clarify: Sponsoring a child’s artwork is a purposeful purchase, not a tax-deductible donation. The sponsor receives the original piece of art, and 100% of the proceeds go toward that child’s future through a college savings account, such as a 529 plan. It’s a meaningful way to celebrate creativity while investing in a child’s future.

Founding Story

It began with the art my daughter brought home. Drawings on crumpled paper. Brushstrokes that didn’t follow rules or techniques, only feeling. Each day, her school halls felt like a secret museum, one that most people walked right past.

At home, I would watch her disappear into color. A paintbrush in hand, the world would fall away. She wasn’t trying to be anything. She simply was. Joyful. Bold. Free. I started calling her my little Picasso.

That’s when the question came: Why doesn’t anyone treat this like real art?

But at the time, I was still searching. It hadn’t quite clicked yet. Ten years in the military had shaped me, but I wasn’t sure what came next. I considered using my supply chain management experience in a hospital setting. I looked into city jobs too. The familiar kind of service. But none of it stirred my spirit.

Then it came. Not as a wild idea, but as something I can only describe as a divine assignment. I was sitting on my couch, probably on my third day of no sleep, or maybe meditating. I can’t quite remember, because it felt so otherworldly — like time had folded in on itself. For a while, I didn’t even know what to do with it. There’s no way to truly capture what that moment was like, but it felt like a rush — as if a full blueprint was being handed to me, every piece spilling out faster than I could write. I remember saying out loud, laughing through tears, “Spirit, hold on, let me grab my pen.”

It was as if God Himself whispered, “Your purpose is not behind you. It’s ahead.”

Yet somehow, it didn’t feel entirely new. It felt like a vision I had always known, quietly waiting for me to be ready. As if every chapter of my life had been leading me here. As if all the personal and military trauma I had been healing from… the hours I spent in the gym rebuilding both my mental and physical strength, the meditation, the soul-searching, and the quiet decision to start living from my spirit instead of survival… had finally made me still enough to receive it. And when I started experiencing with different frames and floaters with my daughter’s artwork, that’s when it literally clicked.

A space to honor children’s creativity with the dignity it deserves.
A way to connect that raw expression to something lasting.
An act of belief in who they are and who they’re becoming.

That’s it. That is what I am meant to do.

Because once I saw the vision, I knew it wasn’t just an idea. It was a calling. One that felt divinely aligned and rooted in something bigger than me.

The small collection below was created by my 3-year-old daughter, Zuri, whose fearless creativity first inspired The Young Imprint. These pieces are our Founding Collecion, the heart that started it all. And it’s my hope that something here stirs something in you too. That you’ll see the raw beauty, the potential, and the purpose and feel moved to join us. Because this isn’t just about my daughter’s artwork. It’s about honoring the creativity that lives in every child and our collective future.

— Marie Katty Antoine (Founder & Executive Director)