CIAC 2026 Theme

CIAC, the Visual Art Contest, is designed to provide students with an opportunity to engage in imaginative and innovative thought and action and to develop the ability to communicate and represent their thoughts, feelings, and ideas creatively.

Theme: The Art of Understanding

Participants are invited to create visual art pieces that depict acts of kindness, understanding, or shared human experiences. The artwork should convey the essence of empathy, illustrating how compassionate actions and connections can bridge divides and foster a more inclusive society. This contest encourages artists to use their creativity to promote a deeper appreciation for diverse perspectives through visual storytelling.

• Education in the arts is essential to students’ intellectual, social, physical and emotional growth. It enables them to create ideas and images that reflect, communicate, and change their views of the world.
• The expectations in this contest align well with the arts curriculum and its expectations around the four central ideas of developing creativity, communicating, understanding culture and making connections.
• This contest focuses on traditional arts of drawing, painting and sketching.
• Students will be generally evaluated on elements of line, shape and form, space, color, texture and value as well as various principles of art.
• The evaluation rubric used in the contest provides further details on how the contestant's work is evaluated and graded.

Contest Eligibility: Open to students in grades 3-8 (younger students are welcome to join. We will not hesitate to award exceptional talent).

Contest Levels: 3 levels based on the student’s current school grade

• Elementary Level: Grades 3 & 4
• Junior Level: Grades 5 & 6
• Middle Level: Grades 7 & 8

Contest Date:

• Submission open: March 1 - 30, 2026

CONTEST FORMAT

• The contest is online, and students will be asked to submit their artwork.
• They can submit a high-quality PDF of their digital artwork or a picture of their physical drawing/painting.

Originality: We are looking for original ideas in these contests. We will conduct checks for plagiarism. So, please be sure to trust yourself and be authentic. We want to see the world through your eyes. You may surprise the world through your insight. Please create something you will be proud of, regardless of the outcome of this contest.

All contest participants are eligible for the following awards:

• Gold Awards: Top 1% of students for each contest level. The award includes a customized medal & e-certificate.
• Silver Awards: Top 2-3% of students for each contest level. The award includes a customized medal & e-certificate.
• Bronze Awards: Top 4-6% of students for each contest level. The award includes a customized medal & e-certificate.
• Honors Award: Top 7-10% of students for each contest level. The award includes a customized medal & e-certificate.
• Certificate of participation: Given to all participants​.

* Because of the resources, CKSTEM will not pay for the international shipping to the schools. Awards will be sent to Canadian students, including schools and all other paid students. Students will also have an opportunity to join us in an award ceremony in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

• If you are a school staff interested in participating, you can find the registration package here. You may also contact us at info@ckstem.org. All contests are free for school registrations. We need a minimum of 5 students for school registrations.
• This contest is unavailable for individual registration as we can not verify the artwork.

You can download the Canadian Innovation Contests (CIC) brochure from here.

You can review the CIAC winning entries below:

• 2025
• 2024