JCAF is an academic research institute, a platform for museum exhibitions and an innovative technology laboratory.
The Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation (JCAF), founded in 2013, is a non-profit organisation whose mission is to play a role in globalising contemporary South African art and to act as a catalyst in the imagining of a new contemporary African art institution in Johannesburg, South Africa.

At the heart of the foundation is a philanthropic initiative to advance the appreciation of modern and contemporary art, while educating diverse audiences through an art-historical lens. JCAF is neither a museum nor a gallery. Rather, it is a new, hybrid institution, developed in the context of an emerging cultural economy in order to make a meaningful contribution to knowledge. It aims to serve as a cultural compass and to place particular emphasis on South to South, and South to North relations.

JCAF’s research programmes are founded on the principle that experience-based engagement with modern and contemporary art enriches society. Its research methodology aims to provide a critical framework for the understanding, theorisation and interpretation of art through curated exhibitions, the innovative use of technology and the production and dissemination of knowledge in the Global South.