POBA is a fully digital site. Only Presenter Members have the ability to store works in a Vault or to display works on POBA. The works of an artist are stored in a media ‘Vault’, and displayed in Portfolios which you can create directly (DIY) or which you can build with the assistance of a POBA Concierge. The representations of the artist’s work in your Vault can be in any digital format (documents, images, video or audio files, or a mixture). Since these will be viewed on many types of mobile devices, you will want a file with good resolution that is also not a particularly large file. For those choosing to work DIY, we offer some tips on how to create your Portfolio displays below.
Getting Started as a Presenter
To make the most of your experience as a Presenter with POBA, it is important for you have the most up-to-date, standards-compliant browser possible. These browsers include Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer 9 and up. These upgrades will allow you see all the components of poba.org the way they were intended to be seen.
To create a storage Vault or Portfolios of an artist’s creative legacy on POBA, the first step is to submit the Presenter Member Form. This is a short form designed to help us learn more about your artist, your relationship to the artist, the artist’s work, and to confirm that you have the right to represent that artist.
Once approved, Presenters pay an annual membership fee, currently $49.95, to display as many works and Portfolios on POBA as you wish for any particular artist. Instead of an annual fee, a Patron Presenter can also choose to pay a one-time fee of $500 for ongoing Vault and Portfolio opportunities for a single artist on POBA.
After submission and our curatorial review, we will contact you by email to collect additional information and your payment, and then to provide you with a user name and password, so you can begin the process of creating your artist’s Vault, Page, and Portfolio(s).
No. The file(s) you upload to your Vault will be used for building your Portfolios, so make sure that you have made your edits to digital files ahead of time. You can edit the text attributed to the files (caption, description, etc.) at any time. We suggest that you follow our naming convention in saving and organizing your digital files: ArtistLastName.Title.Year (if known). Please refer to the POBA Supported File Types for information about how you should submit your files.
Yes. While POBA is designed to be a DIY site, POBA Concierge can assist you directly in creating your Vault and Portfolios. If you provide the raw materials (e.g. images, artist story, background text) needed to create your Vault and first Portfolio, POBA can use those files to create the Vault and the elements of the initial Portfolio. There is a small fee of $250 for this service to create the Vault, Artist Page, and the first Portfolio. After that, if you wish POBA’s assistance to create additional Portfolios, the fee is $150 per Portfolio. These fees cover staff time in creating the Vault and Portfolio. To request this kind of help please submit a POBA Concierge Request.
Logging In
After submitting the Presenter Member Form, we will review the work and relationships reported. We contact you by email to collect your initial membership fee as a Presenter, and to begin the process of creating your username and password.
- Click the “Member Login” button in the top right corner (If you do not yet have a Login, this button is labeled Account.)
- You’ll be redirected to the login screen. Please input your username and password and click the “Log In” button
Once logged-in, you will be redirected to the POBA Dashboard for Presenter Members (see below).
You have two options: You can contact the POBA Web Team and, upon confirming your credentials, we will reset your password and issue new login credentials for you. Or, at the login screen, below the username and password fields, there is a link that reads “Forgot username or password?” Click that link, input your username or email address, and an email will be sent to you. The email will contain your username and a link to reset your password if need be.
The Dashboard
The Dashboard is the place where you can get an at-a-glance overview of what’s happening with your Presenter membership. You can do the following: Add or update your artist’s bio/information, view your Vault, add new images or files, create and view Portfolios.
From the Dashboard, Portfolios and Artists. With our tools, publish a biography of your artist and display their work with one or more Portfolios. Please note that as you are working your access to viewing your artist and portfolio pages will be limited until we have published them. Once your artist or page is ready, or if you return to update a previously-published page, please let us know so that we can review and re-post the page with your updates.
Use optimized file sizes for all your different types of media. You are free to place files larger than the suggestions below in your Vault (up to the limit of storage capacity). However, it is best to limit file size to ensure that media is easily viewable on a range of devices.
- Images: .JPG or .PNG of 600 to 1200 pixels; ideal is the longest side between 720 and 960 pixels and 72 dpi
- Audio: .MP3 of less than 2MB
- Video: .MP4 of less than 10MB
- Documents: .PDF of less than 4MB
Please note that the largest size an image appears on a POBA Portfolio is 960 pixels wide or 960 pixels high. This size is to ensure that the images appear clearly and appropriately across a wide variety of devices. If you publish larger images on the site, they are compressed and resized proportionally by POBA, if necessary. The original size of your image remains in your Vault for personal use. If you are interested in storing large files on POBA there may be an additional charge, and this should not be considered your primary digital document storage. It is best to think of your POBA Vault as secondary storage.
If your file type is not a part of the supported file types, it is possible to convert your files accordingly.
- Images: Almost any image editing software (such as Photoshop, Picasa, Pixlr, Preview or Paint) will allow you to convert your image file type. Typically, the process is as simple as selecting “Save As”, selecting the “Format” or “Extension” dropdown, then selecting either JPG or PNG. Note that typically, a PNG file format results in a larger file size than a JPG. Follow your program’s instructions for how to convert your files.
- Audio: To convert to an MP3 file, you may use audio editing software such as Audacity or iTunes. Follow that program’s instructions for how to convert your file to MP3.
- Video: To convert to an MP4 file, use a video editing software such as Miro Video Converter or Handbrake. Follow that program’s instructions for how to convert your file to MP4. Software such as Final Cut Pro, iMovie, and Adobe Media Encorder will also allow you to accomplish the same goal.
- Documents: To convert to a PDF, use a word processing program such as Microsoft Word or PDF Converter. Follow that program’s instructions for how to convert your file to PDF.
- If you have issues with the conversion process, please Contact Us for customized help and/or the services of POBA Concierge.
The POBA website does not offer any tools for editing your files or images once they are uploaded to the Vault. For the best looking images, use an image editor to ensure that you files are no more than 300KB and/or approximately 960px by 600px. Refer to supported file formats for more details.
The Artist
- Go to your Dashboard and under “My Artists” you will see a link to create a new artist
- Click the link and it will take you to fill out the new artist form: Add new Poba Artist
- Fill the artist name in the Add title box
- Complete the form with Artist’s First Name, Artist’s Last Name, Artist’s Biography and Artist Bio Blurb
- Upload the Artist Image that will represent the artist or his/her work in the Artist Directory
- Artist Portfolios are attached to the artist here, but this cannot be done until the portfolios have been created. When first creating your artist, skip this step. When you return to do this step, use the Search function to make the match to your artist.
- If your artist is represented at a gallery or has a website, list these in the External Website box.
- Be sure to Update to save your entries. Please note that until we have reviewed and approved your artist page the Dashboard will tell you that you have not created any artists. Just let us know when your artist is ready and we can review and publish and move your artist onto the site!
- If you make any changes to your artist page or portfolio once it has been published, this will take that page off of the site. Again, we need you to contact us to republish the page and make it live on the site.
Once published, under “My Artists” on the Dashboard there is a View option.
You may only showcase the Artists whose work you have the rights to. When you submit the Presenter Member Form, you apply on behalf of one artist and confirm you have the rights to that artist’s works. This permits you to represent one artist on POBA.
Once you fill have one artist published on POBA, on the Dashboard you will have the option to apply to have multiple artists. This will require an additional membership fee.
The Portfolios
Presenter Members of the POBA community create, maintain and revise their own storage Vaults, into which their digital images and files are placed for storage and viewing. You can also share some or all of your works by creating one or more Portfolios for public viewing. We encourage the public display of the creative works stored on this site and hope this will afford your even more exposure and appreciation.
- Click Add new Poba Portfolio
- Input the name of your portfolio in the Add title box
- Check the appropriate Category box that represents the media of this portfolio
- Input the Description of this portfolio
- Add Portfolio Files. Select the files you would like to appear in this Portfolio. For each file, you must input a title, year, and file type. If you do not know the exact year of the piece, just put ‘Year Unknown’ or ‘circa 1980s.’
- You can rearrange the order of your files by clicking on the vertical tab at the far left of a file and dragging it up or down.
- You can create a Portfolio in one sitting, but sometimes this is more than a single event. If you want to save and update as you go, please be sure to scroll to the top and add a portfolio title each time you want to make an update or the work will not be saved. You can use the same title as before, but this is a safety check that ensures you want to update the files.
- Attribute your Portfolio to an Artist. This attribution will show up on the site as a link below the Portfolio’s title. The format is ‘Artwork by Artist Name. Read more about the artist →’. You cannot post a Portfolio until you have created an Artist. NOTE: You will need to update your artist’s page to attribute your artist to the Portfolio(s) you have created. See step 7 in the FAQ “How do I add a new artist?” above. You can do this after you have created and published your Portfolio(s).
- At the bottom of the page click Update to save your work. When you have completed the portfolio click please contact us with your artist name and portfolio name to review and publish your portfolio.
When you are in the edit screen of your Portfolio, look for the “Portfolio Files” section. You can click and drop each row into the order you desire by holding down the tab to the left of the file and dragging up or down. When you are satisfied with the order, select Update.
The largest size an image appears on a POBA Portfolio is 960 pixels wide or 960 pixels high. This size is to ensure that the images appear clearly and appropriately across a wide variety of devices. If you publish larger images on the site, they are compressed and resized proportionally by POBA, if necessary. The original size of your image remains in your Vault for personal use.
If you would like the viewer to know the dimensions of your image, you may input this information into the “Extra Notes” field.
User Information: Post for Review
In order to ensure a high level of quality of content and to make sure that each Portfolio displays properly, we have implemented a quality control feature. Once you are satisfied with the contents of your Artist’s page and Portfolio page(s) you will need to submit for review by contacting us with the artist name and portfolio name and requesting review. A POBA administrator will review the technical input and publish the Portfolios from there. We reserve the right to make grammatical and typographical corrections, and are not responsible for the factual information presented with the images.
Once POBA has completed its review, POBA will publish your Artist page. You can then create the Portfolio(s) which can be published one by one or at the same time.
The POBA Web Team is available for any and all of your questions, comments, and suggestions, as you fill your Vault and create your Portfolios. Contact us and we will respond to you as soon as possible, usually within one business day.
Your Profile
You can edit your profile by hovering over your name on the dashboard.
No. Usernames are unique and created by POBA during the registration process.
Enter your new password twice, once in each of the two text boxes. (If you just forgot your password and would like to retrieve it, please refer to “What if I forgot my username or password?”) We do not recommend changing the password POBA gives you with your login credentials. We issue strong passwords to promote security.
Note: Your POBA password should be at least seven characters long and use upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols (such as !”?$%^&). The strength indicator indicates how strong your password is—the stronger the password, the more secure your login.