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POBA celebrates the recent release of some digital treasures to the public domain, thereby keeping art alive and providing copyright-free images for public viewing and use. According to its website, ‘the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL is revolutionizing global research by providing free, […]

Daryl Rosen (1951-1973) lived an artful life and an art-filled life. The former was too brief but the latter was abundant and rich. In her brief 22 years, she produced drawings, paintings, objects from metal, found materials and mixed media, and sculptures of dexterity and delicacy. Only a few of the works from her prodigious creative life remain – some from her childhood show her untutored promise and some show the mature artist in her early 20s. Daryl’s work epitomizes why POBA was created: to preserve exceptional creative legacies, however large or small.

Edwin H.K. Chau (1929-1988) a Canadian artist of Chinese descent, created beautiful paintings in which east meets west. These works balance, straddle and integrate the lines between contemporary/traditional subject matter and east/west vision and methods. Chau’s work is best characterized as being painterly and somewhat impressionistic. In the Eastern tradition, each and every brushstroke counts […]

Disaster hits whether we are ready or not. The devastating floods that Houston and the Gulf area are now experiencing and recent wild fires in Oregon and Utah are reminders to think about saving lives first but also about salvaging your important and valuable items, including creative works. For those who have not been hit […]

POBA captures the experiences of five individuals who inherited creative legacies – how they learned of these legacies, how they came to appreciate the works left behind, how they dealt with the overwhelming challenges of organizing, displaying and presenting these works to the public, and how POBA helped them do this while maintaining balance in […]

Amy Lowen found herself in the same position many family members of talented artists are in: inheriting a collection of works they did not know existed and do not understand how to handle.  “I mean, what do you do with it all,” Lowen asked, in an interview on NPR station WFPL in Louisville KY today […]

Horst Trave (1918 – 2012), an acclaimed abstract painter, led a multi-faceted and adventurous life. Idealistic and always self-effacing, the German-born Trave painted thousands of works over some sixty years that also saw him in the roles of German anti-fascist draft evader in WWII; US War department employee in Berlin; serious student of the arts […]

Gene Spatz (1943-2003), pioneer paparazzo, had a talent for capturing the famous, infamous and the unknown – as themselves and occasionally rubbing shoulders during the 1970s and 80s. Among his most iconic images are those of Studio 54, which opened 40 years ago in April 1977. Time magazine covered his work online in tribute to […]

Marc Abrahms (1948-2015) shared many gifts – some he gave away through his generous philanthropy to community organizations and academic institutions, and some he gave away through his creative legacy of vivid, eye-popping photographs. This generosity was the product of both his temperament and early life lessons. Diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic from the tender […]

Hayden Carruth (1921-2008) was crazy for two things all his life: poetry and jazz music. From the age of six, when these dual passions first developed until his death 80 years later,  he penned more than 30 published books of poetry, prose, criticism and essays. Throughout them all, as in the best jazz compositions, creative […]