POBA: Where the Arts Live

What POBA: Where the Arts Live does

POBA: Where the Arts Live is a US-based non-profit organization that operates a curated online platform dedicated to preserving and showcasing the artistic legacies of contemporary artists who died without recognition of their full talents. Founded in 2013 as a program of the James Kirk Bernard Foundation, POBA serves families, executors, and estates of deceased artists (with a secondary segment of living artists planning their legacies) across eight artistic genres: painting and drawing, writing, photography, video/film, music, performance, object arts, and mixed media. The platform allows presenters to create DIY digital portfolios or engage POBA Concierge Services for professional assistance with organizing, digitizing, valuing, preserving, and promoting artistic works, supplemented by a Charity Match program that helps find permanent non-profit homes for donated artwork.

The underlying technology is a web-based digital platform comprising password-protected Digital Storage Vaults for member files, a moderated Portfolio Display System for public-facing exhibits, and self-service onboarding tools accessible globally via poba.org. The organization integrates Stripe for payment processing of donations, membership fees, and service transactions, and MailChimp for newsletter communications. Documented technical accomplishments include large-scale digitization projects (over 6,500 pages of WWII letters indexed with keywords, 40,000+ photographic works preserved for a single estate, 1,000+ museum-quality tribal and ethnic art pieces inventoried and appraised), though these appear to be human-executed curation efforts rather than AI-driven workflows. No public API, mobile application, or disclosed AI/ML capabilities are present in the source material.

The business model combines donations from supporters, recurring presenter membership fees, fee-based Concierge Services for complex engagements, and merchandise sales, with all revenue mechanics handled through Stripe. Distribution is primarily direct-to-consumer via the website supplemented by referral channels including state arts councils, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, and the Center for the Preservation of Artists' Legacies (CPAL). The organization maintains an 11-50 employee headcount and operates without disclosed institutional investors, venture funding, or public listing; ownership and governance reside entirely within the James Kirk Bernard Foundation, a private charitable entity inspired by the creative legacy of Jamie Bernard (1987-2010).

Name

POBA: Where the Arts Live

Legal name

James Kirk Bernard Foundation

Website

https://poba.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

POBA: Where the Arts Live is a US non-profit that operates a curated digital platform preserving and showcasing the artistic legacies of deceased contemporary artists, serving families, estates, and executors with DIY portfolio tools, professional Concierge Services, and a Charity Match program for donated artwork.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Art Legacy Preservation Services

NAICS

Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (712), Libraries and Archives (51921), Museums (712110)

SIC

Services-Mailing, Reproduction, Commercial Art & Photography (7330)

akta.pro primary industry

Archives, Special Collections & Preservation Operations (Rare Materials, Conservation) (EDAEAGAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Art, Collectibles & Specialized Asset Advisory (Valuation, Storage, Lending) (FSAAADAO)

Keywords

• Artistic legacy preservation
• Online art portfolios
• Digital art archiving
• Art estate services
• Nonprofit art platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Basalt

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations: Cash donations from supporters to keep POBA operations ongoing. Donors provide personal information for credit card transactions processed through Stripe.
2. Presenter Membership Fees: Fees collected from presenter members who create and maintain portfolios on the platform.
3. POBA Concierge Services: Fee-based personalized services for organizing, preserving, digitizing, valuing, and promoting artistic works.
4. Merchandise Sales: POBA and 'Where the Arts Live' branded merchandise available through the site.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

POBA operates an online curated platform that preserves and showcases the artistic legacies of exceptional contemporary artists who died without full recognition. Members (estates, family members, executors) can create DIY digital portfolios of legacy artists, store files in password-protected digital vaults, and access POBA Concierge Services for personalized assistance with organizing, digitizing, valuing, and promoting creative works. The Charity Match program helps find appropriate non-profit homes for donated artwork.

Product overview

POBA operates as a single unified platform focused on preserving and showcasing the artistic legacies of deceased artists. The core product is the POBA Online Platform, which provides curated digital portfolio displays. This platform is supplemented by several integrated services: Concierge Services for professional art organization and preservation, an Artist Directory for discovery, Charity Match for art donation coordination, Digital Storage Vaults for member file storage, and DIY Portfolio Creation tools for self-service portfolio management. The platform spans multiple art genres including Painting & Drawing, Writing, Photography, Video/Film, Music, Performance, Object Arts, and Mixed Media.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• POBA Online Platform A curated online platform that showcases and preserves the artistic legacies of deceased artists who did not receive full recognition during their lifetimes. The platform allows presenters to create and display digital portfolios of artwork across multiple genres.
• POBA Concierge Services Personalized professional services including organizing, preserving, digitizing, valuing, and promoting creative works for estates, collectors, and artists. Designed for complex collections requiring expert handling.
• Artist Directory A searchable directory of artists featured on POBA, organized by genre categories including Painting & Drawing, Writing, Photography, Video/Film, Music, Performance, Object Arts, and Mixed Media.
• Charity Match A service that helps find appropriate homes for donated artwork by matching collections with suitable non-profit organizations to ensure the art lives on through charitable use.
• DIY Portfolio Creation Self-service tools allowing presenters to create and manage portfolios of legacy artists on a do-it-yourself basis, with optional POBA assistance available. Used by estates, family members, and living artists to build their own legacy showcases.
• Digital Storage Vaults Password-protected storage for members to store digital files up to the limits of their vault capacity. Files in storage vaults are not for public display but can be used to create display portfolios.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 6,500 pages of historical letters preserved and made searchable
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• James Kirk Bernard FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe James Kirk Bernard Foundation is the parent organization that operates POBA as one of its programs. The foundation supports POBA's mission to preserve artistic legacies and inspired the creation of the platform in honor of Jamie Bernard's creative spirit.
• Center for the Preservation of Artists' Legacies (CPAL)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCPAL is a partner organization in New York focused on seeking out important artists and helping preserve their contributions to the regional artist story. CPAL offers training programs including artist round-tables and classes focused on legacy issues including copyright and appraisals.
• Joan Mitchell FoundationminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorThe Joan Mitchell Foundation referred abstract expressionist painter Lorna Ritz to POBA, demonstrating the foundation's role as a referral source for artists seeking legacy preservation services.
• State Arts CouncilscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPOBA has become a 'go-to' resource for state arts councils through informative and engaging presentations. Councils extend their reach and resources to help artists and art patrons by referring them to POBA's services.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Artnet: Artnet is a long-established online art market platform providing price databases, auction records, and gallery listings. It overlaps with POBA on digital access to artist information and provenance research but operates as a commercial data and marketplace company rather than a legacy preservation non-profit.
• Christie's: Christie's is a global auction house that handles estate sales, valuations, and provenance authentication for deceased artists' works. Comparable to POBA's concierge valuation and disposition services, but at a much larger scale focused on high-value transactions rather than under-recognized or unrecognized artists.
• Getty Research Institute: The Getty Research Institute is a major art research institution that maintains archives of artists' papers and supports scholarship on visual arts. It is comparable to POBA in archival and preservation work but operates at vastly larger institutional scale and focuses on broader art-historical research rather than estate-by-estate preservation.
• Sotheby's: Sotheby's is a major auction house with deep involvement in artist estate sales, valuations, and authentication. It shares POBA's engagement with deceased artists' estates but specializes in high-end commercial transactions rather than preservation of under-recognized or unmonetized legacies.
• Artsy: Artsy is a leading online art marketplace with extensive editorial content on artists, including deceased and historical figures. It is comparable to POBA as a digital discovery platform for art but its primary business is marketplace transactions and gallery representation, not legacy preservation services.

Direct peers

• The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts: The Andy Warhol Foundation manages the legacy, archive, and authentication of a single iconic artist's estate and funds visual arts. It is comparable to POBA in operating artist legacy infrastructure and supporting under-recognized artists, but at the scale of a single high-profile estate rather than a portfolio of many.
• Joan Mitchell Foundation: The Joan Mitchell Foundation is both a referral partner and a functional peer: it supports artist legacies through grants, archives, and professional development. It overlaps with POBA in mission (preserving artist contributions) but focuses more on living artists and grantmaking, whereas POBA focuses on deceased, under-recognized artists.
• Center for the Preservation of Artists' Legacies (CPAL): CPAL is a POBA partner organization in New York that seeks out important artists and helps preserve their contributions to the regional artist story. It offers training on copyright and appraisals. Its mission and programming closely align with POBA's, making it a near-direct peer despite the partnership relationship.
• Smithsonian Archives of American Art: The Smithsonian's Archives of American Art is the most directly comparable peer: a national repository dedicated to preserving the papers and records of American artists. Like POBA, it focuses on cataloguing, digitizing, and making artist legacies accessible, though it operates as a government-affiliated physical archive rather than a curated digital platform.

Emerging players

• MutualArt: MutualArt is an online platform providing artist profiles, auction results, and art market intelligence. It is comparable to POBA as a digital artist information platform, but its focus is commercial market data rather than preservation, curation, or concierge legacy services.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@pobawheretheartslive3284
• Xx.com/pobaorg
• Facebookfacebook.com/pobawheretheartslive
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/poba

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about POBA: Where the Arts Live