The nonprofit POBA website is dedicated to digitally preserving and sharing works left behind by deceased artists through audio streams, virtual gallery exhibits, videos, etc. POBA was founded by the family of young artist Jamie Bernard, who passed away.
“Too many young artists of tremendous ability leave large collections of stunning works. Often their loved ones and representatives have no idea how to preserve and share them with the public,” says Sallie Bernard, president of The James Kirk Bernard Foundation. “POBA offers a simple solution for helping such works find the audience and attention they deserve.”
POBA’s mission is no less relevant when it comes to music. Among founding artists are Badfinger’s Pete Ham and Tom Evans whose never-heard demos and private drawings can be explored on POBA. One recent addition is more than 1,500 Andrew Gold recordings, compositions, lyrics, and other art works left to his widow Leslie Kogan. Gold wrote and performed many iconic songs including “Lonely Boy” and “Thank You for Being a Friend.”
“It’s exciting and gratifying that POBA gives an opportunity to reacquaint a whole new generation to Andrew’s works, not just to his music but to his many other artistic talents as well,” says Kogan. “Andrew was a prodigious musical artist—a songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist—but he also had a good hand and eye for drawing. He was over-the-top funny; often bringing humor to his art. POBA let’s me show Andrew’s work more like he experienced it, and as I did: as a creative process, as a passion, and as great fun.”
