Why WordPress?

While I have listed other easy and inexpensive ways for artists to create online portfolios, I urge you to consider using WordPress with a theme. WordPress uses open-source technologies, is open-source itself, and is backed up by a generous, enthusiastic, and active community of developers, designers and users. Unlike blogs and paid web services you will have total control over the content and design. Websites grow and develop over time. To remain affordable, many of the other alternatives are inevitably standardized and limit what can be done with them. While WPFolio is also limited and standardized, you can alter its template or change themes as your artwork changes and develops. Once you have entered your content (text, images, video, etc.) in a WordPress site, it is easy to change the layout, design, structure and navigation of the site, without having to enter the content again. Because it is so flexible and extensible, ultimately a WordPress site could better reflect the creativity and do-it-yourself spirit of your artwork.

Student Examples using WPFolio

Nathanael S. Absher
Amanda Stohl Hendershot
Chrissie Carlson
John Emmerich
Jennifer Cheek

Other WordPress Templates

With WordPress it is easy to experiment. Download a theme and activate the new theme by going to Appearance->Themes in the WordPress Admin. Try out different themes with the same content. See how they look. It is easy to change back to WPFolio if the new one does not work out.

Some of the following themes cost money and they are all created for photography but could easily be tweaked to be used for any form of art.

Viso
Aperture
Photo Blog
Flashlike Photographer
Modularity
FolioBlogger
AutoFocus
Photocrati Themes
PhotoMinimal (using Flickr)

Now, onto the tutorial, in earnest. But remember to come back to this page and try out some other themes.

Alternatives Hosting Services

Below are some alternatives to BlueHost along with links to tutorials for installing WordPress. I have never used them and cannot help students and others troubleshoot the set-up process.

HostIcan

One-Click Self-Installation of WordPress with HostICan

Media Temple

1-Click Self-Installation of WordPress with Media Temple

DreamHost

One-Click Self-Installation of WordPress with DreamHost

Purchasing a Domain Name and a Web Site Hosting Plan:

Before you start you should choose your desired domain name, plus some alternatives if you your first choice is not available. And you should have your credit card and a way to copy and keep the usernames and passwords that you will be creating.

You should have:

1. desired domain name
2. alternate domain names
3. credit card
4. a notepad, document or program for safely storing and organizing usernames and passwords
5. patience

NOTE: If you already own a domain name, BlueHost can help you transfer your domain name to them.

NOTE: If you are planning on using a paid portfolio service like CarbonnMade or Arlo only purchase the domain name. If you buy both domain name and hosting plan together there is a discount for the purchase of the domain name. My total cost for both was $17.14.

Sign Up:

Go to BlueHost, click “Sign Up Now”.

Fill in you desired domain name in the textbox on the left. Click “Next” to continue.

If you already have a domain name, fill in the textbox on the right.

Enter Billing and Account Information

Fill in your account information. Choose a password. The password must be 15 characters or less. To create a secure password use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and characters like $,&,*,-, etc. Make sure that you write down your password and save it in a safe place you will remember. This is the password for you BlueHost account and will also be used to FTP files to your server.

Choose you account plan and fill in your credit card info or choose to pay with PayPal.

Click “Next” towards the bottom of the screen.

Congratulations

This next screen echos your bill information and the purchase process is complete.

You will receive 2 emails confirming the purchase of your domain name and hosting account. One email will include your username and password for BlueHost account. Please save it in a safe place you will not forget. The username and password will also be used for FTP.

Once you have checked the accuracy of the information click the “Control Panel” button.

Control Panel – Help and Tutorials (optional)

On the next screen, close the pop-windows trying to sell you stuff.

If you want to learn more about using BlueHost, you could spend some time now reading over some of their tutorials or you can skip onto the next section. To read BlueHost’s tutorials click “Get Started Now”

On http://tutorials.bluehost.com/started/ BlueHost lists its help links. Of particular interest for us are:

Simple Scripts

http://tutorials.bluehost.com/started/ss.htm

WordPress Installation and Configuration

http://tutorials.bluehost.com/started/WP_install.htm

http://tutorials.bluehost.com/started/WP_use.htm

http://tutorials.bluehost.com/started/WP_themes.htm

http://tutorials.bluehost.com/started/WP_plugins.htm

You can also find the tutorials in the cPanel by clicking on the these buttons:

You are done purchasing your domain name and hosting account.

The next step is to install WordPress.

Installing WordPress

If you are not signed in at BlueHost, go to http://www.bluehost.com and click the “Control Panel Login” button at the top right. Sign in with your domain name and password.

On the main cPanel page, scroll down to “Software Services” and click the “WordPress” button.

Click the “Install” button on the “Install WordPress” page.

Choose the most recent version, even if it is the “beta” version. It is good to be up to date. – In this instance it is 3.0-beta1.

Under “Step 2: Advanced Options” click “Click here to display>”. Don’t worry it is not very advanced.

In Step 1:

Optional - fill in a foldername where you want to host your WordPress files.

Pros – Your wordpress files will be consolidated and organized.

Cons – It is harder to set up – with some techy- stuff – e.g. writing htacess files

DON’T fill it in, if you are anxious about tech stuff.

In Step 2) Advanced Options:

Choose a name for your site. For artists it is usually their own name – it will appear in the header and in the title bar. You will be able to change this later, if you change your mind.

Choose a username and password.

DO NOT USE “admin”, the default, it will make it easier for hackers.

Write down your username and password someplace safe that you will remember. Make sure to note that this logon is for WORDPRESS.

BlueHost will send you an email with the logon, as well. Save the email, too.

Check “Automatically create new database” (don’t forget).

In Step 3) Legal Information:

Check “Terms and Conditions”

Then click “Complete”

NOTE: Installing WordPress in its own folder, an optional preference expalained above, can cause a problem. If a user goes to http://www.yoursitename.com they will see a generic “Site Coming Soon” screen while the content of your site is located at http://www.yoursitename.com/folder-name/. There are 2 ways to solve this that are explained in the comment section of this page.

In the next screen BlueHost lists the url’s for your WordPress site and your logon info. Save the url’s or bookmark them. It takes a few moments for BlueHost to install WordPress. To check if it is installed click on the Site Url or the Login Url. Also BlueHost will send you an email to inform you that WordPress is installed.

Once the installation is complete if you return to the main page for “Simple Scripts” you will see a list of MY Installs – which will include “WordPress”.

https://www.simplescripts.com/account/main

NOTE: if you click “Advanced” you will see a list of important info about your installation, as shown below. This is good to know about if you are trouble-shooting or have a question for me. There is also a “Resend Login Info Now” button, if you forget your WordPress logon.

Congratulations. You are done installing WordPress.

Check WordPress:

Once BlueHost has installed WordPress ,check the front page. Go to http://www.yourdomainname.com/ (or http://www.yourdomainname.com/wordpress_folder/ if you created an install folder.

If you installed WordPress 3 you should see something like this:

And you can check the admin section of WordPress as well. Go to:

http://www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin/ (or http://www.yourdomainname.com/wordpress_folder/wp-admin/ if you installed wordpress in a separate folder.

Enter your WordPress username and password and you should see a screen like this:

Next is installing WPFolio and plugins.

View “Flare and Falter”, finished.

Fun Times Gallery

257 3rd Avenue
Brooklyn, New York
Fun Times Gallery is located at 257 3rd Ave, between Union and President, in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn.
By subway: Take the M or the R to 4th Ave and Union, then walk 1 block to 3rd Ave.

Reception: May 1st, 2010 – 6pm – 8pm
May 1st through May 29th, 2010

No Plans For Today

Organized by Vicki Sher

Featuring Work By: Ky Anderson, Tyler Dobson, Franklin Evans , Joseph Hart, Shaun Krupa, Elisa Lendvay, Lauren Luloff, Brion Nuda Rosch, Vicki Sher and Daniel Wiener

“I don’t even think it’s been a conscious choice of mine. I’ve only known one way to work and it’s been to follow, you know…my mind goes with the wind and where it goes I follow…”
- David Scher

“I love studio practice”
- Dona Nelson

Some artists go into the studio with an open end. These artists value their commitment to the studio as a venue for exploration and risk taking. Their avenue toward fresh and original results requires dispensing with a carefully devised plan of action. That is not to say that restrictions and specificity are not in play. Even artists who surrender to accident and surprise still enjoy setting complex limitations and devising systemic parameters. Their joy in the studio, in striking a balance and/or duking-it-out between strategy and reckless abandon is evident in their work.

It is a fitting time to celebrate this mode of working. The economy is down, and no one needs to be locked into thematic production to satisfy the market’s expectations. The instability of an uncertain economy has benefits in the studio. Artists can do what they want -as they should be doing all the time- but sometimes forget when the stress of deadlines and financial pressure takes freedom away.

Lesley Heller Gallery

One-Person Exhibition
February 23, 2011
54 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002
t 212 410 6120

Save the date.

Also, it is an example of “open source” in the real three dimensional world, since it lays bare its mechanisms and their principles. It shows you how it is doing what it is doing and teaches along the way. (Ironically much of our created environment, before the digital, is “open source”).

So, three cheers for xeniaguy2. I look forward to more installments, as he continues this amazing project.

Plant Body, Animal Body

Review at RomanovGrave.com

Cavin Morris Gallery

December 3, 2009- January 16, 2010

Opening: Thursday, December 3rd, 6:00 – 8:00

Hyungsub Shin	Daniel Wiener

Artists include:

Jose Bedia, Mort Golub, Keith Goodhart, Yuko Oda, Lubos Plny, Tim Rowan, Christine Sefolosha, Hyungshib Shin, Ignacio Carles-Tolra, Ryo Tohonaga, Daniel Wiener and Gregory Van Maanen

210 Eleventh Avenue, Suite 201, New York, NY, 10001

T 212.226.3769 | F 212.226.0155 | info@cavinmorris.com

In the Case Study | Eye / World

Curated by: Emily Cheng and Michelle Loh

Opening: Sunday, November 22nd, from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Triple Candie (map)

An antique museum case. 72 glass-topped drawers. 72 ways of visualizing the world. Big picture / tiny space. Artists, musicians, mathematicians, curators, writers, philosophers, others.

November 22, 2009 through January 17, 2010

Including:
Thomas Allsopp, Pau Atela, Gudjon Bjarnason, Mathieu Borysevicz, Alison Bradley, Helen Brough, Johnson Chang, Alexandra Chang and Matthew Hocknos, Long-Bin Chen, Margaret Cogswell, Lois Conner, Lisa Corrine Davis, Santiago Cucullu, Robin Dash, Julie Evans, Mary Evans, Solange Fabiao, Jane Fine, Richard Gien, Richard Gluckman, Deborah Grant, Joanne Greenbaum, Alex Grey, Wenda Gu, Ingo Gunther, Jane Hammond, Julie Hefernan, Betti-Sue Hertz, Jene Highstein, Satch Hoyt, Peter Hristoff, Tom Huhn, David Henry Hwang, Soojung Hyun and Robert Morgan, Richard Jochum, David Judelson, Hoon Jung, Elaine King, Ellen Lanyon, Bing Lee, Nichole Lin and Joe Hill, Sarat Maharaj, Katy Martin, Iris Moon, John Moore, Robert Oxnam, Gary Peterson, Steven Rand, Renee Riccardo and Paul Laster, Lordy Rodriguez, Diane Samuels, Joachim Schmid, Barbara Segal, Varvara Shavrova, Ward Shelly, Eric Shiner, Francesco Siqueiros, Franklin Sirmans, Alan Sondheim, Gary Stephan, Wash SyCip, Elaine Tin Nyo, Jaret Vadera, Richard Vine, Ken Wahl, Sarah Walker, Ryszard Wasko, Lilly Wei, Daniel Weiner, Elga Wimmer, Sally Wu and Christopher Phillips, O Zhang

Location & Hours

Triple Candie is located at 500 West 148th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam) in Harlem
Open Thursday – Sunday, 1:00 – 6:00 p.m.

View Map

About Triple Candie

Founded in 2001, Triple Candie is a nonprofit exhibition space in Harlem. By and large, it presents exhibitions about art that are devoid of art – Eye / World being a possible recent exception. For more information visit www.triplecandie.org or call 212.368.3333

For more emphatic guidelines for publicists, which also may be helpful for artists, read Dear Publicists.

In-depth Articles and Tips on creating email campaigns. (Probably overkill for most artists). And 24 Ways has posted a tutorial for producing html emails. and here is list of email tutorials

Do Create a Descriptive Subject Line

It is important to have a clear and inclusive subject line. At the least, include your name, the venue name and date in the subject line.

Emails get lost in overly-filled inboxes. Invitees should be able to easily spot your invitation in their long list of emails.

Don’t Use a Vague Subject Line

Don’t use vague or general Subject Lines like "exhibition", "group show" or "hello".

Don’t FWD: or RE: your gallery’s invite. Make a new email and copy and paste the information into it.

Do Include All Information as Text.

Even if information about the show is in an image, also include it as text. Text is easier to use and store on a computer. Users can copy and paste text into their calendar. Text is easier to see on mobile devices.

For example in Apple’s email client, Mail, it is easy and convenient to save text to iCal. Place the cursor over the date and when the dashed border appears, right-click or control-click the arrow and choose "Create New iCal Event…" and add/modify information.

Be sure to include the name of the show, the gallery, location, duration, date and time of the reception and the url of the gallery. As you probably know if you write out the full url with http:// the url will become a link in most email programs. This will make it easy for invitees to quickly retreive more information about your show.

Do format the text.

Do format the text so that it is easy to read and use white space generously to improve legibility.

Each item should be separated by a line return or line space.

For example:

Name of Show

October 24 – December 5, 2009

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 24th, 5-7pm

Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 11am to 6pm

GALLERY NAME
16 E. Name of Street, ground floor
City State 10075
t 212 111.2222

http://www.galleryname.com

Some more tips on formatting plain text.

Don’t Add Unnecessary Text

Don’t add unnecessary text, such as apologies. Email invitations are now the norm. Don’t include lengthy press releases for your friends and colleagues. Make a separate mailing list for the press.

Do Attach an Image (or Two)

Include an image of your work or an image of the invitation. Images should not be more than 600 pixels wide or high. Some email clients have very limited horizontal space and there is nothing worse than the horizontal scrolling of an image. Generally images should be jpegs and 72dpi. And the file size should be no more than 300kb. Less would be better.

Please be aware that the default for most email programs for the desktop or online do not show images by default. This is another reason you should always include text of the important information.

If you are using Mac Mail, when adding an attachment be sure to check "Send Windows-Friendly Attachment".

Other email programs and online services will have an equivalent option.

Don’t include too many images, big files or unusual file types.

Be kind to your email list and don’t weight them down with dozens of large files that take up disk space and take a long time to download.

The entire email, including images and text, should not exceed 500kb (.5MB) (the smaller the better). Don’t send print-ready images. Don’t send .psd, .tif, .pdf, video files, word files, illustrator files, etc. To be safe only send jpegs. All email programs and on all platforms will render jpegs but may not read other file formats.

Optional: Do Use an Email Service Provider

This tutorial is meant for artists using their own email program, but there are services which will help manage your email list and offer html templates for creating more designed emails. Naturally they do this for a fee. They offer many features and can make batch emails easier and prettier and also include tracking and statistics. It could be a good idea for a group of artists to get together and purchase one of these services and combine their mailing lists.

Mail Chimp (recommended)
Constant Contact
iContact
MyEmma
SendLoop
Vertical Response

Don’t Use Html

Don’t use html in your email unless you really know what you are doing, in which case you won’t be reading this. If you want to use html use one of the services listed above.

Do Send Email Announcements

Don’t be reticent about sending out announcements by email. Feel free to send one reminder or a closing announcement.

Don’t Send Too Many Email Announcements.

As a rule of thumb don’t send more than 2 email announcements per show. It is very annoying to receive 6 reminders in a few weeks. You don’t want recipients to place your email address in their spam filter.

In Summary

Be specific. Be precise. Be brief.
Include details in text.
Optionally include a properly sized and compressed image.