Altered Barbie FAQ

What is Altered Barbie?

Altered Barbie is a community of artists which began in San Francisco in 2002 and has experienced extensive and acclaimed growth ever since. Altered Barbie website allows artists to showcase, advertise, promote and sell their artwork over the Internet. It is a place at the crossroads of a gallery, a store, a marketplace, a community and a global network.

Why should I become a member?

The central benefit of signing up with Altered Barbie is global exposure for the sale of your art. By helping you with advertising and selling at an international level, Altered Barbie takes care of some of the business aspects of your profession so that you can concentrate on the creative side of your work. Altered Barbie offers you a very effective Web presence, including e-commerce capability at the best rates available on the market today.

A few reasons to join the Altered Barbie's network:

Exposure. Be part of an artist-run and curated website with local and international reach. Promotion. Present your art on the Internet for easy access by buyers and galleries. Inclusion. Have your website listed in our Artist's Directory. This will increase the exposure and traffic on your own website. Online sales. Sell your art on the Internet. We'll handle credit card payments for you.

You don't have to hire a graphic designer and a web developer to create images and HTML. You don't need to hire programmers to create online ordering, guest books and many other features. You manage the relevant content of your site (career descriptions, artwork images and prices) directly through an easy-to-use Altered Barbie account, instead of having to pay a web developer extra money to make HTML changes.

What if I already have a Web site?

Having presence on the Altered Barbie website may be a great complement to your existing domain. By opening an Altered Barbie account, you are catching Altered Barbie traffic and buyers.

How do I become a member?

Click on the "Sign Up" link at the top of the Altered Barbie homepage.

Choose the level of membership that you prefer and click "Add to Cart" and then "Checkout" to purchase a membership.

How do I renew my membership?

First Log-In to the Altered Barbie website (If you have forgotten your password reset it first).

Once logged-in go to the Join or Renew page (Sign Up link at the top of the page). Choose the level of membership that you prefer and click "Add to Cart" and then "Checkout" to renew or extend your membership. You can purchase multiple years of membership by changing the Quantity on the Cart page before completing checkout (i.e. set quantity to 5 for a 5 year membership).

How much does it cost?

Altered Barbie fees are very affordable.

Join the site and enter the annual juried altered Barbie exhibition: $25/year.

How do I open an account?

Self-Setup of Altered Barbie Online Community Membership: Use the Altered Barbie Membership Form to open your account. You will then receive an email with a password which will allow you to create a profile and upload your images.

Self-Setup of Altered Barbie Online Community Membership and Exhibition: Use the Altered Barbie Membership Form to open your account with exhibition privelege. You will then receive an email with a password which will allow you to create a profile and upload your images. You will be able to choose whether images appear in the web gallery only or are entered for the exhbition as well.

Curation of Images: Our annual exhibition are curated shows. All artwork uploaded for exhibition will be held for review and will not be visible online immediately. Your pieces may or may not be accepted for the live show. If accepted your pieces will appear in the Annual Exhibition, otherwise they will appear in the "All Art" online gallery only.

Web only images will appear on the site as soon as they are uploaded.

If your exhibition entry is to be used in print you should submit high resolution JPEG images, our site will allow you to upload images up to 8Mb in file size. If we require larger files we will contact you.

What if I need help?

When you are logged in as a member you will see a technical FAQ page which will help you with most questions.

Altered Barbie prides itself on its friendly and fast customer support.