The recent Toronto flood is testament to the importance of keeping your art portfolios safe by saving them to external hard drives and uploading them online.

1. Toronto Flood Proof
That Students
Should Protect Their
Art Portfolios
Karen Kesteloot

2. The worst flood in Toronto’s history since Hurricane Hazel is a
sign that students must take precaution for their art portfolios
by saving them in external hard drives and cloud storage sites
to avoid the type of personal tragedy that Danuta Czubak
experienced after the flood ripped through her basement.
(Newswire.net via Emailwire.com -- July 20, 2013) Toronto,
Canada -- The two thunderstorms tore through Toronto
dropping a record-breaking 126mm of rain in only 3 hours breaking through basement doors and leaving
commuters stranded on flooded freeways, subways and trains. The damage left by the receding flood
waters left Toronto residents wondering how to protect their belongings when insurance doesn’t cover
over land flooding and certainly can't help Toronto's 194,200 university students who were at risk to
lose their course work and portfolios.
Sudden flash flooding in downtown Toronto July 8 not only flooded out the Kipling Subway station, and
had rescue workers shuttling 1400 commuters off a halted Go Train in rubber boats but is expected to
inflict over $600 million in damages throughout the city.
In addtion, the flood has left an array of personal tragedies in its wake with not only the damage to
home furnishings but by the loss of priceless family heirlooms, photos and artwork.
A report by CBC television revealed the extent of the damage to personal property. In the CBC interview
Danuta Czubak of Dundas St, Toronto despaired over the personal loss of her recently deceased
mother’s photos, showing the reporter the stained and rippled photos as she flipped through the
irreparably damaged album. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/07/09/toronto-post-
rainfall-safety-tips.html
It reveals the risk of damage to thousands of Toronto’s college and university students’ course work.
Toronto is home to some of the top art and design programs in the country with several of the schools
in the flood region. Students are at particular risk since they so often live in affordably priced basement
apartments. The damage to Danuta’s album prompted me to write this story to urge students to be
proactive in protecting their course work and art portfolios.
As the spokesperson for PortPrep Art Portfolio Coaching, I know the huge challenge that students face
when they lose years’ worth of work that they showcase in their art portfolios to get into the most
competitive art and design programs.
Melissa Sklepetas of University of Guelph Fine Art who was applying to Sheridan's and OCADU's
Illustration Program last year lost her entire portfolio. She emailed me in a panic, "I'm kind of freaking
out right now because I can't find ANY of my portfolio items, and I'm going to be making it over the
reading week... I can't find anything anywhere". She would have had to recreate her entire portfolio if
my photographer hadn’t recorded all of her work during my portfolio workshop since she had no record
of her work.
Flood Damaged Photo Album from CBC Story

3. PortPrep urges students to record their work digitally to protect their course work and delicate artworks
by pre-emptively backing them up on portable hard drives that they keep with them.
To completely keep their files disaster-proof art students can save their art portfolios via online storage
sites like Dropbox, Google Drive, and iCloud or even better upload them onto art portfolios sites like
Behance and Carbonmade.
Students can learn more about what options exist to protect and showcase their work on-line by going
to PortPrep’s blog entries on the best external hard drives or online portfolio sites.
As PortPrep's main spokesperson and instructor, Karen Kesteloot counsels students on how to make an
art portfolio that will get them accepted into the most competitive art and design colleges with 100%
success rate.
Karen Kesteloot
PortPrep Studios
275 Woolwich St, Guelph, ON Can N1H 3V8
519-803-2539
Click here to view page where news release was first published.