Helen has eighteen years of experience working with internationally significant art collections including the Royal Collection (2016-20) and the National Portrait Gallery, London (2002-16). Her demonstrated success encompasses acquisitions, exhibitions, donor cultivation and stewardship, public programs, and institutional-level strategic planning. Helen works internationally as an independent advisor for selected artists and non-profit organizations.
Featured here are selected advisory roles that reflect Helen’s expertise in photography and experience in arts non-profit management.
Associated Artists of Pittsburgh
Exhibition Committee Member
February 2021 – Present
The Associated Artists of Pittsburgh (AAP) is the oldest, continuously exhibiting visual arts organization in the US. As an exhibition committee member, Helen supports AAP’s members, exhibitions, and programs. Find out more about AAP and the work of its members via their website.
Installation photograph of the AAP gallery space © Helen Trompeteler
Advisor and Researcher
September 2020 – January 2021
Helen worked as an advisor and researcher on a set of historical photographs related to Tello (ancient Girsu) in southern Iraq. Her commissioned writing considered the foundational links between photography and archaeology in the mid-19th – 20th century.
Interior of the British Museum by Roger Fenton, 1854-1858 © Victoria & Albert Museum
Board Member
2017 – Present
Four Corners is a center for photography and film in London. Their work builds upon almost 50 years of radical, socially-engaged approaches to photography and film. As a board member, Helen’s expertise supports Four Corners’ long-term curatorial strategy.
Learn more about Four Corners extensive programs at their website. The online Four Corners Archive documents the film and photographic heritage of Four Corners, Half Moon Photography Workshop and Camerawork magazine.
Poster for Four Corners exhibition ‘Radical Visions’, 2018, showing Jo Spence folding issues of Camerawork magazine, photograph © Mike Goldwater
Advisor – Present
2017
Throughout 2017, Helen advised photojournalist Marilyn Stafford on the long-term care and cataloguing of her archive. Helen remains an active advocate for Stafford’s lifetime body of work. Stafford’s photographs span from 1948-1980 and cover remarkable periods of international modern history.
Learn more about Stafford’s life at her website.
Boulogne-Billancourt © Marilyn Stafford
Photographic Collections Network
Advisor and Researcher
2017
PCN is an organization which protects and shares the UK’s diverse photographic collections and archives. Helen was an advisor and researcher for the network during its inaugural year.
Learn more about PCN’s collections research and programs via their website.
Photograph © Ula Kuźma