With decades of international experience, Helen has expertise in many areas, including managing cultural partnerships, strategic planning, risk management, and fundraising. She utilizes these leadership skills to advocate fiercely for artists and audiences. This work includes formal board roles and long-term relationship-building in local, national, and international contexts.
2022-2024 Program Mentor, Prospectus Curatorial Development Program
Board Member, 2021-2022
Brew House Arts provides support to a wide range of creatives to foster invention, creation, and collaboration. This includes Prospectus, a unique curatorial residency program that provides a small cohort of emerging curators with mentorship, professional development, and resources to realize their visions.
Installation photograph of the BHA gallery space showing g work by Paper Buck © Helen Trompeteler
Curatorial Advisor, 2022-Present
Board Member, 2017- 2022
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. Helen’s expertise supports Four Corners’ long-term curatorial strategy.
Advisor, 2017-Present
From 2017-2023, Helen advised photojournalist Marilyn Stafford on the long-term care and development of her photographic archive, which spans remarkable periods of twentieth-century history. Following Marilyn’s death in 2023, Helen remains an advisor to the artist’s estate. Most recently, this includes supporting the first US retrospective of Marilyn Stafford’s work at the Akron Museum of Art (24 February – 14 July 2024).
Boulogne-Billancourt © Marilyn Stafford
Committee Member, PIT Art in the Airport program
2022 – Present
As a dual British-American citizen who proudly calls Pittsburgh home, Helen is delighted to support the Pittsburgh International Airport Art Advisory Committee. She supports the program’s mission to present dynamic visual, performing, and public art by local, regional, national, and international artists.
Aerial view of Pittsburgh, PA by Menghan Zhang
Mentor for Society of Photography Education Pride Caucus
2023
Helen has previously supported fellow members of the SPE Pride Caucus as a mentor. The SPE Pride Caucus mentorship initiative aims to support artists who identify as LGBTQIA2+ with feedback on their work and guidance on professional practice.
Individual member on behalf of Silver Eye Center for Photography, 2022-2023
VACE is a coalition of eight small visual arts organizations in Pittsburgh that aim to make the field more equitable, visible, and sustainable. Read VACE’s Statement on Pay Standards for Arts Workers.
Exterior view: Silver Eye Center for Photography
Associated Artists of Pittsburgh
Exhibition Committee Member, 2021-2022
The Associated Artists of Pittsburgh (AAP) is the oldest continuously exhibiting visual arts organization in the US. As an exhibition committee member, Helen supported AAP’s members, exhibitions, and programs.
Installation photograph of the AAP gallery space © Helen Trompeteler
Photographic Collections Network
Advisor and Researcher, 2017
PCN is an organization that protects and shares the UK’s diverse photographic collections and archives. Helen was an advisor and researcher for the network during its inaugural year.
Photograph © Ula Kuźma