Helen Marriage has spent a lifetime in the arts. Previously the Director of the Salisbury Festival, she created the first Arts & Events programme for Olympia & York, the developers of Canary Wharf in London, and was an Associate Director of the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT). In 2006, she set up Artichoke with Nicky Webb to produce The Sultan’s Elephant, a spectacular largescale work by Royale de Luxe that drew an audience of over a million over four days in London that permanently re-shaped the world of outdoor arts in the UK. Since then, she has continued to drive through Artichoke’s mission to invade and transform the public realm with work that stays in the collective memory for ever.

Since 2022, Helen has been a collaborator on the multidisciplinary team supporting DAVID RUBIN Land Collective (Land Collective) whose successful proposal to redesign Pennsylvania Avenue, will address redesign of the corridor, parks and plazas of this US national landmark in collaboration with HR&A Advisors (HR&A).

Helen is also on the Board of York Central, consulting on the cultural infrastructure for this £2 billion redevelopment project, by McLaren Regeneration and Arlington Real Estate, who together will deliver 2,500 homes and on million square feet of offices and retail. Work is due to start on a new public realm area, Museum Square, in the first quarter of 2025, and a Lido-style open air public swimming pool is also under consideration as part of the project.

She received a Loeb Fellowship from Harvard Graduate School of Design n 2012, and was awarded an MBE for services to the arts in the New Year’s Honours list in 2016. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.