The Team
Helen Knowles
Curator & Director
Helen Knowles (b. 1975) is an artist and curator of the Birth Rites Collection. She has a BA Hons from Glasgow School of Art and and MFA Fine Art from Goldsmiths University. A former British Council, Young Creative Entrepreneur, she has curated and commissioned work for internationally renowned projects which include; Gender Season, London Science Gallery 2020, Oxytocin in collaboration with Procreate Projects, 2019, 7 site specific installations across Guys Campus, 2019, BRC Bi-annual competition for New Work at Media CityUK, The Whitworth Art Gallery and Kings College in 2013/15/17, ‘Birth Rites’, Manchester Museum / Glasgow Science Centre, 2008, ‘Don’t Cross the line’, ‘Agitate’ and ‘Radio Halo’ 2000, a show of eleven site-
specific installations at Jodrell Bank Science Centre and Arboretum. Knowles has secured grants from ACE, The Amateurs Trust, Awards for All and Millenium UnLtd amongst others. She lectures widely around the UK and abroad. Recent and forthcoming shows include; Ars Electronica, 'Trickle Down, A New Vertical Sovereignty', arebyte Gallery, 2020. ‘Future and the Arts: AI, Robotics, Cities, Life - How Humanity Will Live Tomorrow’ The Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, NEMO festival, 104 Paris, The Ministry of Justice and Consumer Affairs, Berlin, 'Artistic intelligence' Hannover Kunstverein (2019) ‘Impakt Festival, ‘Los Algorithmos Suaves’, Centro del Carme, Valenica, Potsdam Film Museum (2018) ‘Zero Recoil Damage’,FolkestoneTriennial, ‘OpenCodes’, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany, ‘Codex’ D21, Leipzig, The Trial of Superdebthunterbot, Zabludowicz Collection, London (2017) and more. Her work is held in private and public collections including The Whitworth Art Gallery, Gallery Oldham, Tate Library and Archive, The National Art Library, Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection, Museum of Motherhood, NY, Birth Rites Collection and MMU Special Collection. Residencies include; Trelex Residency, Switzerland (2019), Fault Lines, Future Everything (2017-2019), HMP Altcourse, Liverpool, (2017) Moscow ICA, (2015) Santa Fe Arts Institute, New Mexico (2013 Jodrell Bank Science Centre and Arboretum (1999-2001). A recipient of awards from Arts Council England international Development Fund and The Amateurs Trust, in 2012 she won the Neo Art Prize, Great Art Prize for two works form the Youtube Portraits Series.
Knowles’ collaborative, new media practice has included working with indigenous communities in Putumayo, Colombia and Santa Fe, America. As well as medics, midwives, scientists, lawyers, market sellers, oligarchs, crypto currency and blockchain specialists.
Leni Dothan
Artist & Summer School leader
Dr Leni Dothan is an artist, architect and researcher based in London. Blending her skills and knowledge, Dothan is dealing with the overlooked representations of women and especially mothers in art history and contemporary culture, as well as eco-political urgent subjects.
As a mother to a boy living away from her birth home, she creates sculptures, photographs, videos and installations that suggest new narratives other than the ideal iconography of a mother-and-child relationship. With her works, Dothan touches on the less discussed and underrepresented aspects of the mother and child relationship, by doing so, she questions social norms and political structures.
Leni Dothan has exhibited her work in museums around the world, including The Jewish Museum in London, MAMbo Museum in Bologna and Centre Régional d’Art Contemporain Occitanie in France, as well as galleries, including Richard Saltoun Gallery, Hå Gamle Prestegard in Norway and Arnolfini Gallery as part of Hayward touring exhibition Acts of Creation.
Nora Heidorn
PHD student
The Shared Gaze LAHP funded Collaborative Doctoral Award Royal College of Art and BRC 2020-2024.
Nora Heidorn makes exhibitions, public programmes, creative projects, and publishes essays and articles. Her practice is led by interdisciplinary research investigating sexual reproduction, health, and care through an intersectional lens and using artistic methods. She is undertaking an LAHP-funded PhD at the Royal College of Art, London in collaboration with Birth Rites Collection and teaches at Central Saint Martins College, London. She has previously worked as Curator and Project Coordinator in the Department of Art at Goldsmiths College and as Associate Director at The Approach, London.
We would love to thank all of the interns, tour leaders and collaborators that throughout the years have been and continue to be an essential support for the Collection.
Hermione Wiltshire, Artist Researcher 2018 - 2022
Ellie Featherby, Tour Leader 2018 - 2021
Hatty Magill, Intern 2020
Giulia Pistone, Collection Assistant 2017-2018
Natalie Whitehurst, 2015-2016
Dani Quinn, 2014-2015
Hannah Prescott, 2014-2015
Samantha Lippett, 2013-2014
Anna FC Smith, 2011-2012
Sarah Kate Banham, 2011-2012
Phoebe Mortimer, BRC Programme Manager 2007-2008