Photography by Steven Kovich — kovich.com
Above photo: Chasing Waterfalls Poncho from Bobbles + Lace St. Pete. bobblesandlace.com Necklace from Pippa Pelure Boutique. pippapelure.com
If you were to say that Helen French has been lying down on the job since taking over one of the top leadership roles in one of the city’s leading arts organizations, you wouldn’t be wrong. But you wouldn’t be entirely right, either. French, a professional dancer who spent much of her life training to keep herself in top physical shape, finds the constraints of office life challenging at times. As the executive director of the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance (SPAA) and co-founder of the acclaimed BEACON dance series, she is using her formidable creative muscle to direct the future of our city’s entire cultural landscape. She explains that staying engaged with her artistic practice on a daily basis is very important for her mental, emotional and physical well-being.
“Because so much of my day is spent at a desk, I have to be very intentional and make sure that I allow myself time to move and dance. I do have a daily physical practice that consists of either yoga, ballet class, conditioning or strength training and I also continue to investigate my own choreographic voice and collaborate with other artists. It has been challenging for me to shift out of the dance studio and teaching to being at a desk for so many hours,” she admits. “In order to protect my body and my mental health, I do take daily constructive rest breaks and lay down for 10 minutes, not to sleep but to focus on my breath, give my back a break from sitting and clear my mind. So, yes, I do occasionally lay down in my office,” she continues, good-naturedly. “This helps me shift my perspective and regulate my nervous system.”
And while French will tell you she isn’t naturally funny, she has a joyful spirit, a ready laugh, an irreverent streak and the kind of humor that puts others at ease. She is also quick to point out that while she appreciates beautiful clothing, she is most comfortable in a white shirt and jeans. That made her willingness to indulge us in multiple wardrobe changes with clothing from some of our favorite local boutiques even more fun. Give her a few new outfits and, almost instinctively, she will slip into a dancer’s pose, seemingly unable to resist the physicality of each one. Perhaps it’s part of the same instinct that has allowed her to embrace changing roles throughout her life—from artist and performer to arts administrator and advocate.
“Her rare blend of artistic excellence, nonprofit experience and community-centered leadership makes her uniquely qualified to guide the SPAA into its next chapter,” Ryan Griffin, chair of the SPAA Board, explained last year following her appointment.
French is the granddaughter of the late Robert A. “Bob” Pfeiffer and Eleanore J. Pfeiffer, a couple who devoted much of their lives to the community. Bob, a beloved St. Pete civic figure and longtime St. Petersburg High School booster, was known as “Mr. Green Devil” for his decades as the school’s exuberant mascot. He also helped bring the iconic newsboy statue near the St. Pete Pier to life, raising more than $100,000 to honor the city’s newspaper history. Eleanore was a teacher and civic volunteer, and together they left a legacy of community involvement that continues through their family.
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Paul Black wide leg pant from Bobbles + Lace St. Pete. bobblesandlace.com
French and her husband Jonathan were both born and raised in St. Pete. And while she left to attend The Juilliard School and perform on the global stage, touring internationally as a principal dancer with New York’s prestigious Buglisi Dance Theatre, Jonathan’s work as an officer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration took him to different locations around the world for many years. Eventually, they returned home to raise their family in the community they love.
“I was pretty homesick for my family,” she recalls. “I'd lived away from home since I was 16.”
French’s career has unfolded across performance, choreography and education, with each facet informing the other. She has translated the lessons of her training into her work as an educator, teaching at George Mason University and Juilliard while also working with students closer to home at Gibbs High School and St. Petersburg College.
Those teaching experiences led her to her next great leap.
“I had this teaching practice going, but I wasn't done creating my own work and being part of other people's creations. I wanted to make work and I didn't see a lot of it here,” French recalls. “There were dancers here, but I didn't see the kind of dance scene that I wanted to create. So, I started gathering people, like what are we going to do together? It was me and Erik Wagner, who lives in California now, and Erin Fletcher, who was in Sarasota. We formed a performance group and did a whole show at the Studio at 620. Then I started the St. Pete Dance Alliance, which was with another group of dancers that just needed a voice. Around the same time, 2015, I co-produced BEACON with Lauren Slone, which is an annual contemporary dance series at the Palladium. It was designed to help drive an ecosystem—for dance to have a platform.”
Those were the first steps she took locally to ensure that our city's arts ecosystem was supporting the actual creators who live here.
“Who's out there?” she remembers asking herself at the time. “Who wants to make work together? How can we pool our resources? Who has access to what? At that time, there was no unifying conversation around that in St. Pete.”
Her willingness to ask those questions and advocate for the arts brought her into view of SPAA.
“It was about that time that I was asked to be on the board of the alliance,” she explains. “I attended an event for the alliance and I made some statement to Duncan McClellan like, artists should never work for free. Artists should get paid. I strongly believe that. And, apparently, Duncan told John Collins that I should be on the board. I've always said, dancers need a seat at every table. I say that about art in general. If we're having a discussion on any level civically, on any level economically, the arts need to be at the table. John invited me to be on the board. I thought, what does a board member do? What do you want me to do?”
Later, while French was working at the Palladium, doing development for their capital campaign, she recalls that the idea of the open director role was floated to her.
Noir De Lune Dress from Pippa Pelure Boutique. pippapelure.com
Gold cuff from Bobbles + Lace St. Pete. bobblesandlace.com
“I thought, okay, I don't know, do I want this? I love all art and I will advocate for all art all day and all night. I also like a challenge,” she asserts and then adds. “I'm also terrified by the challenge. It’s a big responsibility to be in this role and to be advocating for the arts broadly in St. Pete. To me, it means that I'm always going to be there fighting, like, how can we get more funding? Where are the resources? What city or county administrative codes could we change to build spaces that are live-work? Why are the arts not talked about in affordable housing more?”
Her excitement about the opportunity ultimately outweighed the fear. She sees the pulse of the city’s creative community in transition and believes keeping it moving forward will require robust and consistent investment in the arts as St. Pete grows. She knows that leadership, much like dance, requires a true balance of vision, strength and collaboration.
Recently, French has raised the volume of the conversation, pointing to the $132.5 million in economic activity generated by St. Pete’s nonprofit arts and culture sector while pressing city leaders to recognize how little of that value makes its way back to the people doing the work. Her message is increasingly direct: If the arts are helping drive the city’s growth, artists need a meaningful voice in shaping what comes next.
Much of the alliance’s vital work happens out of sight, supporting K–12 arts education through Arts for Complete Education, scholarships and grants for young and professional artists, as well as through collaborations with the city and other community partners. That work, French says, is essential to maintaining a pipeline for the next generation of artists and arts professionals. Without arts education, she warns, “kids won’t see a pathway because they don’t see an option for them in school.”
She says there is a sense of urgency around this vital infrastructure work and what comes next. French is particularly proud that the alliance recently received a two-year, $100,000 Creative Resilience and Emergency Preparedness grant from South Arts to develop strategies that can help communities respond to disruptions, not only from hurricanes and pandemics but also from economic downturns and other crises. The goal is to move beyond reacting to emergencies and be better prepared for them.
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“There have to be better strategies. There have to be best practices,” she urges. “And right now there’s not really anything codified that is contained just for the arts.”
French is also looking ahead to the alliance’s signature fall programming, including the MUSE Awards and SHINE Mural Festival. The MUSE Awards will honor Jeffrey Multer and the Palladium Chamber Series, Babs Reingold, Loreille Hollaway of Cultured Books Literacy Foundation, Kevin Hohl, Steve and Marie Beaty, Liz Dimmitt and Leslie Curran in the performing arts, visual arts, literary arts, art and technology, patron, ambassador and legacy categories, respectively. The awards will take place on October 2nd, while French is changing up the timing of SHINE this year.
“SHINE normally has been, with the exception of last year, in September or October during the hotter months. This year, I'm keeping it in November. It is going to fall in the middle of Art Everywhere, which is the initiative that Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, Creative Pinellas, Clearwater Arts Alliance and the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance are working on. Art Everywhere is art from all over the county throughout November and December and SHINE falls right in the middle of it. The city will feel very activated because of all the various initiatives that will be going on.”
For now, French is still finding her footing in a role that draws on nearly every chapter of her career.
“I don’t know that I ever aspired to be an executive director of something. I’ve never done a role exactly like this,” she admits. “I’ve done components of this role as singular standalone jobs—working in development, launching programs, fundraising and working on a capital campaign. With many of those roles, I learned how to successfully communicate across multiple stakeholders. There’s also a component of teaching in this role. I am educating people about the importance of art.
“And there’s a bit of herding cats and wrangling information. I hope that each day I'm making steps in the right direction and truly making things better. My goal is to address some of the issues we’re seeing and make progress on how we respond to them, like mental health and creative resiliency. It’s all really important work.”
Visit stpeteartsalliance.org to learn more.
