Helen Ives

Helen Ives is a first year master's student in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Art (HTC) program at MIT. Studying the dichotomy between analog and new media, her research centers on the history of craft, printmaking, material culture, and the digital.

As both a maker and researcher, she employs practice-based research methodologies in her work. In 2025 her practice-based exploration of artist and illustrator Virginia Lee Burton’s unpublished design manuscript, entitled ‘Design and How! The history, theory and impact of Virginia Lee Burton’s design pedagogy,’ was published in the international Journal of Illustration. Ives received her BA from Washington University in St. Louis studying Studio Art, Art History, and French.  For her Senior Honors Thesis in Art History, she investigated contemporary craft practices through a post-humanist lens, examining the term ‘post-craft.’ In addition to producing a traditional Honors Thesis, she designed an artist’s book edition of her final thesis and corresponding website whatispostcraft.cargo.site. Her artist’s book and website have since been accessed into Washington University in St. Louis' Special Collections.