Dr Helga Huskamp becomes new Managing Director
Dr Helga Huskamp, former Managing Director of ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe, will succeed Norbert Norbert Kölle, who moved to Bremen's Focke Museum as Managing Director in August 2024, on 1 April 2025. Together with Dr Alexander Klar, Director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle, she will form the Executive Board of the Hamburger Kunsthalle.
»We are delighted to have found an experienced and committed managing director in Helga Huskamp, who is passionate about the Hamburger Kunsthalle. We have several years of challenging refurbishment and construction work ahead of us while the museum continues to operate, which will demand a great deal from us, as well as an ambitious programme to transform the building towards climate neutrality. Her extensive experience and interest in 'green culture' will be a great asset to the museum.
Prof Dr Alexander Klar, Director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle
Helga Huskamp (*1968) studied art history with a master's degree in economics and communication sciences at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, including a year abroad in Bologna/Italy. She completed her doctorate in 1997 with a thesis on the Berlin artist Fritz Köthe at the University of Osnabrück. After graduating, she initially worked in cultural sponsorship (Andreas Grosz office, Cologne) before moving into the creative agency scene and thus into business (Rempen & Partner). For over twelve years, she worked in management positions on the agency side for corporations and medium-sized companies on brand and marketing.
In 2012, Helga Huskamp returned to the world of culture. She was Deputy Managing Director of the Munich International Documentary Film Festival, Head of Communications and Project Coordinator at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. Here she accompanied the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus and the construction of the Bauhaus Museum Dessau. She then became Head of Communication and Education at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, from where she moved to the ZKM|Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe as Managing Director, where she still works today.
Over the years of her professional career, Helga Huskamp has also worked as a lecturer at various universities. Most recently at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. She also held a professorship for media management at the private Mediadesign University of Applied Sciences in Munich and later headed up communications at the private Macromedia University of Applied Sciences in Munich.
Her main areas of expertise in cultural management are process management with organisational development, finance and personnel development, third-party funding and sponsorship, communication and marketing as well as digitalisation, green culture and diversity. She also has experience in construction and reorganisation management.