Helga Huskamp

Helga Huskamp joined the ZKM in September 2021 as managing director. In her professional career she combines culture with management.

After completing a master's degree in art history combined with communication studies and economics (1989–1995, LMU Munich) and a year abroad in Italy (1990/91, University of Bologna), Helga Huskamp earned her doctorate in art history (1997, University of Osnabrück) with a dissertation on the Berlin painter Fritz Köthe.

After internships in major cultural institutions and companies, she began her professional career in cultural sponsoring (Büro Andreas Grosz, Cologne) and moved directly from there to the business world. For more than 10 years she worked in the agency sector as a strategic consultant for branding and marketing. Her clients were corporations and medium-sized companies from a variety of industries and international markets. To this day, these years in prestigious agencies from the creative industry environment (Rempen & Partner, Die Prinzregenten) have left their mark on her. In 2008, she founded her own agency, Brecherspitz Kommunikation, together with Matthias Meier-Stuckenberger in Munich, which she headed as managing partner.

During her first years in the agencies, she began teaching as a freelance lecturer at various universities, including one year as a professor of media management (master's degree program) at the private MDH University of Applied Sciences Munich. From there she moved to the Macromedia University of Applied Sciences Munich where she took over the management of communication between the institution's five locations. To this day, she continues to teach, most recently at the Berlin University of the Arts and the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf.

In 2012, in connection with the film course at the Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, the opportunity arose to work for the Munich International Documentary Film Festival (DOK.fest München), thus taking a professional path back into culture. After years as deputy festival director (2012–2015) at DOK.fest München, she worked as department head for the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation (2015–2019) and most recently for the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (2019–2021), focusing on communication, mediation, digitization, and process management.

Helga Huskamp holds a systemic coach certificate and has completed further training in strategic business administration.

Texts, lectures, publications

Huskamp, H. (2021). New Work im Museum am Beispiel der Staatsgalerie. [New Work in the Museum Taking the Example of the State Gallery in Stuttgart]
Stirling Magazin 2, Stuttgart, 2021.

Huskamp, H. (2020). Lobbyisten für Publikum und Wissenschaft: Mehr Raum für Kommunikation und Vermittlung. Gespräch zwischen Helga Huskamp und Steffen Egle. 
[Lobbyists for the Audience and Science: More Space for Communication and Mediation. Conversation between Helga Huskamp and Steffen Egle]
Stirling Magazin 1, Stuttgart, 2020.

Huskamp, H. (2018). Sich der Einschränkung zu unterwerfen, finde ich spannend.
Interview mit Erik Spiekermann und Torsten Blume.
[I Find It Exciting to Operate under Restrictions. Interview with Erik Spiekermann and Torsten Blume]
Bauhaus Zeitschrift (10) Standard, Dessau, Spector Books.

Huskamp, H. (2013). Die Kultur ist im Markt angekommen. Eine Hinterfragung zum Erfolg des Kulturmarketings.
[Culture Has Arrived in the Market: Questioning the Success of Cultural Marketing]
KM – der Monat. Magazin des Kulturmanagement.net, December 2013.

Huskamp, H. (2012). Keine Angst vor Marketing. Marketing als Prozessmanagement zu einer differenzierten Hochschulkommunikation am Beispiel einer privaten Fachhochschule.
[Don't Be Afraid of Marketing: Marketing as Process Management for Differentiated University Communication Using the Example of a Private University of Applied Sciences]
Lecture, 5th Forum of Science Communication, Dresden, December, 2012.

Huskamp, H. (2011). Die Zukunft des Theaters. Theaterblog 
[The Future of Theater. Theater Blog]
www.schmidt-theater.de

Huskamp, H. (2000). Seitenwechsel? Betrachtungen zu Kultur und Wirtschaft.
[Changing Sides? Reflections on Culture and Economy]
Business-to-business. 12 Statements on Art and Commerce.

Grosz, A., and Huskamp, H. (1999). Das Sony Kulturprogramm: Kulturförderung als Instrument der Unternehmenskommunikation. [The Sony Culture Program: Promoting Culture as a Corporate Communication Tool]
in Stegmaier, P. (ed.), MarkenVisionen. Eine neue Sicht der Marketingkommunikation. Munich, CCC.

Huskamp, H. (1998). Wer geht denn heute noch durch die Landschaft und sieht das Panorama wie Caspar David Friedrich? Gemalte Dé-Collage:  Zum Werk des Berliner Malers Fritz Köthe.
[Who still walks through the landscape and sees the panorama like Caspar David Friedrich did? Painted DéCollage: On the work of the Berlin painter Fritz Köthe]
PhD dissertation, University of Osnabrück, Munich, WAK Verlag.