12.12.2024, Thursday 11:00 Uhr
Vitamin B - A supplement you need to build a career. A lecture by Lulu MacDonald

Venue:
ICAT 03, HFBK Hamburg

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English language offer

This lecture is a patchwork of everything I wish I knew when I started my career as a fine artist. I’ve made the mistakes so you don’t have to.

Networking? For me? No thanks. Surely, you just have to be talented, make good work and then one day someone will present you opportunities on a silver platter, right? Wrong.

Networking always seemed to me like a slimy concept. I thought networking was all about elbowing other people out of the way to get to the top, but I was wrong. In fact, it’s much more about building support structures, collaborating and supporting your peers to become a creative people want to work with.

During the course of this lecture, Lulu MacDonald interconnects and weaves anecdotes, stories she’s heard, moments of success, moments of accidents, coincidences and planned manipulations to show you that, in the creative sector, everything really does happen for a reason. She will present you with the tools and understanding you need to build yourself a network without feeling gross. And explains how everyone does it, they just keep it a secret!

Vitamin B is a lecture which presents insider knowledge on the art world and will openly and vulnerably explain how to build a loving support system for yourself. Prepare to feel empowered and more in control of your professional development. But also to learn that we aren’t on our own, even though it sometimes feels like it.

Lulu MacDonald completed her MA studies in 2017 at the HFBK Hamburg (class of Pia Stadtbäumer). Since then she has been working as a freelance artist and has presented her work at Å+ Gallery Berlin, Kunsthaus Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Westfälischer Kunstverein Münster, MOM Art Space Hamburg, Hinterconti Hamburg, Galerie Wassermühle Trittau and Gastgarten Kunstverein Hamburg, among others.

Registration for this event is not necessary.

Work by Clara Schmidt as part of the Annual Exhibition 2025; photo: Tim Albrecht

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View into the auditorium of HFBK Hamburg; photo: Lukes Engelhardt

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Opening of the Graduate Show 2025; photo: Sinje Hasheider

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Maria Ignatenko, false movements, 2024, work in progress; Filmstill

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The cinema in the new film house, Finkenau 42; photo: Tim Albrecht

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Many people stand in front of a wall with portrait photographs

Work by Atu Gelovani at the opening of the Annual Exhibition 2025 at HFBK Hamburg; photo: Lukes Engelhardt

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A sculpture of a small elephant that functions as a climbing frame in a park in Hamburg

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Exhibition view on the occasion of Hiscox Art Prize 2024; photo: Tim Albrecht

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The cinema in the new film house, Finkenau 42; photo: Tim Albrecht

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"The New Woman - How Female Artists and Designers shaped the Image of Modernism", graphic by Liudmila Savelyeva, Karla Krey, Amira Mostafa (Klasse Digitale Grafik)

The New Woman

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Detail: Installation by Mark Morris; photo: Tim Albrecht

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Julia Scher, Territorium, 2024, installationview at ICAT of HFBK Hamburg; photo: Tim Albrecht

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Sharon Poliakine, Untitled, 2023, oil on canvas, detail

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Work by Franziska Koepsel at Annual Exhibition 2024; photo: Lukes Engelhardt

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photo: Tim Albrecht

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photo: Miriam Schmidt / HFBK

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A disguised man with sunglasses holds a star-shaped sign for the camera. It says "Suckle". The picture is taken in black and white.

photo: Honey-Suckle Company

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Amna Elhassan, Tea Lady, oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm

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Merlin Reichert, Die Alltäglichkeit des Untergangs, Installation in der Galerie der HFBK; photo: Tim Albrecht

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Grafik: Nele Willert, Dennise Salinas

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Renée Green. ED/HF, 2017. Film still. Courtesy of the artist, Free Agent Media, Bortolami Gallery, New York, and Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin/Cologne/Munich.

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Amanda F. Koch-Nielsen, Motherslugger; photo: Lukas Engelhardt

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New studio in the row of houses at Lerchenfeld, in the background the building of Fritz Schumacher; photo: Tim Albrecht

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Martha Szymkowiak / Emilia Bongilaj, Installation “Mmh”; photo: Tim Albrecht

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Annette Wehrmann, photography from the series Blumensprengungen, 1991-95; photo: Ort des Gegen e.V., VG-Bild Kunst Bonn

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23 Fragen des Institutional Questionaire, grafisch umgesetzt von Ran Altamirano auf den Türgläsern der HFBK Hamburg zur Jahresausstellung 2021; photo: Charlotte Spiegelfeld

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ASA Open Studio 2019, Karolinenstraße 2a, Haus 5; photo: Matthew Muir

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Studiengruppe Prof. Dr. Anja Steidinger, Was animiert uns?, 2021, Mediathek der HFBK Hamburg, Filmstill

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Ausstellungsansicht "Schule der Folgenlosigkeit. Übungen für ein anderes Leben" im Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg; photo: Maximilian Schwarzmann

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Katja Pilipenko

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Alltagsrealität oder Klischee?; photo: Tim Albrecht

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Ausstellung Social Design, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Teilansicht; photo: MKG Hamburg

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