Merel van Helsdingen (NL)

Merel van Helsdingen founded Nxt Museum in 2020 as the first museum dedicated to new media art in The Netherlands bringing together her passion for Art, Technology & Music. She is on a mission to constantly push the boundaries of what a museum can be by bridging the gap between the digital & physical world as well as offering a space for research, education, experiment and creation. She has been actively promoting digital artists and Web 3 since the early NFT days as well as collected NFTs since 2020.

Previously, she worked at Apple, Bartle Bogle & Hegarty and PVH on digital marketing strategy, business development and cultural partnerships with music and entertainment companies such as Rovio, Disney, YouTube and Universal Music in London and Amsterdam. Merel’s background in new media, film and music, combined with her entrepreneurial flair, inspired the idea for Nxt Museum in 2018. Over the last four years, Merel has built the museum from scratch, leading the project from the concept to branding, fundraising and artist liaison, with the support of her co-founder Natasha Greenhalgh and network of advisors.

Merel is active in the Dutch cultural scene as part of the advisory board of several digital and cultural initiatives in The Netherlands: Digital Arts Festival Schemerlicht and Interactive theatre company Stichting Door.