Christian van Houwelingen (31) is the winner of the Museum Talent Award 2025. The award ceremony took place during the Museum Congress on October 9, 2025. What sets Christian apart is his ability to combine a stable and necessary role in digitizing the collection of the National Education Museum with his research function. Through research, he is able to initiate and execute creative projects with the limited resources he has.
Jurys Verdict
The jury is impressed by the 17 outstanding professionals who have been nominated for the 2025 edition of the Museum Talent Award. The jury is impressed by how Christian can achieve a lot with limited resources. He is an important stable factor in the Education Museum regarding the digitization of the collection and catching up on a backlog in this area. It is remarkable how he manages to combine this role with many other substantive activities that all contribute to the mission of the Education Museum to make heritage accessible to a broad audience. In addition to his regular work, he initiated the proof-of-concept website https://www.verscholenopdekaart.nl where over 4000 postcards of historical school buildings from all over the Netherlands can be viewed, linked to geo-coordinates on an interactive map. He also developed an education-related podcast that he records and edits himself, created a VR tour, and gives lectures across the country. Additionally, Christian is involved in an NWO research project on the school plate series Palestine in Word and Image and created the exhibition Jetses. Art for the Classroom.
Finalists
There were also two other amazing finalists, Lisse de Bie and Nychenda Fecunda.
Lisse de Bie (29) is a highly engaged employee of the Participation & Education department of the Groninger Museum. After her studies in art history, she took a shortened teacher training course (PABO). In the museum, Lisse is a project employee, including for the two editions of the Childrens Biennale. Additionally, Lisse coordinates the Groninger Museum Tour, is an active participant in the international network Hands on! and is a speaker at international conferences in Cyprus and Liverpool.
Nychenda Fecunda (28) worked at the Van Abbemuseum as Assistant Curator and as Research & Editorial Assistant at De Correspondent, after which she came to work at the Wereldmuseum Rotterdam. There, she has been passionately and dedicatedly developing innovative public programs that make the museum more accessible to young and diverse audiences for three years. She does this in her role as a program maker, host, moderator, and MC.
About the Museum Talent Award
The Museum Talent Award was established by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) to stimulate rejuvenation and innovation in the heritage sector. This encouragement award aims to highlight young talent in the museum sector and provide opportunities for development. It specifically targets young professionals (up to 32 years old) who are employed in one of the (museum) collections in the Netherlands. Visit the Museum Talent Award page for more information about this award for young heritage professionals.
