★★★★★ 5.0
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Nxt Museum
2,100 square meters of former TV studio space was transformed into the Netherlands' first new media art museum in just four months during COVID lockdown. You're standing in what locals used to call "Siberia on the wrong side of the IJ" - but this spot on Asterweg has become the beating heart of Amsterdam Noord's creative revolution! Here's what most visitors miss: those steel beams above your head aren't just for show. This former television studio required six separate power supplies and reinforced floors just to handle the massive digital installations inside. When young entrepreneur Merel van Helsdingen opened Nxt Museum on August 29, 2020, she did it without a single cent of government funding - just a Rabobank loan and some brave private investors. As you step through that entrance, you're walking from what was once considered Amsterdam's forgotten district into a 1,400-square-meter playground where artists, scientists, and technologists collaborate on mind-bending experiences. The largest space inside, Nxt Stage, spans 320 square meters and doubles as a rental venue for fashion shows - because apparently immersive light installations pay the bills between art exhibitions. Look across the street - that's André Volten's former sculpture studio, and next door sits the Eye Film Museum's collection center. This entire stretch of Asterweg has quietly become Amsterdam's most experimental cultural corridor, where the future of art gets tested daily.
Did You Know?
- Nxt Museum is the first museum in the Netherlands dedicated exclusively to New Media Art, opening on August 29, 2020, and pioneering immersive, multi-sensory exhibitions that combine art, technology, and science—inviting visitors to physically and emotionally interact with large-scale digital installations in a way rarely seen in traditional museums.
- The museum is housed in a repurposed former TV studio in Amsterdam Noord, a district once nicknamed 'Siberia' for its industrial isolation, now transformed into a creative hub; the building’s high ceilings, reinforced floors, and six separate power supplies make it uniquely suited for heavy, tech-driven art installations—far from the classic 'white cube' gallery, it’s a theatrical 'black box' designed for maximum audiovisual impact.
- Nxt Museum not only exhibits digital art but also produces new works through its Nxt Lab residency, fostering collaborations between artists, designers, technologists, and scientists from around the world; this approach makes it a living lab for innovation, where visitors might witness the creation of cutting-edge art in real time, and the museum’s largest space, the Nxt Stage, doubles as a venue for product launches and fashion shows, reflecting its dynamic, cross-industry role in Amsterdam’s cultural scene.