Milena Mulders

Milena Mulders is a creative producer, writer, and curator based in the Netherlands. Drawing on her own migration history and background in journalism and heritage, she develops projects at the intersection of migration, memory, and social change.

Born in Brunssum in 1975, she has since 2013 initiated and realized cultural projects as a driving force behind the scenes, collaborating with cultural practitioners, artists, museums, people with lived experience, and local communities. She has worked for Imagine IC and Framer Framed, and served as coordinator of ONfile, a network of refugee journalists, writers, and filmmakers.

Milena initiated the Migration Museum Heerlen (2018 to 2019) and MigrationLab at the Limburgs Museum (2021 to 2022). In 2020, together with migration historian Hanneke Verbeek, she launched Tussenlanding (Stopover), a tangible reminder of temporariness. Within it she worked with artist Karen G., people with lived experience, and other stakeholders to ask whether the scale model of the Klompjan asylum seekers’ centre in Markelo should be regarded as cultural heritage and preserved. The project travelled to seven temporary reception centres across the Netherlands, each visit accompanied by public conversations and community gatherings.

In 2024 the scale model entered the collection of the Rijksmuseum as a significant piece of Dutch cultural heritage. Milena’s projects have been nominated for the Over Hoop Prize, the Hub Cobben Prize, and the Ambassade Voor Verdraagzaamheid Prize. In 2025 she was named one of the Changemakers of 2025 by the VSBfonds.