Nicoline Dorsman studied at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and has a degree in Art History and Archaeology and Dutch Literature. She worked in several musea as a curator and researcher, amongst which the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and van Abbemuseum Eindhoven.
Since 2005 she is head of Department Forum at Design Academy Eindhoven. This department focuses on the social and cultural context of design and students learn to practice their profession with a comprehension of research and reflection.
In 2009 she tutored a workshop in which a group of international students explored the themes of Craftmanship and Design in Istanbul. After that she connected each following year Dutch students from Design Academy Eindhoven with Turkish students form different universities like Mimar Sinan Fin Arts University, Kadir Has University ITU and Bahçeşehir University. Students worked together on mapping different districts and reflected on questions like; ‘ what is the role of a designer in a globalized world ’. These projects resulted in exhibitions, documentaries and publications; during the first Istanbul Design Biennale there was an exhibition of the results on the workshop of imperfection at Kadir Has University. In 2014 the workshop ‘Near and Far: A temporary Museum for Craft Cultures’ took place. Places and stories illustrating craft at this moment in Istanbul were mapped with the aim to re-imagine the socio-cultural values and possibilities of traditional materials and techniques to safeguard cultural heritage. The results were exhibited as part of the IN.FORMAL Academy project during the 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial.