The Original Videogame Museum in California Will be Moving to New Home
By David Cox
Oakland, California – October 5, 2015 – The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (The MADE) is gearing up to move into its new home. This non-profit videogame museum is nearing the end of its Kickstarter campaign for $50,000, all of which will be used to move the facility into a larger, more accessible space.
The MADE was one of the original Kickstarter success stories, originally raising $20,000 on the site in 2011. Those funds were used to open America’s first dedicated, all-playable, open to the public videogame museum focusing on home and console games.
Now 4 years old, the MADE has outgrown its current location and is seeking to move into a space double its current size, elsewhere in Oakland. The all-volunteer museum is aiming to raise $50,000, which will fund the renovation and move in for a new location.
“We’ve done a lot of great work here, behind City Hall in Oakland, but it’s time to expand in every way,” said Alex Handy, founder and director of the MADE. “Our tournaments are standing room only and our collection grows every single weekend through new donations. We’re excited about the prospect of showing everything off in a better suited location.”
The MADE aims to preserve the history of videogames through playable exhibits and free programming classes. In its four year history, the museum has trained over 400 students in skills ranging from Scratch, C and Android development, to Photoshop, Unity, Presonus and ProTools.
Henry Lowood, Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections at Stanford University Libraries and founding member of The MADE’s board of directors, said that “Digital games without a doubt have become one of the central creative media available for entertainment, art and other forms of expression. So much so that contemporary cultural history is difficult to talk about without including digital games. As a result, not only will the history of this medium be lost if we do not preserve the history of digital games, but there is more at stake: we will be unable to provide a complete cultural history of our times.”
To this end, in its four year history, the MADE has worked to preserve and relaunch Habitat, the first graphical MMO for the Commodore 64, the long lost GamePro 1996 TV show, and has worked with the EFF to change copyright law around the preservation of old videogames.
The MADE’s Kickstarter is online at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/themade/the-museum-of-art-and-digit…
About The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (MADE)
Founded in 2010, The MADE is an all volunteer organization created by Alex Handy, a video game journalist and technology archaeologist based in Oakland, California. In 2008 Mr. Handy unearthed a 25-year-old parcel of long lost Atari 2600 and Colecovision games at a flea market in that city, spurring his creation of the Museum. The MADE is an IRS recognized 501c(3) not-for-profit organization. It’s EIN number is 26-4570976 . The MADE raised its initial $20,000 on crowd-funding site Kickstarter.com, and has used those funds to pay for rent, Internet and insurance at its facilities in downtown Oakland. That facility opened in October of 2011. Since that time, the MADE has released many lost videos from the industry, worked with the EFF on copyright law, and started an effort to relaunch Habitat, the first graphical MMO. The MADE is 100% volunteer operated.
The MADE is open weekends from noon to 6 PM. Admission is free. More info is online at https://themade.org/posts/1385
The MADE
610 16th St.
Suite 230 (Second floor)
Oakland, CA 94612
Dial #0230 to be buzzed in
510-210-0291
Contacts:
Alex Handy
Director, The MADE
510-282-4840
The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (The MADE)