
The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment, or MADE, is a new museum in Oakland focused on video games. This is a subject well suited to collection and exhibition - countless individuals collect video games, whether the games of their youth, from before they were born, or brand new, and even more people play them. Collected like any other vintage collectable, video games and consoles have the added benefit of having been designed for play. This is a museum in which the bulk of its holdings are ready to be played, versus a place of precious objects in vitrines. The MADE tries to please both the intense obscurity-loving fan boy and the casual gamer, and the time I visited the atmosphere was very focused on a mix of reminiscing and having fun.
Having raised substantial start up money via a successful Kickstarter and initially slated to be in San Francisco, it has come to life in Oakland in an unassuming office in a nondescript building. It is a large white room with rows of tables each topped with monitors and some manner of video game console (Atari, Dreamcast, Super Nintendo etc.) and computers for PC gaming. They hold classes for kids, and weekly events like a night for ‘fighting games’ (Street Fighter and the like). Their first official exhibition opens this weekend and is centered on the history of 3D in video games. It will be interesting to see this place develop going forward, the people running it are full of energy and are excited about their project; providing access to their collection in a very free and hands-on manner which formal museums could learn a thing or two from.
The MADE is at 610 16th St. Suite 230, Oakland, CA 94612
For more info, go to http://themade.org/
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Posted by Aaron Harbour