Our Visit To The National Videogame Museum In Sheffield - September 2022 - The History Of Gaming
5Welcome to a short film of my trip to the National Videogame Museum in Sheffield in September 2022 with my other half and 4 year old son, another fantastic day out for the whole family!
- About The Museum -
The world’s first cultural centre dedicated to videogames opened its doors in Nottingham in 2015. Within 3 years of opening, the National Videogame Arcade had welcomed 100,000 visitors, won two TripAdvisor Awards, staged four original exhibitions and kicked off a games music festival. The NVA was born our of the GameCity festival, one of the largest games culture festivals in Europe.
We created Pixelheads, an education programme for young people to talk about what games mean and how they are made. We were recognised by Arts Council of England, Creative England, Creative Scotland, UK Young Artists, the British Library and many others as a leading proponent of videogame culture. We host games talks, conferences and events about games culture, production, education and diversity.
Meanwhile, Rick Gibson and Ian Livingstone CBE launched a plan in 2017 for a new agency for games culture, heritage and education called the BGI, which quickly won support from over 550 games, arts, education and finance organisations.
The BGI campaign announced plans to merge with the National Videogame Arcade in mid-2018, becoming a charity in April 2019. The charity now operates the NVM and runs culture, educational and vocational programmes focused on encouraging people from every background, especially under-represented and disadvantaged communities.
In November 2018, we moved the National Videogame Arcade to Sheffield, renaming it the National Videogame Museum.
The NVM is currently in the process of full museum accreditation.
In January 2020 the charity the BGI acquired the National Videogame Museum, its Collection, staff and assets from the National Videogame Foundation.
The charity launched the Videogame Heritage Society to share its unique expertise in games perservation and interpretation with over 140 members including 20 museums and many individual collectors.
In March 2020, the NVM closed to the public because of the Coronavirus crisis.
An amazing crowdfunding campaign ran for 3 months and helped the charity navigate a 90% loss of income. The NVM then received support from the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund as well as the awesome Jingle Jam.
We reopened in August 2020 with a fully Covid-secure experience, including substantial reductions in capacity to respect social distancing. We wouldn’t have been able to reopen at this time if it wasn’t for the support of hundreds of generous donors, many of them from the UK games industry, to whom we will be eternally grateful.
In mid-October 2020, the NVM won the Best Website Activity award at the National Kids In Museums Awards.
In late October 2020 the Museum had to close again, in light of a second and third National lockdown.
The Museum announced its second reopening date as May 21st 2021.
Trying to operate a Museum during the pandemic is extremely challenging. The Museum is not out of the woods but we remain optimistic in finding new institutional support for our unique work.
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Check out the national Videogame Museum website here:
https://thenvm.org/
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Whilst you're here check out my other videos!
Check out the Padge Plays Ultimate Playlist here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkLG67k4e7kfilvf8XbNHiLBUlFOoc7Ga
Curious Expedition 2 Alpha & Beyond Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkLG67k4e7keblRhFfovqwbYUu-1ygTPb
Let's Play Tempest - A Pirate Action RPG:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkLG67k4e7kfjZUZS_y5Mc8IA4NMOTgyX
#NVM #RetroArcade #RetroGaming #Museum