30 Oct 2014
National videogame museum coming to UK in 2015
BY Tom Anstey
Plans have been announced to open the UK’s first dedicated national museum dedicated to the art of videogames.
The National Videogame Arcade in Nottingham will become “a hub for videogame culture,” according to developers Game City.
The 20,000 item-strong collection, spanning videogame history, will be set across five floors and will cover 33,000sq ft (3,066sq m). The museum will have four galleries, which will exhibit themed quarterly exhibitions featuring new and specially-commissioned works. It will also include an entire floor dedicated to education, where students of all ages can get hands-on experience of game-making and games testing.
The £2.5m (US$4m, €3.1m) project, due to open in March 2015, is being built in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University and the Science Museum, with the aim to create a centre for games similar to how the British Film Institute works for movies.
“For the first time ever, a civic, cultural and academic space will be dedicated to the public's relationship with videogames," said GameCity director Iain Simons.
"We believe that games should be played by everyone and that games should be made by everyone. Our accessible city-centre location is a crucial expression of that aspiration."
Ian Livingstone CBE, Game City Advisor, added: “Videogames have an important role to play in our economy, our education policies and our cultural lives – so whilst it’s taken a long time to arrive, I can’t wait to visit the first ever National Videogame Arcade.”
Videogames are now starting to gain more and more mainstream recognition as things of cultural importance. Plans were recently approved for a first-of-its-kind in the US videogame history museum, coming to Frisco, Texas. Videogame fans have meanwhile taken matters into their own hands with a virtual museum dedicated to videogames available for free download on Oculus Rift – a virtual reality headset for 3D gaming.
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