Video Game Preservation Museum —The MADE — Announces Start of 2-year Fundraising Campaign for a New Home
The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment, also known as the MADE, has officially shut down its Oakland museum space and moved its collection into storage. The museum staff plans to raise funds for, plan, and design this new space over the next two years.
Today, the Museum begins this lengthy process with the relaunch of its Website and the commencement of the fundraising campaign, aimed at raising between $500,000 and $2 million for the museum’s next, hopefully permanent, location. Fundraising efforts are focused on https://themade.org/donate/ where contributions can be made to this 501c3 non-profit museum.
In March 2020, the museum closed temporarily in light of the COVID-19 crisis and has remained closed since then due to county health mandates. In August 2020, the museum was unable to come to an agreement with the landlord of the 3400 Broadway space and subsequently had to move.
The museum has been in its current location since 2015 and has amassed a collection of over 12,000 video games, home consoles, and memorabilia. This collection is being held in a storage space for an expected time of two years, during which time the MADE will raise funds in order to preserve the current collection and open up a new location.
“As the MADE has, up to now, been funded almost entirely through admission and memberships, it has been a blow to us to have to shut down for such an extended period,” said museum founder Alex Handy in a letter to current members. “We will absolutely return to normal operations, somewhere, sometime, but for now, we must batten down the hatches.”
Since announcing the move, the MADE has received support from its existing community as well as sympathetic video game fans from around the world. The museum is also looking to partner with corporate sponsors and video game studios in order to move into a new space more quickly.
While in storage, the MADE intends to implement a variety of programming, including home rentals, partnerships with local libraries, and online exhibitions and classes.
About The MADE
The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment is the world’s largest all-playable video game museum. Since 2010, the organization has been dedicated to the preservation of video game history, and to educating the public on how video games are created. The MADE works with community members in Oakland and beyond in order to inspire the next generation of game developers.
