San Francisco's newest museum funded through Kickstarter

Photo by Alex Handy

Thanks to over $20,000 in pledges through Kickstarter, plans are moving forward for San Francisco's first museum dedicated to the history of video games and digital art.

The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (MADE) used Kickstarter to raise enough money to rent a space in order to curate a collection of videogames and related materials. In a city full of game geeks, I can't imagine a more deserving kickstarter to fund.

The MADE is the brainchild of video game enthusiast and writer, Alex Handy. I spoke to Alex about his inspiration for building this museum. He says, "In 2008, I found a parcel of hand identified EPROMS at the flea market in Oakland that had handwritten labels on them. I got them for about $27 and discovered they were 12 revisions of a game called Cabbage Patch Kids for Atari 2600. The game had never been released and I wondered what would happen to this stuff when I was gone."

With his desire to preserve this never before seen game and help elevate the status of video games as something more than just a past time -- but as a deserving member of history -- the idea for the MADE was launched.

A registered non-profit, the MADE seeks to educate visitors on the process of how art is created. All the games will be playable -- including the 12 revisions of the Cabbage Patch Kids game that sparked it all.

The MADE looks to open its doors before the end of the year. They're looking to secure a large space at 3rd and Market and still need your help to make that happen. If you're interested in contributing, please visit http://www.themade.org

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