The Strong Museum has received a $700,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, funds it plans to bring an exhibit on the influence of video games have had on cultural history to life.
That exhibit, tentatively titled Digital Worlds, is planned as a 24,000-foot interactive exhibit that explores how people connect, play, and learn through games and how developers merge the humanities, art, and STEM fields to create those experiences. Current plans see the exhibit debuting in 2022.
“Video games are perhaps the most important medium of the 21st century,” reads a statement from The Strong’s VP for exhibits Jon-Paul Dyson. “Just as the novel fueled imagination in the 19th century and film and television defined the cultural narratives of the 20th century, electronic games today are rapidly driving cultural and social change. We look forward—with the help of NEH—to continue to tell that important story to visitors from around the world.”
The Strong Museum has long showcased the history of video games and their creators through exhibits and expansive collections of historic game development artifacts, thanks in no small part to donations of development materials and historic finds from influential developers surrounding games like The Sims, Oregon Trail, and many, many more.
