The Bar Pays the Rent: Mark Kleback on Seven Years of Wonderville
Mark Kleback's arcade is free to play because the bar next to it pays the rent. He explains what it took to build the community before the room ever existed.
My experience comes from twenty years in games as a consultant, marketer, and journalist.
From writing for the Wall Street Journal to advising MoMA’s permanent collection to launching one of the first game-based arts spaces in the world.
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Here's what organizations struggle with
Artists and cultural organizations are sitting on incredible potential for games that they struggle to unlock. For artists, it's about getting space to focus on the parts of your work that matter, not getting hung up on marketing and promotion. For institutions, it's capturing gaming can unlock in ways traditional programming can't.
The challenge isn't vision (you have plenty of that), it's navigating the creative decisions that turn ambitious ideas into sustainable work.
I help bridge that gap.
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Insights
Canyon Is Building a Gallery That Feels Like a Living Room [Podcast]
Cass Fino-Radin on building a gallery that feels like a living room, why the barrier to games in museums is human and not technical, and who pays for year ten.
Forever Into Infinity: Cass Fino-Radin on the Software Museums Cannot Maintain
Museums keep acquiring software they cannot maintain. Cass Fino-Radin on what year ten of a collected artwork really costs, and who is not paying for it.
The Room Is the Controller: Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley on Designing Games for Galleries
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley on what actually transfers when a game leaves the screen and enters a gallery: arcade cabinets, custom controllers, and designing for the visitor who says “I don't play games.”
Patrick Moran on Game On, Virtual Realms, and the Barbican's 25 Years of Game-Based Programming
I speak with Patrick Moran, Head of Commercial Strategy & Partnerships at Barbican Immersive, about one of the longest-running and most influential examples of game-based programming in a cultural institution
Inside the 15-Year Experiment That Quietly Built a Game-Based Arts Program at SFMOMA
Erica Gangsei spent 15 years building Play SFMOMA into one of the most coherent game-based arts programs inside any major US cultural institution.