The Art of Video Games

Video games are coming to the Smithsonian.

In a major coup for those of us who believe video games qualify as art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum will be hosting a six-month exhibition about the history, evolution, and art of video games right here in Washington, DC.

The display will account for 40 years of video gaming history, with a special focus on artistic evolution across several generations, systems, and genres. Games on display will be ordered chronologically. They include classics like Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Earthworm Jim, Final Fantasy VII, and Portal. In total, the exhibit will feature 80 games, all of which were chosen by online voting last year. A list of winners can be found here.


Most of the games will be presented through still images and video footage, but luckily for the audience, five games will be available to play in the museum. The playable games are: Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst, and Flower. Each title represents a particular era of video games, and each highlights "innovative techniques that set the standard for many subsequent games."

But the exhibit is only part of this celebration of video games. From March 16-18, the museum will sponsor a three-day festival to kick off the exhibition. It's called GameFest, and it will feature talks by video game pioneers, panel discussions with designers and artists, movie screenings, etc.

"The Art of Video Games" will show at the Smithsonian from March 16-September 30, 2012. Don't fret, though, if you're not within driving distance of Washington, DC. After September the exhibit goes on the road. Future venues include:

Boca Raton Museum of Art (October 24, 2012–January 20, 2013)
EMP Museum in Seattle (February 16, 2013–May 13, 2013)
Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, NY (February 15, 2014–May 18, 2014)
Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio (June 19, 2014–September 28, 2014)
Flint Institute of Arts in Flint, Michigan (October 25, 2014–January 18, 2015)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, Tennessee (June 6, 2015–September 13, 2015)