This presentation reveals the secrets of how games find their way into museums, galleries, and other cultural venues as well as what happens when they get there. The panel includes our mechanisms for bringing games into museum spaces: building relationships between game communities and museums, finding the links between museum collections and independent games, putting games and game-inspired works through the curatorial process, and using playful interfaces as a way to appreciate museum collections. It also presents stories of what happens when games enter the art world and vice versa: the often-surprised reactions of traditional museum audiences to video games, the ways that games might be used to introduce the fine arts, and the role museums have in this dialog. On the panel are 2 experienced professionals who bring games and digital technologies together in museum spaces: a curator finding the ways that games inspire artists and a game designer who sees the museum as a way to bring audiences and game designers together. From these different perspectives, we offer a variety of strategies for bringing games and cultural spaces together. One key mechanism selecting games and artworks that create dialog, emphasizing aesthetic similarities such that a collection of games and artwork tells a coherent “story” as a visitor sees them. Another is making the connections between these works apparent through how they are arranged near one another and how digital and informational resources in the space (screens, signage, etc.) make these connections apparent. Others include using popular commercial games to attract diverse (in terms of age, race, identity, etc.) audiences and finding ways to enrich their experiences through opportunities to meet artists, learn how games are made, and find the connections between art and their favorite games. While we present these mechanisms, we also present “tales from the trenches” from past exhibitions, installations, and events. We also present our thoughts on where the relationship between games, digital media, and museums will go in the future, now that more museums are including games in their exhibitions. Lastly, we show how museums can be resources for local game communities both in displaying work and helping game developers find audiences. For professional audiences, this panel presents ways that they can start conversations between cultural institutions and game communities. For game enthusiasts, this offers insight into how games and art are connected and a look at what it means for games to be appreciated as art.
