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UK's National Videogame Museum lands $522k grant

UK's National Videogame Museum lands $522k grant

The UK National Videogame Museum (NVM) has scored a £400,000 ($522k) grant to help it weather the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

In a post on the British Games Institute (BGI)'s – which helps run the NVM – website, the organisation received the financial assistance from Arts Council of England's Culture Recovery Fund. This money will allow it to continue operating until the spring of 2021.

NVM is just one organisation that has received such support, with the Recovery Fund giving out over £250m ($326.6m) to venues, theatres, museums and other cultural organisations.

“We were delighted to hear this news and would like to express our sincere gratitude to Arts Council, DCMS and the Culture Secretary for supporting the cultural sector during its hour of need," said BGI chair Ian Livingstone CBE (pictured).

"The generous funding for the nation’s cultural organisations including the UK’s only museum dedicated to video games is very much appreciated. It was a great relief to learn that our educational and cultural programmes will be able to continue in Sheffield for the foreseeable future. Our mission is to preserve, celebrate and promote video games culture for years to come in this exceptional and unique museum”.

BGI CEO Rick Gibson added: “This is a huge moment for our young charity. We’ve fought hard to keep going and have been astonished by the generosity of our community and the games industry in our darkest hours at the start of the first lockdown. As the second lockdown looms, our backs were against the wall so I want to thank the Arts Council and DCMS for this timely intervention. But most importantly I want to recognise our staff whose commitment, expertise and passion for our important art form has been recognised as culturally important on a national scale.”

Earlier this year, the NVM opened a Just Giving page in order to raise funds to stave off closure.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.