For 15 years, the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (The MADE) has been a home for people who love games, make games, and believe play matters.

Founded in Oakland in 2011, the MADE is one of the rare museums where visitors don't just look at video game history. They get to play it.

We've welcomed more than 78,000 visitors, admissions, and students since we began tracking attendance in 2016. We've taught thousands of young people about games, programming, and digital art through free classes, and helped preserve important pieces of gaming history so future generations can experience them firsthand.

None of this would have been possible without the volunteers, educators, developers, donors, and community members who have kept the MADE alive.

Now, we're building its next chapter.

Oakland's Home for Playable Culture

We believe games are more than entertainment. They're a way to learn, create, experiment, tell stories, and connect with one another.

We're building on the MADE's history to create a more welcoming, ambitious, and active cultural space where preservation meets participation.

A place where you can play a game from 1982, discover an experimental game made by a local artist, learn to make your first game, or meet people who share your curiosity about art, technology, and play.

And a place where you don't have to already think of yourself as a gamer to belong.

We're expanding this vision through:

Playable preservation: Caring for and exhibiting gaming history so people can continue to experience it firsthand.
Free creative technology education for youth: Giving Oakland youth opportunities to learn game development, programming, digital art, and creative problem-solving.
Contemporary indie game exhibitions: Creating opportunities for independent developers to share their work with new audiences.
Experimental art and technology: Bringing playable installations, unconventional controllers, interactive art, and emerging creative practices into the museum.
Community programming: Building more opportunities for artists, developers, researchers, musicians, tinkerers, and curious neighbors to meet, collaborate, and play.
Workshops for all ages: Expanding pathways into creative technology and game-making beyond our existing youth programs.

We strive to support and curate projects with genuine civic impact in the Oakland area. Minecraft 980, a project recreating Oakland in Minecraft, encourages participants to imagine and build changes to the infrastructure.

Why We Need Your Support

The MADE has survived for 15 years through extraordinary community commitment. But passion alone cannot sustain a public cultural institution.

We need more stable resources to care for our collection, support our educators and staff, improve the museum experience, and build programming that can grow with Oakland.

We're raising $100,000 to strengthen the MADE's foundation and help make this next chapter possible.

Your donation supports:

Preservation and exhibitions

Better care, presentation, interpretation, and access to our collection, alongside new rotating exhibitions celebrating contemporary games and interactive playful art.

Free and accessible education

Continuing our free Saturday classes for Oakland youth, improving classroom materials, and developing more opportunities for students and lifelong learners.

Artists and community

Supporting workshops, developer showcases, experimental play nights, and public gatherings that make the MADE a living space for creative culture.

A more sustainable museum

Supporting the staff, infrastructure, and everyday operations needed to keep the MADE welcoming, functional, and accessible.

Fifteen Years of Impact

Since opening in 2011, the MADE has:

Welcomed more than 78,000 visitors, admissions, and students since attendance tracking began in 2016.
Provided thousands of students with free creative technology education.
Helped pioneer the preservation of playable online game history through the NeoHabitat project.
Supported generations of independent game developers and creative communities in Oakland.
Worked with local schools, educators, artists, and cultural institutions to expand access to games and technology.

Our work has always been rooted in a simple belief: games are an important part of our cultural history, and everyone deserves the opportunity to experience, understand, and create them.

Help Us Build What's Next

Whether you grew up playing games, made your first game at the MADE, brought your child to a Saturday class, or simply believe Oakland deserves more spaces for creativity and connection, we invite you to be part of what comes next.

Help us preserve where games have been, and expand who gets to shape where they go.

Donate today, share this campaign, or come visit us in Old Oakland.

Thank you for helping keep playable culture alive.

With love,

The MADE Team

The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment - Build the Future of Playable Culture

Help Create the Future of Playable Culture