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Sheffield, 1200 28/04/22: The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded a significant grant to the BGI to redesign the National Videogame Museum’s Visitor Experience in close collaboration with local communities.

The Level Up project will conduct a significant redesign of the Museum, which will be co-designed with under-represented communities in Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley and Chesterfield. The Museum will launch pop up exhibitions in these communities and use videogames’ unique accessibility to improve cultural and educational opportunities for new as well as existing audiences. In parallel, the Museum will start a project to improve the accessibility of its Collection for all audiences.

This project builds upon a Cultural Recovery Fund Grant from Arts Council England which enabled the BGI not only to survive the pandemic but also to conduct a comprehensive audience survey. This found that visitors gave the Museum a remarkable 95% visitor satisfaction rate but also that there are some local communities under-represented amongst its current visitors.

Aligned closely with the charity’s new  ‘Transforming lives with games’ strategy which focuses on inclusivity and diversity, this project will develop a bold new visitor experience with the help of consultants in close collaboration with its local community in South Yorkshire. The charity will shortly announce an open tender for the redesign contract as well as multiple roles to deliver the project.

John O’Shea, Creative Director, said “Through Level Up, our expertise in videogames will combine with the unique power of gaming to reach into our local communities and create opportunities for new cultural engagement, especially through the NVM Collection.”

BGI’s outgoing CEO Rick Gibson said “We’re so proud that Heritage Fund has awarded us this project, which is a significant milestone for our organisation as we develop a new, ambitious and inclusive proposition. Our work with under-represented communities is important to us and I can’t wait to see the result of these collaborations”.

The BGI is recruiting for a new CEO: https://thebgi.uk/recruitment/

(ENDS)

Notes to Editors

Interviews

If you would like to interview BGI trustees or staff, please contact Chris Bromley on chris@thebgi.uk.

About the BGI

The BGI is a national voice for videogame culture, heritage and education which empowers people from all backgrounds, especially women, BAME, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and from disadvantaged backgrounds, to:

• Play through accessible and creative experiences that engage and inspire
• Collaborate through inclusive communities, research, discussions and teamwork
• Learn through informal, formal and vocational learning

Our charity celebrates and interrogates games culture for everyone through the National Videogame Museum, our Collection, our research into games preservation and our festivals such as GameCity. We run award-winning formal and informal learning programmes such as Pixelheads in person and online for schools and families. We run vocational courses and the Games Education Summit and we co-founded and organise the Games Careers Week Festival for young people, their parents and educators. For more details about the BGI’s mission and programmes, please visit: http://www.thebgi.uk/

About the National Videogame Museum

The NVM celebrates videogame culture and allows the public to play most of its exhibits, which include nearly 100 games consoles, arcade machines and other interactive experiences, including games designed exclusively for the Museum. The Museum holds one of the UK’s largest collections of nearly 5,000 videogame objects, including arcade machines, technology, game memorabilia and ephemera. Formerly the National Videogame Arcade in Nottingham, the Museum has welcomed over 200,000 visitors, including hundreds of school visits, since it opened in 2016. The Museum presents a mixture of permanent and temporary exhibitions both in person and online. For more details about the NVM, please visit: http://www.thenvm.org. A press pack including images and video of the NVM is available here.

 

The charity is seeking 3 new trustees to help govern the charity through its next stage of growth.

The BGI is a national voice for videogame culture, heritage and education which empowers people from all backgrounds.

We inspire everyone to play, collaborate and learn through our unique National Videogame Museum, our Collection, our multi award-winning learning programmes and our groundbreaking new vocational programmes.

We make our work accessible and inclusive to everyone, including people from disadvantaged communities, women, LGBTQI+, people of colour, people with disabilities, people of faith and older people.

By sharing stories how videogames can change people’s lives, we will inspire the public and uncover new opportunities, no matter their background.

We’re a young but rapidly growing charity that is committed to creating
a diverse and flexible working environment. We’re seeking candidates
from all backgrounds who demonstrate a desire to progress our social
mission.

The requirements for the new trustee roles are as follows:

All candidates: to distil complex information; offer pragmatic advice; collaborate and communicate effectively; foster relationships and build support for the charity; inspire trust and confidence through ambassadorial and influencing skills.

Finance: Oversee the charity’s financial affairs; monitor its financial health; ensure robust financial processes; oversee annual audits; and join our finance sub-committee.

Legal/Governance: Oversee matters of governance and ensure all relevant
governance policies and processes are set up and maintained; and to join our Governance sub-committee.

HR: Oversee personnel best practice and ensure all relevant human
resource policies and processes are set up and maintained.

Candidates from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply by downloading this Trustee pack.

 

 

The Games Education Summit will convene studios and educators to discuss how we can bring through the next generation of games professionals – and support them on their career journeys.

Thursday Mar 17th 2022: The UK games industry is facing a major talent shortage, with Ukie recently reporting that some 2,000 roles need to be filled.

So where will the UK’s games studios find that talent, now and in the future?

Educators at Further and Higher Education levels clearly have an important role to play in helping maintain a flow of well-trained games talent into entry level jobs and over 7,000 videogames degree students are expected to graduate in 2022.

But how are studios, universities and educators working together to ensure graduates are fully prepared for a career in games in 2022 and beyond? And what are the roles that studios are finding particularly hard to fill?

Earlier this year, 29% of UK employees reported they want to change jobs, so how will this ‘Great Resignation’ impact games companies and how are studios and educational institutions changing their working practices to offer genuine flexible working and learning environments?

And as wellbeing and a better work/life balance become ever-more important to individuals, what can studios and education do to better support their staff and students?

These are the key issues currently facing games and education – and will be tackled head on at the upcoming Games Education Summit (April 21st-22nd, Sheffield Hallam University).

Speakers and panellists from the UK’s leading studios, universities and further education organisations will come together to discuss and debate how the UK’s games industry can shore up its talent pipeline and support students and employees. Speakers include:

Aurore Dimopoulos, Unity
Charlie Hargood, Bournemouth University
Chris Windmill, University of Derby
Dan Dudley, Grads in Games
Dom Shaw, Ukie
Doug Brown, Falmouth University
Finlay Pearston, Abertay University
Gina Jackson OBE, Game Dev Bootcamps
Ian Goodall, Aardvark Swift
Jake Habgood, Sumo Digital
James Butcher, Epic
Jayne Morgan, Exient
Jess Gaskell, Media Molecule
Karen Hedger, AIM Group
Leon Killin, Sumo Digital
Liz Prince, Amiqus
Liz Wright, No More Robots
Marcia Deakin, Next Gen Skills Academy
Maria Stukoff, University of Salford
Matt Wilson, Cloud Imperium
Peter Howell, Portsmouth University
Rick Gibson, BGI
Rosie Taylor, Safe In Our World
Tamsin O’Luanaigh, nDreams
Victoria Zamperoni, Mental Health Foundation

Tickets for the Summit are priced at just £125. As well as enjoying two days of thought-provoking and inspirational talks, delegates will also have plenty of opportunity for networking. They are also invited to attend the National Videogames Museum on the evening of April 21st where the Grads In Games Awards will be presented.

Tickets are available here – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/games-education-summit-2022-tickets-227031586587

Students are welcome to attend for free.

About the BGI

The BGI is a national voice for videogame culture, heritage and education which empowers people from all backgrounds, especially women, BAME, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and from disadvantaged backgrounds, to:

• Play through accessible and creative experiences that engage and inspire
• Collaborate through inclusive communities, research, discussions and teamwork
• Learn through informal, formal and vocational learning

Our charity celebrates and interrogates games culture for everyone through the National Videogame Museum, our Collection, our research into games preservation and our festivals such as GameCity. We run award-winning formal and informal learning programmes such as Pixelheads in person and online for schools and families. We run vocational courses and the Games Education Summit and we co-founded and organise the Games Careers Week Festival for young people, their parents and educators. For more details about the BGI’s mission and programmes, please visit: http://www.thebgi.uk/

Sheffield 0900 15/03/2022: The BGI’s founder and CEO, Rick Gibson, has announced he is departing the charity in July 2022. The charity is advertising for a new CEO based in Sheffield and is keen for candidates from all backgrounds to apply via its website.

Rick founded the charity in 2019 with Sir Ian Livingstone and was appointed its CEO by trustees, but he began campaigning for its creation in late 2017, winning support for the campaign from hundreds of games, finance, arts and non-profit organisations, as well as over 10,000 members of the public. Rick was appointed CEO of the National Videogame Foundation in 2018, which took over the BGI campaign, moving the National Videogame Arcade from Nottingham to Sheffield and rebranding it as the National Videogame Museum.

The Museum attracted 35,000 visitors in 2019 before the pandemic struck. Rick created the emergency appeal which raised over £200,000 from the games industry and public. He led the charity to win a substantial Cultural Recovery Fund grant as well as winning funding from the Jingle Jam for its award-winning workshop programme. He also created the Games Education Summit and the charity’s FutureLearn course, co-founded Games Careers Week and led the charity’s fundraising for projects from major arts funders such as Arts Council England, Art Fund, Esmee Fairbairn Trust, Ufi Voctech and BBC Children in Need.

Rick said: “After 4.5 years of growth, surviving the pandemic, and developing the charity’s new social mission, I’ve decided to step away from BGI. I’m very proud of what we have achieved with the new charity, especially tripling the museum’s income in just 3 years during Covid. It is vital that the games industry’s important contributions to our national culture are recognised in a national museum and preserved in a nationally significant Collection. I am filled with gratitude and pride about what the team has accomplished both in the museum in Sheffield but also in our award-winning learning and vocational programmes. I am so grateful to the trustees and all the charity’s supporters, especially to Andy Payne OBE for his unflinching support. The charity has a bright future in Sheffield”.

A games industry veteran of over 20 years, Rick created the campaign to lobby for Video Games Tax Relief in 2007 with Sir Ian Livingstone, building the economic and cultural case for the legislation over 5 years. VGTR has since paid out over £624m to 1,640 titles developed by British games studios.

Chair of the BGI’s Trustee Board Claire Boissiere said: “When I joined the BGI as a trustee during its formation in 2019, I was instantly blown away by Rick’s passion and drive for positively impacting the games industry. Rick has steered the charity and the National Videogame Museum through immensely difficult times, launched a wide range of award-winning educational and vocational programmes and been a champion for diversity. I’ll miss working alongside Rick but I’m proud to continue the charity’s new social mission, which wouldn’t have been possible without him. The BGI and National Videogame Museum will always be grateful for the hard work and persistent dedication that Rick has exhibited over the past 4.5 years and I wish him all the best in the future.”

President of the BGI and Trustee Board Member Sir Ian Livingstone said: “When Rick first suggested the idea of the BGI to me and invited me to join him, I had no hesitation in saying yes. Without Rick’s vision, energy, determination and expertise, the BGI and the National Videogame Museum would never have happened. Rick’s contribution to society’s understanding and recognition of the cultural impact and educational value of video games cannot be underestimated. We owe him our sincere thanks and gratitude.”

About the BGI

The BGI is a national voice for videogame culture, heritage and education which empowers people from all backgrounds, especially women, BAME, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and from disadvantaged backgrounds, to:

• Play through accessible and creative experiences that engage and inspire
• Collaborate through inclusive communities, research, discussions and partnerships
• Learn through informal, formal and vocational learning

Our charity celebrates and interrogates games culture for everyone through the National Videogame Museum, our Collection, our research into games preservation and our festivals such as GameCity. We run award-winning formal and informal learning programmes such as Pixelheads in person and online for schools and families. We run vocational courses and the Games Education Summit and we co-founded and organise the Games Careers Week Festival for young people, their parents and educators. For more details about the BGI’s mission and programmes, please visit: http://www.thebgi.uk/

 

 

 

 

BGI and the National Videogame Museum stand in solidarity with our Ukrainian colleagues in videogames, the arts, and civil society in condemning the Russia president’s invasion of Ukraine, deploring the Russian army’s attacks on civilians, and calling for peace. The hearts of our charity’s trustees and staff go out to everyone caught in this terrible war and we recommend the public supports the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine appeal.

INFLUENTIAL CONFERENCE BRINGS TOGETHER MAJOR STUDIOS AND UNIVERSITIES TO FORGE CLOSER LINKS AND TACKLE KEY ISSUES

Some of the UK’s leading games studios, recruiters and educators will come together this April for the Games Education Summit.

Buy Tickets

The agenda-setting conference is sponsored by Unity, Unreal Engine and Grads in Games, and will take place on April 21st and 22nd, returning as both a live and a streamed event at Sheffield Hallam University. The Summit provides two days of learning, networking and collaboration – providing games studios and educational organisations with the opportunity to discover new ways of working together. It also gives students and young developers, who can join for free, the chance to learn about how to unlock pathways into games and take their careers forward.

In-person delegates will join workshops, attend a networking evening and experience the Grads in Games awards at the National Videogame Museum. Online delegates can join all the panel sessions which will be streamed live.

Key sessions will include:

• Successfully managing remote and flexible working
• How to fill the ‘hard-to-hire’ roles in games
• Mental health and wellbeing
• How new recruits to games landed their first positions
• How to get the most out of university
• Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in games

The Games Education Summit is an annual conference that gives games educators and developers a forum to discuss the biggest issues in games, meet colleagues in workshops, and hear from learners and young developers about how to unlock their pathways into games.

Speakers include representatives from Unity, Unreal Engine, Cloud Imperium, Aardvark Swift, Abertay University, AIM Group, Amiqus, Exient, Gamesindustry.biz, Grads In Games, Media Molecule, My.Games, nDreams, Next Gen Skills Academy, No More Robots, Playground Games, Safe In Our World, Sheffield Hallam University, Sumo Digital, Ukie, Women in Games and more.

“The Games Education Summit represents a fantastic opportunity for creators, educators, developers and students within the sphere of real-time learning, to come together and discuss the challenges currently facing the industry and collaborate on new and innovative ways to unlock varied careers in games,” said Aurore Dimopoulos, Director, Real Time Learning at Unity. “At Unity we’re fully committed to supporting creators of any ability through our free ‘Pathways’ experiences, which help anyone interested in breaking into the gaming and tech industries expand their professional opportunities by gaining the skills they need to obtain a job, regardless of prior experience.”

“The Games Education Summit is vital to ensure that the industry retains a strong relationship with education,” offered Aardvark Swift MD Ian Goodall. “This collaboration is essential to ensuring that we create a pipeline of future talent in games, and for the industry to provide educators and students with the support they need.”

Amiqus Business Manager Liz Prince added: “The Games Education Summit provides a valuable platform for studios and educators to discuss the issues facing both areas. We look forward to attending each year as it gives us great insight into the challenges and opportunities we all face in terms of developing, nurturing and supporting the next generation of games industry talent.”

Get your tickets to GamesEd22 at Eventbrite.

Notes to Editors

For more information on the Games Education Summit, contact Lisa Carter via lisa.carter@mimrammedia.com and follow @thebgi on Twitter.

About the BGI

The BGI is a national voice for videogame culture, heritage and education which empowers people from all backgrounds, especially women, BAME, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and from disadvantaged backgrounds, to:

• Play through accessible and creative experiences that engage and inspire
• Collaborate through inclusive communities, research, discussions and teamwork
• Learn through informal, formal and vocational learning

Our charity celebrates and interrogates games culture for everyone through the National Videogame Museum, our Collection, our research into games preservation and our festivals such as GameCity. We run award-winning formal and informal learning programmes such as Pixelheads in person and online for schools and families. We run vocational courses and the Games Education Summit and we co-founded and organise the Games Careers Week Festival for young people, their parents and educators. For more details about the BGI’s mission and programmes, please visit: http://www.thebgi.uk/

Toikido has supported the National Videogame Museum by becoming a patron. Toikido is a London-based entertainment company that sells millions of toys in over 1oo countries, including merchandise from fellow NVM patrons Playstation (Among Us) and Sheffield-based Boneloaf (Gang Beasts).

Darran Garnham, CEO of Toikido said: “I am super proud to support. As a dad of 3 boys, this is an important cause to champion for young people”.

NVM/BGI CEO Rick Gibson: “We are so grateful to Darran and the team for their support of the museum. The charity would not be here without the support of companies like Toikido to help us through the pandemic to brighter days”.

Toikido joins a list of industry companies and leaders which includes Sir Ian Livingstone, Carl Cavers, Andy Payne OBE, Rockstar, Rebellion and Sega Europe amongst others.

 

The charity received the sad news that our Advisory Board member Ian Hetherington had passed away.

One of the founding fathers of the British videogames industry, Ian helped countless people, companies and our own charity with a wisdom and generosity borne of a long and illustrious career in videogames over 40 years.

CEO Rick Gibson wrote “Ian was a colleague, friend and mentor who had a unique mix of creativity and commercial acumen. His track record of success and drive is remarkable and his influence on the sector, its technology and growth is profound and indelible. I have worked with him on several projects over the years and he will be deeply missed. On behalf of the charity, I’d like to pass on our condolences to his family.”

You can read a short obituary to Ian on Gamesindustry.biz.

INFLUENTIAL CONFERENCE RETURNS IN APRIL TO INVESTIGATE HARD-TO-HIRE SKILLS, REMOTE WORKING AND MENTAL HEALTH

Educators, games studios and young games developers will gather in Sheffield and online on 21-22 April 2022 to discuss the most topical subjects in games education – including remote working, mental health and those skills which recruiters are currently finding tricky to find.

The Games Education Summit is an annual conference that gives games educators and developers a forum to discuss the biggest issues in games, meet colleagues in workshops, and hear from learners and young developers about how to unlock their pathways into games.

Speakers at GamesEd22 include Amiqus, Safe in our World, Sheffield Hallam University, Bournemouth and Portsmouth Universities, Aardvark Swift, Playground Games, Grads in Games, Cloud Imperium, Women in Games, Ukie, Next Gen Skills Academy, Sumo Digital and TIGA. More speakers will be announced in early 2022.

Day One will focus on challenges, best practice and innovative solutions of games companies,  universities and colleges including remote working, four-day working weeks, and pastoral care of students and staff. It will investigate the skills games companies are struggling to recruit from educational institutions, and ask how industry can help educators train talent to be ready for the workplace.

Day Two will bring in diverse young developers and students to discuss their experiences of education, recruitment and early games careers.

Delegates attending in person will be able to join workshops, networking events and an awards show at the National Videogame Museum, or stream keynotes and panel sessions online.

“We’re delighted to be bringing the Games Education Summit back as a live event in April at Sheffield Hallam University, as well as welcoming delegates virtually too,” said Rick Gibson, CEO of the BGI, which organises the event.

“Educators consistently report that they have changed universities’ curricula as a result of discussions at previous GamesEd Summits. At the same time, we know that studios find it invaluable to be able to network and collaborate with educators at the event. We look forward to once again setting the agenda at GamesEd Summit 2022.”

Get your early bird tickets to GamesEd22 at Eventbrite.

Notes to Editors

For more information on the Games Education Summit, contact Lisa Carter at lisa@mimrammedia.com and follow @thebgi on Twitter.

About the BGI

The BGI is a national voice for videogame culture, heritage and education which empowers people from all backgrounds, especially women, BAME, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and from disadvantaged backgrounds, to:

• Play through accessible and creative experiences that engage and inspire
• Collaborate through inclusive communities, research, discussions and teamwork
• Learn through informal, formal and vocational learning

Our charity celebrates and interrogates games culture for everyone through the National Videogame Museum, our Collection, our research into games preservation and our festivals such as GameCity. We run award-winning formal and informal learning programmes such as Pixelheads in person and online for schools and families. We run vocational courses and the Games Education Summit and we co-founded and organise the Games Careers Week Festival for young people, their parents and educators. For more details about the BGI’s mission and programmes, please visit: http://www.thebgi.uk/

 

 

National Videogame Museum announces Christmas appeal with BGI’s new strategy to transform lives with games

Sheffield, 0900 23/11/21: The charity that runs the National Videogame Museum has launched a Christmas appeal to help families from deprived communities visit the museum, and announced its new strategy to promote the social impact of videogames.

The appeal, fronted by Claire Boissiere and Ian Livingstone CBE, aims to bring hundreds of children from the most deprived neighbourhoods of Sheffield and the surrounding region into the Museum. The appeal is raising funds to support the museum to give free visits for disadvantaged families to play games and learn how they’re made.

The charity’s new mission – transforming lives with games – reflects a raft of social programmes BGI has launched this year serving disadvantaged communities. They include Biome working with Sheffield’s refugee communities to create games art about their folklore; an online National Videogame Gallery to celebrate the art and animation of diverse games developers; an LGBTQ+ young producers club; a 2 year programme to train teachers from schools in deprived areas how to use games in the classroom; and a programme to train women and LGBTQ+ people of colour how to make games using Crayta. The National Videogame Museum is also part of this month’s BBC Children in Need campaign and is one of the co-founders of Games Careers Week, a public education campaign which encourages diverse candidates to consider games careers that reached nearly 40,000 people this year.

Claire Boissiere, the BGI’s Chair, said: “Videogames are performing a new role in society, giving skills, connections and enjoyment to people isolated and set back by the pandemic. The National Videogame Museum and our multi award winning programmes work with vulnerable communities to harness the unique power of videogames. We inspire, teach and open doors to new opportunities for everyone, no matter their background. Whether through play, community, learning, careers or games culture, our charity’s bold new mission is to transform lives with games.”

Rick Gibson, the charity’s CEO, said “During the pandemic, with amazing support from games companies, we refocused our programmes to help disadvantaged and under-represented people, working with the Arts Council, Children in Need, Esmee Fairbairn Trust, English Heritage and Ufi VocTech on multiple ambitious social programmes. The National Videogame Museum is the only UK museum dedicated to celebrating and interpreting videogames, investigating why they matter, and preserving our sector’s precious heritage for future generations. This Christmas we hope you will join our amazing games sector patrons to support our work with disadvantaged children.”

The NVM’s Christmas appeal can be found at www.justgiving.com/campaign/NVMXMAS