Sheffield’s National Videogame Museum to reopen for first time in over 6 months after a challenging year

Despite a brief reopening period in late Summer 2020, the Sheffield museum and visitor attraction has been closed since March 16 2020.

As an independent museum, this attraction is only able to reopen after running multiple fundraising campaigns, most notably their JustGiving campaign back in March 2020, which was supported by members of the Sheffield public and after receiving support from the Culture Recovery Fund.

The museum continues to invite visitors to touch and explore its exhibits in a highly interactive environment and has developed comprehensive safety procedures to keep them as safe as possible in their visit – this includes an increased cleaning regime, socially distanced galleries, and a clear

hand sanitising guide to enable visitors to fully enjoy the museum’s exhibits.

Iain Simons, Creative Director for the NVM, said: “Like a lot of museums and culture venues; when lockdown started it was by no means sure that we were going to still be here when it relaxed. That we are is thanks to the overwhelming support of our friends in the industry, the public and DCMS over the last year.

“Just like museums, videogames are places to visit. With us all spending so much time indoors, sometimes alone, games have become really important places for lots of us. As places to learn, places to play, places to keep in contact with our friends - videogames have been there for us.

“We are reopening our museum with some exciting new projects, the optimism of summertime and excitement at continuing to build the National Videogame Museum Learn, play, meet your friends in your national place for videogames. We can’t wait to see you all again.”

Hannah Bryan, Director of Visitor Experience for the NVM, said: “It’s great to be able to invite people back into the museum; we miss the connection between our collections and our visitors - people bring our gallery to life. The whole team is excited to welcome visitors back, both old and new.”