Chris Melissinos

Ch 02 · The Smithsonian

Putting video games in an art museum

In 2009 the Smithsonian American Art Museum asked Chris to create and guest-curate an exhibition on 40 years of video games as an artistic medium.

He built the story, gathered the assets and assembled an advisory group of developers, designers, industry pioneers and journalists. Together they picked a ballot of 240 games across five eras, and the public voted on which would hang in the museum.

The Art of Video Games opened on March 16, 2012 and ran through September 30. Visitors could play five of them: Pac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flower. The show then toured 10 more museums across the country through 2016, and more than 2.4 million people saw it in all.

Chris co-wrote the companion book, The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man to Mass Effect, and the work earned him the 2013 Ambassador Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards.

  • 3.7M+public votes chose the games
  • 175countries those votes came from
  • 80games in the exhibition
  • 690,000visitors during the Washington run (curator records)
  • 2.4M+visitors across the 11-museum national tour
Exhibition archiveExhibition trailerConversation with Hideo KojimaInterview with RJ Mical
Chris Melissinos playing a wall-sized projection of Pac-Man at a game kiosk in the exhibition
Playing the exhibition's wall-sized Pac-Man before opening, March 2012.Photo: Smithsonian American Art Museum, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Chris Melissinos and Tim Schafer posing together next to a studio light
With Tim Schafer at GDC 2011, photographed by exhibition coordinator Georgina Goodlander.Photo: Georgina Goodlander, CC BY-SA 2.0

Inside the exhibition · 18 photos

What critics and reporters wrote

  1. 2016
    "The Art of Video Games" at the Frost Art MuseumMiami New Times, Angel Melendez · February 2, 2016. The tour reaches Miami, with a case for games as art.
  2. 2014
    The Art of Video GamesCurrent Magazine, Louis Meldman · August 21, 2014. A family visit to the tour stop at the Toledo Museum of Art.
  3. 2014
    The Art of Video Games, curated by Chris MelissinosKairos, Jennifer deWinter · January 15, 2014. A scholarly review of the exhibition in a journal of rhetoric and technology.
  4. 2012
    The Art of Play: Touring the Smithsonian's Video Game ExhibitGame Informer, Ben Reeves · May 21, 2012. A walk through the galleries with the curator.
  5. 2012
    Leveling up at the SmithsonianCNN · March 16, 2012. Opening-day coverage of games entering the art museum.
  6. 2012
    The Art of Video GamesSmithsonian Magazine, Abigail Tucker · March 2012. A profile of the exhibition and the case for games as serious art.
  7. 2012
    Blasts From The Past: The Art Of Video GamesNPR, Weekend Edition, David Greene · 2012. A radio visit to the exhibition.
  8. 2012
    Smithsonian Video Games Exhibit Celebrates Games As ArtPCWorld, Jennifer Allen · January 18, 2012. A preview of the exhibition and its playable classics.

Ch 04 · Save state

Keeping game history playable

Games disappear when the hardware, code and paperwork behind them are lost. Chris has spent years helping keep that from happening.

  • 2017 – today

    Video Game History Foundation

    Founding board member of the nonprofit that catalogs, digitizes and preserves the history of video games.

    gamehistory.org
  • 2010 – 2015

    PastPixels, LLC

    Founded to produce The Art of Video Games and its national tour, with a focus on the long-term preservation of video games and related ephemera.

  • 2012

    The Art of Video Games

    Co-author of the exhibition's companion book, From Pac-Man to Mass Effect (Welcome Books).