The Game Center Lecture Series is happy to present Chris Melissinos, guest curator of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s “The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man to Mass Effect” exhibit, discussing the evolution of video games from their humble beginnings to eventual arrival as one of the most significant forms of artistic expression in human history. With unique insight that spans his almost 40 years of playing, collecting, developing, and curating video games, Melissinos will discuss how video games have grown in importance, the opportunity they represent in transforming culture, and how he turned this passion into one of the most visited exhibitions in the history of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The talk will be held on Friday, February 15  at 721 Broadway, Room 006 (Lower Level), at 7:00pm.

Copies of The Art of Video Games, ($40) Melissinos’s co-authored (with Patrick O’Rourke) companion book to the exhibition, will be available for purchase and signing.  One free signed copy of the book will be awarded to a lecture attendee!

If you’re on the West coast and can’t join us for the lecture series, by happy coincidence, The Art of Video Games exhibition opens at Seattle’s  EMP Museum the same day as the lecture!