National Pinball Museum Troubles + Pinball Art Project Kickstarter

Well the National Pinball Museum is in the news again and unfortunately once again, they can’t seem to catch a break. After they had issues with their first location, their second location in Baltimore has hit a snag with the landlord and they cannot negotiate a favorable lease. Currently they are going to close their doors on March 3rd. All is not lost however as they do plan on keeping up the good fight in securing a new location that will give them a favorable lease. This story is catching a bit of media attention to so hopefully the word is out there and a good landlord will find them, or vice versa. As such, I’m not sure which to source to use since I saw it all over Twitter, so here is a link to the closure letter as found on the National Pinball Museum’s website(PDF file).

Also in some pinball related news, a Kickstarter project. Called “Bring Back the Arcade! Custom Pinball Art Show”, the idea behind this one is to “[build] an entirely custom classic pinball arcade art installation starting with five mechanically restored vintage 1970s pinball machines featuring art packages reimagined by some of the most influential and respected counter pop culture artists working in the game today. ” If funded the show won’t open until Fall 2014 and will begin in San Fransisco, where it will either travel from there or build up the venue in SF. Here’s a picture of them turning an old AbraCaDabra into a new design, Evil Mansion. Check out the Kickstarter page here with many more details, they still have 20 days to go to reach their goal of $75000.