Create the Smithsonian of Pinball

Short Summary

The Pacific Pinball Museum, founded ten years ago, is a 501c3 non profit dedicated to preserving the art, science and history of pinball. The museum currently has  90 games set to free play for one admission price. Our museum is educational, interactive and fun.

It is also free! If you don't want to play you can visit our museum for free and learn all about pinball.  We are serously passionate about our mission.

We intend to see pinball preserved for future generations to learn from and play! Your contribution can help us ensure everyone still gets to play these original American masterpieces. You can help us get more than 1500 historic games to see the light of day again in a new, larger location -- potentially the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

With your funding we will create exhibits about the history, science and art of pinball games from Pinball's birth as Bagatelle to the current day's Xmen and Tron.

Your help gets us to the next stage of this unparalleled effort.  America needs a pinball museum celebrating our uniquely American art form in a comprehensive and learned manner.

What We Need & What You Get

We're looking for $1.5 million to help fund several aspects of our move. The nest egg we're building will help us negotiate terms with the city of San Francisco to  occupy a site there. We need to hire additional staff. There's moving costs and maintenance costs, plus we'll have to rent at least five big rigs to get everything over there. We plan to create new signage and exhibits for the big museum, apply for grants and continue our mural  and travelling exhibition programs.

In thanks, we'll hand you your very own PPE6 Poster, PPM logo T shirts and hats, a membership to the museum, passes to PPE6 (a $60 value) and lots more. Our angel donors will receive a lifetime membership to the museum allowing discounted access to themselves and a friend for the rest of their pinball-playing lives!

If we don't reach our entire goal, your funding could still provide all these aspects in a different location in the Bay Area.  The Exploratorium's soon-to-be vacated site at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco is what we really want.

The Impact

We already have 500 pinball games restored and ready to display at our nascent museum but there's no room in our current location to display them. We also have established the largest pinball show in the world: the Pacific Pinball Expo, now in its sixth year. This grass-roots effort is well on its way, our museum is fully self-sustaining in its current location, and reflects a herculean effort by more than 200 volunteers.

We've already seen great success with our "History of Pinball" exhibition at the San Francisco Airport Museum, our "Pinball Oddity" exhibition at Rhythmix Cultural Works of Alameda, CA and the "Lil Juju" portable pinball museum which goes to schools, the Maker Faire, and many other locations.

We've also used our pinball curriculum in classes for grade school children we held for the first time this year.

Pinball is global. People of all ages, backgrounds and walks of life instinctively know how to play pinball. This truly American art form has no equal in modern culture. America needs something to be proud of again, and pinball captures the engineering and artisitic ingenuity of our nation. Pinball brings together people of all backgrounds in a social setting outside the home.

Not only can you help us display our warehoused collection of more than 2,000 historic games, but your funding will help us develop our curriculum and offerings to students of all ages.

The timing is critical as the Golden Gate Parks and Rec will be putting out a Request For Proposals as soon as the Exploratorium has vacated the building in spring of 2013. If we can get a war chest together with our ready to go collection, we have a good chance at creating the most incredible museum of fun, learning and gaming in the world.

Other Ways You Can Help

If you're unable to help financially, but fully believe in the cause of preserving pinball, spread the word with these handy links: