Page 14 - Spielbox Special 2023 – EN

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ESG UND SÄCHSISCHES INSTITUT FÜR SPIEL
Because Games Deserve Promotion
The Europäische Spielesammler Gilde (European game collectors’ guild, ESG) and the Sächsisches Institut für Spiel (Saxon institute for games, SIS) passionately work for the appreciation of games as a cultural asset. This page shows only a small part of their activities.
Because the Europe- an game collectors guild ESG sees the col-
lecting of board games in a crisis, its work becomes all the more important. It requires finding a new home for large collections, preserving knowledge and getting an over-
view of the increasingly broad range of new games. The ESG takes on the role of a poetry album full of beautiful memories—which treasures from the past have only sur- vived in private archives? Nowadays, rummaging at flea markets is often replaced by searches on the Internet. Collecting games is time-consuming, requiring a lot of space and perseverance. Looking for solutions to meet such challenges is one of the main concerns of the ESG. One of the guild’s current projects, sponsored by the Spiel des Jahres association, is compiling all spielbox
and Pöppel-Revue articles by ESG founding chairman Rudolf Rühle, who passed away in 2022, in an anthology; publication is planned for next January. In addition, an exhibition is currently being created under the motto “DAS habe ich gespielt, als ich noch jung war!” (I played that when I was young!), for which numerous members
of the games scene and celebrities were interviewed. The exhibition will be on view
virtually, and in 2024 it will also be shown physically, locations and dates to be
announced.
www.e-s-g.eu
ESG chairwoman Cynthia Kempe-Schönfeld, former director of the German games museum Deutsches Spielemuseum Chemnitz until 2015, also manages the
Sächsisches Institut für Spiel (Saxon institute for games) together with her husband Thomas Kempe. Its services include workshops for schools, educators, teachers and parents in cooperation with the Youth Hostel Association, independent sponsors and school offices as game educa- tors. The SIS organizes events such as the “Chemnitzer Spieletage” and is the exclusive partner of the “Schmidt Spiele Tour”. The institute contributes expertise in the pre-selection for the German Scholarship for Young Game Designers and
strengthens a task force for the inclu- sion of games in the German National Library. In addition to exhibitions, the institute’s repertoire includes journalistic and scientific activi- ties on game-related topics.
Many of the SIS’s
goals coincide with
those of the ESG,
foremost among
them the promotion
of the social
significance of games
as a cultural asset.
This includes, for example, utilizing games more often
in schools and families in order to promote participation, equality and solidarity, as games can often develop skills some children and young people have not yet discovered.
www.sis3.eu
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