Meow Wolf is an immersive art adventure – step inside, explore, and uncover the unexpected.
Founded in Santa Fe in 2008, Meow Wolf began as an
experimental artists'
collective where creators from wildly different disciplines incuding actors, engineers, writers, visual artists, and sculptors, came together to create large-scale,
interactive art experiences that blur the line between exhibition and adventure. When their temporary installations started gaining popularity, the group realized they had tapped into something powerful enough to warrant a permanent location.
Our Values
Creative Collaboration
We believe the act of creating together amplifies possibilities.
Provocative Playfulness
We celebrate the unexpected because it is the doorway to discovery.
Outsiders Welcome
We are all outsiders at heart, and so we create space for everyone to feel like they belong.
Authentic Compassion
We are ‘kind punks’ - supportive to each other and standing up for what we believe in.
Audacious Courage
We have the courage to radically reinvent ourselves to push the boundaries of art.
The resulting installations are imaginative
wonderlands transformed into
multi-sensory entertainment experiences. Each
location pulls visitors into alternate realities and
parallel dimensions filled with surreal and captivating artwork. Unlike traditional museums, these exhibitions invite interaction allowing visitors to step through mysterious portals, explore hidden chambers, watch
bizarre mock advertisements, and dial numbers on vintage public telephones. All of these elements create a narrative that visitors piece together as they explore.
Their flagship venue, the House of Eternal Return, launched in
Santa Fe in 2016 within a repurposed
bowling alley was made possible through financial support from
Game of Thrones author
George R.R. Martin. The installation centers on a home caught in
dimensional chaos, where the laws of physics have shattered and visitors can walk through
fractured timelines and warped spatial realities.
In February 2021, Meow Wolf expanded to
Las Vegas with Omega Mart, a grocery store stocked with
bizarrely branded products that feel
almost recognizable yet completely absurd. Shoppers can find items like Vegan Goat Pus Lemonade ("Honorable Discharge"), AVOiD! Laundry Detergent ("
The Solution for Everything!"), L'Omega Sparkling Water in flavors ranging from New Car to Potato to Colby Jazz, What is the True Essence of Butter (& the Nature of My Desire?), and my favorite, Emergency Clams ("
Crisis Averted"). There are
hidden passages through freezer doors and other inconspicuous locations that transport visitors into corporate back offices and
otherworldly dimensions. The immersion is completed by staff members in Omega Mart uniforms who wander the store offering product samples throughout the store.
The third location, Convergence Station, opened in
Denver on September 17, 2021, spanning 60,000 square feet across four floors. The concept revolves around four displaced worlds that have been torn from their original locations and merged into this
interdimensional hub. Here, memories function as
currency where the inhabitants can transfer them between devices like digital files, collect
emories from others, and must protect their own from "memory storms" by properly logging their experiences.
The station features
distinct and strange environments:
C Street recreates an urban alleyway complete with storefronts, signage, and abandoned
steampunk vehicles. Another area houses musical instruments that appear to grow from the walls themselves, occasionally hosting
live performances. The upper two floors transport visitors to an
alien landscape populated with exotic creatures, surreal skies,
strange structures, caverns, and
countless hidden spaces waiting to be discovered.
Meow Wolf's fourth venue, The Real Unreal, launched in July 2023 at the Grapevine Mills mall in
Dallas-Fort Worth. Visitors begin their experience in a suburban house, but this ordinary facade quickly reveals itself as the starting point of a mystery. A young boy named Jared who has
disappeared serves as the central story, with the house morphing into a network of
interdimensional gateways that lead to various worlds containing
clues about his fate.
The newest Meow Wolf, Radio Tave, debuted on Halloween 2024 in
Houston's Fifth Ward. Built around the concept of a
radio station that
broadcasts across multiple dimensions, the experience features
hidden passages, interactive installations, and surreal environments including a gritty
dive bar, an acoustically magical hollow, and an otherworldly dance floor where visitors can join in on the revelry.
The next two Meow Wolf locations will be in
Los Angeles, expected to open in 2026, and
New York.
References:
https://meowwolf.com/
And my own experiences.