Meow Wolf will open a pair of new immersive-entertainment installations over the next two years, adding to its portfolio of destinations that already includes Santa Fe, Denver and Las Vegas.
The Santa Fe-based company announced the new installations on Wednesday, naming both Grapevine, Texas, and Houston as the new locations. The installations will open in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
“The Meow Wolf story universe is expanding, and Texas holds the keys to our next chapters,” said Jose Tolosa, CEO of Meow Wolf, in a press statement. “Opening a permanent exhibition in the largest and one of the most diverse states in the country has been on Meow Wolf’s radar for years, and we are excited to be formally underway.”
Meow Wolf has grown fast in recent years as it’s attracted hundreds of millions in investment dollars, expanding from Santa Fe’s House of Eternal Return exhibition — which opened in 2016 and has become a tourist magnet with its surreal sculptures and environments — to Las Vegas’ Omega Mart and Denver’s Convergence Station, both of which opened last year.
The timing of the new locations means that the company will have quadrupled its public offerings in about three years. But the new locations have been planned for awhile, officials said.
The Grapevine, Texas, exhibition will be located in Grapevine Mills, “within the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex,” according to the press statement. “An exact name for the exhibition will be announced at a later date.”
The Houston exhibition will be in the Fifth Ward of Houston and is slated to open in 2024, with The Deal Co. as development partners.
“A historical district with a long history of diverse communities dating back to the late 1800s, the Fifth Ward has been transformed into an arts and cultural destination in recent years, being designated a cultural district by the state of Texas in 2020.”
As part of its psychedelic-flavored themes and marketing, the company is again referring to the locations as “portals.”
“We’ve never designed two exhibitions in the same state at the same time. The Texas experiences will be deeply rooted in artist collaboration and connected by concealed Easter eggs,” said Dale Sheehan, executive creative director, in the statement. “Of course, the locations themselves are also creative prompts. In Grapevine, we’ll be leaning into the energy of a shopping center — a nostalgic place for many of us, where families gather and young adults often find their first moments of freedom. In Houston, we’ll engage a burgeoning arts community in the most diverse city in the nation, which we believe will result in a groundswell of revolutionary artistic expression.”
Meow Wolf has had about 3 million visitors over the lifespan of its three current locations, officials said.
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