If ever an art entertainment experience and city were meant for each other, the eccentric Meow Wolf is the venue and Las Vegas is the place.
Founded in 2016 in a Santa Fe, N.M., in a former bowling alley owned by “Game of Thrones” creator George R.R. Martin, Meow Wolf is an eclectic collective with a goal of, as its website puts it, “creating immersive art experiences that transport audiences to fantastic realms.”
Quoting from the website is easier that describing Meow Wolf’s “The House of Eternal Return” set, which from the outside resembles a home that you’ll soon suspect was once owned by Fox and Molder after they left “The X Files.” The best part: visitors get to investigate the strange goings on for themselves.
We’re not talking about a “Star Wars” ride or “Harry Potter” knockoff. Nothing so predictable, or easy to explain.
That happy homestead you enter is empty, as if the parents and kids had left suddenly. So suddenly, in fact, that they left the television on.
Is it a crime scene, or an alien abduction? There are plenty of surreal twists and turns that you may start to wonder whether you’ve stepped into someone else’s dream.
There are many apparent clues, but no clear answers. As I lost myself in the exhibit a few months ago on a trip to Santa Fe, I couldn’t help turning amateur sleuth. And I had plenty of competition from a throng representing a wide range of age groups.
Suffice to say that when you can open a refrigerator door and find a secret passage way that transports you ever closer to another dimension, you’re not in Kansas anymore.
Or just Santa Fe, either.
For some reason, Meow Wolf’s recent announcement that it was heading to Las Vegas was greeted with what can only be described as tepid interest in the local press. That’s too bad. Not only is its savvy co-founder, Vince Kadlubek, an intriguing subject for political, business and art writers alike, but the Meow Wolf concept is one worthy of serious study by Strip mega-resorts forever pursuing in experiences that appeal to international audiences.
The Santa Fe art collective, which appears to have made political and business inroads in Southern Nevada, is undeniably enthusiastic. From its website: “We are thrilled to be bringing a new Meow Wolf experience to Las Vegas! The last few years have been so much fun – developing a love and connection to this sensational city and laying the groundwork for another new permanent exhibition. More details to come!”
The Arizona Republic’s Weldon B. Johnson, however, notes that Meow Wolf will be joining a competitive Las Vegas entertainment scene. He writes, “Las Vegas doesn’t lack distinctive entertainment options, and soon it will add another one” and calls the collective’s collaborators a “weird and wonderful group of artists who created an interactive amusement park-style art exhibit that has been drawing raves in Santa Fe.”
As with most Vegas things, the new Meow Wolf will offer a large entertainment and real estate space. It will be located between the Strip and the Palace Station Hotel-Casino.
If you imagine the promoters are anything less that supremely confident, note that tickets for the grand opening in Las Vegas are going for as much as $1,000 each. And Las Vegas isn’t the only place Meow Wolf is expanding. Its Denver project is scheduled to open in 2020.
As Martin put it in a recent news release, “We’re talking expansions, not duplications, and I couldn’t be more excited to learn what weirdness we’ll find behind the new doors that Meow Wolf will be opening for us in Colorado and now Nevada too.”
Las Vegas may never be the same.
John L. Smith is a longtime Las Vegas journalist and author. Contact him at jlnevadasmith@gmail.com. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith.
