Installation Art Sparks Interests of All Ages
Artists' Imaginations Run Wild At Meow Wolf's House Of Eternal Return, And This Halloween They Ask: Freak Or Treat?
“We hope to act as a prototype and inspiration for other artists wanting to create an immersive experience in other cities,” says Damian Taggart, chief business developer for Meow Wolf in Santa Fe. A good way to describe what Meow Wolf does is immersive artistic entertainment exhibitions. In an old bowling alley in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Meow Wolf’s permanent exhibit is a choose-your-own-adventure type place where 130 artists came together and created a Alice In Wonderland/ Haunted House/ artistic wonder in a 20,000 square feet place. The story of how this exhibit, called the “House of Eternal Return,” came to be is very interesting.
“Meow Wolf started as an art collective in 2008,” explains Taggart, one of the original members, “Santa Fe is a city with an older population, so young people don’t really have much to do.” He explains it started as a way to express creatively and the group did music shows and dance parties. “Along with these parties, we would start to have immersive art installations that became more and more maximal,” he explains, “a lot of folks expect to view art out of a window and we didn’t want that.” They started to take their installations on the road until they got a big offer.
At the Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, with a budget of $50,000, they got a three-month exhibit. The art collective built a large scale wooden ship and created a story line. “The 40-50 foot long ship was traveling through dimensions and picking up strange cargo along the way,” Taggart explains. Over the course of 3 months, 30,000 people came to see the exhibit and they thought they might be onto something. “We knew it because an early investor came up to us and said “Due Return” (the boat exhibit) was the only thing that got their son to stop playing video games.”
The art collective continued doing exhibits and then Vince Kadlubek, CEO of Meow Wolf, applied for a marketing position at the the Jean Cocteau theatre, a theatre that shows art house films in Santa Fe. The theatre was bought and run by George R.R. Martin, an extremely successful author who created Game of Thrones. Kadlubek found that Martin was really interested in Meow Wolf and what the artists were doing in the city they both call home. In early 2015, “Vince called Martin and asked him to come see an abandoned bowling alley with him,” Taggart recalls, “and back then George didn’t have a business manager, so he came along and bought the building after hearing Vince’s pitch.” Meow Wolf signed a long-term lease with George R.R. Martin and they started raising funds for the exhibition. “It was really Vince who kept us moving,” explains Taggart, “He found investors who were just throwing money away to a good cause and he took out personal debt to make the exhibit.” Eventually they raised about 3 million dollars and for 14 months they worked on “House of Eternal Return.”
The doors opened in March 2016. “It has been wildly successful, beyond what any of us imagined,” Taggart says, “And now we are thinking what should we do with this success?” The reason why Taggart thinks it is so successful is because all backgrounds and ages love it. “Kids love it like it is a fun house and adults love it for the non-linear narrative they can follow,” he says. The story that goes with the house is about a family from Mendocino, California, the Selig’s, who conducted an experiment in their Victorian Home and the event opened up wormholes to other dimensions. Visitors learn about the people in the family by exploring the house and dimensions contained in it.
The next steps for Meow Wolf are being explored. “We are thinking of new permanent exhibits in cities like Austin and Denver,” explains Taggart, “And also thinking of doing a mobile exhibit that can set up for a few months at a time in different cities.” Beyond art exhibits, they still host regular concerts, adult nights, and have an art learning center at the bowling alley. New Mexico played a big role in getting the art collective to where it is now. “Santa Fe happens to have a lot of unemployed talented artists ready to make things,” chuckles Taggart, but he thinks their model can be emulated elsewhere. “We want to show creatives how to capitalize on their art and make a living doing it,” Taggart says. And with an extremely successful imaginative art experience like House of Eternal Return, helped by one of America’s premier sci-fi authors, all walks of life are able to see what the inspiration and excitement that comes with art.
Andrew Malo
A graduate of Northeastern Illinois University in Education, Andrew has taught for the past decade in Chicago, New Mexico, and Japan. He enjoys tinkering with trucks and motorcycles, woodworking, reading and computer programming.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Santa Fe Skies RV Park is located just south of Santa Fe city rested on the top of a hill. Visitors can enjoy the wonders of the nation's oldest capital city and take in the spectacular beauty of the region that has lasted nearly four hundred years.