Meow Wolf

Meow Wolf is an American arts and entertainment company that creates large-scale interactive and immersive art installations. Meow Wolf was formed in February 2008 in Santa Fe as an artist collective by "a group of young residents hoping to supply Santa Fe with an alternative art and music venue. By 2019, the museum held the works of 200 different artists and employs more than 150 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meow_Wolf I went to the Denver site in Mar'2023.

The at that time nonestablishment artists' first large-scale venture was The Due Return, a more than 70-foot-long, two-story ship exhibited at the Center for Contemporary Arts

In pursuit of teaching collaborative arts practices Meow Wolf formed CHIMERA in 2011. In 2012 CHIMERA worked with approximately one thousand Santa Fe students to create "Omega Mart"

In 2016 Meow Wolf opened their first permanent installation, House of Eternal Return, built by a collective of 135 artists in Santa Fe.

Meow Wolf became a Certified B Corporation in 2017.

In January 2018, Meow Wolf announced two new art complexes, in Las Vegas and Denver. On November 29, 2018, the documentary Meow Wolf: Origin Story was released in movie theaters around the United States in a one-time only showing

In early 2021 the firm announced that they would abandon their plans for a Meow Wolf themed hotel in Phoenix, although still planned an exhibition in the city. The permanent exhibition in Washington, DC, in Fort Totten, was also canceled later in the year. In 2021 the permanent exhibition in Las Vegas, a redo of their concept Omega Mart, opened in January and the Denver art complex called Convergence Station in September.

In January 2015, author George R. R. Martin pledged $2.7 million to renovate and lease a vacant bowling alley to create a permanent facility for Meow Wolf. This was supplemented by additional funding, including $50,000 from the city of Santa Fe and $100,000 from a crowd-funding campaign

One of Meow Wolf's music festivals, Vortex, was held in Taos, New Mexico in 2018 and 2019, then paused for two years due to COVID-19 and moved to Denver in 2022.

Two additional locations, both in Texas, are currently in the planning and construction phases, and are scheduled to open in 2023 and 2024. The choice of Texas has raised criticism online regarding the controversies over abortion rights and gender affirmative care rights. Meow Wolf replied to the backlash in an instagram post, stating that they "stood with marginalized people and that include LGBTQIA communities and women" and that their presence in Texas was explicitly to provide that support.

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Meow Wolf's development plans were delayed in all locations, including layoffs of more than half its staff in Denver. A preliminary collective bargaining group was formed in late 2020 in response to pandemic-related economic challenges, seeking more worker input.

ongoing unionization effort formed by the Meow Wolf Workers Collective. In 2022, they ratified their contract with Meow Wolf calling for $1 million to go towards wage increases, where each artist gets paid no less than $60,000 annually, and exhibition workers at least $18 an hour.

The company has had a history in aggressive union busting, allegations of questionable hiring practices, racial and gender discrimination

Meow Wolf co-founder and senior creative director Matt King has died on July 9, 2022.