Meow Wolf is bringing its immersive art experience to New York City

A trippy, futuristic grocery store. A pit stop on an interdimensional road trip. A radio station in another realm. These might sound like products of a particularly vivid fever dream, but they’re actually separate exhibitions from Meow Wolf, the immersive entertainment company known for its wild art installations. And now, Meow Wolf is headed to New York City with a brand new otherworldly museum, it was announced today from the stage of SXSW 2025.

While the NYC installation’s opening date has yet to be announced, it will be Meow Wolf’s seventh museum overall. The company already operates five distinct experiences in Las Vegas; Grapevine, Texas; Houston; Denver; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Another exhibition, centered around “the forgotten sad side of Hollywood” is slated to open in Los Angeles next year, with Meow Wolf New York expected to open sometime after that—and said to be the company’s biggest investment yet. 

“We’re excited to create a Meow Wolf experience that feels uniquely NYC, reflecting the city’s rich arts and cultural landscape,” said Meow Wolf CEO Jose Tolosa via email. “The broader theme will be one that feels right at home in New York City.”

Denver, Convergence Station [Photo: Atlas Media/courtesy Meow Wolf]

What we know about Meow Wolf New York so far

Tolosa was able to share a few other details about the upcoming location: As in all past locations, the New York installation will be realized through a collaboration between Meow Wolf’s own artists and a select group of local creatives. Tolosa said that “external artist scouting” is set to begin soon. “Our goal is to build strong relationships with the artistic community and local arts nonprofits.” Its location was also announced: Manhattan’s Pier 17, chosen both for its proximity to public transit and its rich cultural history.

“The South Street Seaport’s history represents the evolution and reinvention of New York City in many ways,” Tolosa said. “It dates back 400 years to its origins as a Dutch fur trading port . . . and now serving as a cultural hub filled with museums, music venues, restaurants, and entertainment.”

Denver, C Street [Photo: Kennedy Cottrell/courtesy Meow Wolf]

From local art collective to $400 million corporation

Meow Wolf was founded in 2008, when a collective of Santa Fe artists became known for hosting eccentric parties-slash-art installations in local warehouses. In its early days, the group specialized in building imaginary worlds entirely out of trash, positioning itself in opposition to the closed-off world of fine art galleries. Over time, though, Meow Wolf evolved from a local art collective to a national, multimillion-dollar company.

Santa Fe, The Ancestral Crypt [Photo: Atlas Media/courtesy Meow Wolf]

The collective’s first large-scale interactive museum, House of Eternal Return, was opened in 2016 in Santa Fe by a group of seven of its original artists. The exhibition, still open today, centers around the idea of a gothic Victorian house that appears normal on the outside but contains a surreal multiverse within. A $3 million buy-in from Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin helped make it possible.

“I’m a science fiction guy, so talking about a Victorian mansion that’s been ripped loose from time and space, with portals to other dimensions and planets and strangenesses—it was right up my alley,” Martin told Fast Company in 2016.

Santa Fe, The House of Eternal Return (detail) [Photo: Kate Russell/courtesy Meow Wolf]

Over the course of its first year, the House of Eternal Return made three times its projected revenue and drew three-hour lines. In 2017, Meow Wolf reformed as a B Corp, guided by a board and CEO. Today, Tolosa said, the company is majority-owned by the long-term investor Invus Group, and has raised more than $400 million in funding overall.

Meow Wolf’s whole premise of live adventure has been often cited as an example of the growing “experience economy,” or the idea that, as materialism reaches an all-time high, consumers will start wanting to use their financial resources to actually do things rather than buy things. While the pandemic initially put a damper on this premise, it ultimately only augmented Americans’ desires to try new activities in-person. Meow Wolf opened its second location, the futuristic grocery store Omega Mart (now a TikTok favorite) in Las Vegas in 2021, followed by Denver’s cosmic Convergence Station that same year. The two Texas locations came shortly after.

Nearly a decade out from opening the House of Eternal Return, it’s become clear that the desire for live art installations is more than a passing fad—and fans can expect Meow Wolf New York to push the boundaries of wacky world-building even further, Tolosa said. “We will embrace the grandeur and international position of NYC and take Meow Wolf NYC to a level no one has ever seen before in immersive entertainment.”

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