What is Meow Wolf Museum?
The best way I could describe Meow Wolf is that it is a large scale immersive and interactive art installation in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Meow Wolf uses lights, color, sounds, and texture from floor to ceiling, which makes you completely forget that you are in sunny Santa Fe. The Museum is interactive and encourages you to touch, tap, feel, or play with the art and it will react. You can open draws, press buttons, hit stumps, play music, and change things in the spaces. The experience is very surrealist, like you are walking into a dream or the irrational, unconscious mind.
There is a through-line story to help you make sense of the experience, but you are only given the first clue. From there, explore on your own to discover the rest of the story.
through a series of otherworldly rooms and spaces. With some familiar touches, you are not completely lost in a dream world, but free to explore and interact with the objects you find along the way. With an open mind, I joyously and tentatively discovered this artist-created world. It is hard to categorize or describe Meow Wolf Museum without using abstract terms. But keep reading for a better idea of what you are getting yourself into, should you decide to go.
At a Glance:
- Rating: 4 (out of 4) stars, would definitely go back
- Intensity: Flats, white blouse and pants (you want the blouse to reflect the black light and pants because you’ll be rubbing up against many things…)
- Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Cost: $25.00/adult
- Restrooms: around the corner from the entrance
- Timing: I think we spent 1.5 to 2 hours here
Highlights:
- Interactive and immersive art experience
- Encourages imaginative play and wonder
- Character actor in amazing outfits
Lowlights:
- It is very popular, so the longer we were there, the busier it got
The Experience *Spoiler’s Ahead*
The very first room of Meow Wolf is the facade of a classic American home with two stories. Nothing seems to be out of place beyond that the home is inside the Museum building. Before entering, a staff member instructed us to look in the mailbox for our first clue to the overall storyline. From the first clue and subsequent exploration, we gathered that a family lived in the home had began doing experiments, which somehow opened dimensions or portals to otherworldly places and times. There is a lot more to the story, like how, why, and each family member’s role.
Once inside the home, we were more excited to crawl through the fireplace and other rooms before looking for more clues. While some people took the storyline very seriously, I was more focused on ensuring I didn’t miss any rooms, which is harder than it sounds. Many of the otherworldly rooms connect to one another, so you end up down a rabbit hole that might eventually come back to the original American home.
My Favorite Rooms
The otherworldly rooms range from beautiful to weird and everything in between. Here are some of my favorite rooms:
- Laser Musical Instrument: My ultimate favorite room was completely dark with almost nothing in it. Except in the middle of the room was a triangular-shaped object with three rows of lasers coming from the ceiling straight to the floor. The rows had probably seven or eight laser beams evenly spaced like strings on a guitar. When you ran your hand through the laser light, a sound would play. It was a laser musical instrument!!! I was completely mesmerized and I forced Rebecca to come back to the room when it was less busy and we could hear the notes.
- Musical T-Rex Skeleton: I suppose I love the interaction element of the musical instruments because one of my other favorite rooms was a giant neon plastic T-Rex Skeleton. When you used one of mallets on the rib cage a note would sound. So much fun!
- Tiny Japan Street: This is one of those tiny elements that would easily go unnoticed. On the upper level near the stage, there is a little area in the sky with paper lanterns, warm tones, and signs to look like a little alleyway from Japan. You can pop out of the window and take a picture.
- Neon Spaceship and Treehouses: On the second story in the otherworldly side of things, there is a small round spaceship with neon light that changes color. This one reminded me a lot of the “Breathing Light” exhibition at LACMA, but also more generally the color focus of James Turrell pieces. On this level there are many little “treehouses”, each more fantastical than the next. I loved them all.
Photographing Meow Wolf
I should preface this by saying you should go to Meow Wolf for the experience and not for photos. It is a place to be fully engaged and allow other guests to access unique places. If you don’t get the exact right shot, move along and keep exploring. It’s likely you won’t get the exact right shot due lack of light, but also because the spaces are small and oddly shaped. Also, it is tricky to get far enough away to get a perspective of each room. However, there are some rooms that photograph a little easier and you can appreciate the crazy, irrational beautiful details that Meow Wolf offers.
Areas that are easier to photograph:
- Black and White Cartoon Room: Everything in this room is white with heavy black outlines to make it look like you are inside an old-timey cartoon kitchen or Lichtenstein painting. You can sit at the table or interact with the different appliances around the room.
- Underwater Black Light Coral Hallway: This hallway is surprisingly simple with neon color “coral” creating a pathway that looks underwater. The hallway is very large, but also very dark!
- Spaceship Hallway: The areas in the spaceship have less going on and more light, while still looking very cool. They are a major thoroughfare, so be conscientious of guests.
- Furry-Blob Room: This room has a furry chair, furry ottoman, and furry blobs on the walls to match. The room is large enough to take a step back.
Getting There
We drove to the Meow Wolf Museum using googlemaps. The Museum does not seem to be in the downtown area, so you will need to uber/lyft there if you do not have a car. It will take a little over a half hour to get to Meow Wolf from the downtown area by bus. The address is:
1352 Rufina Circle
Santa Fe, NM 87507
Overall Thoughts: Meow Wolf Museum
I LOVED the Meow Wolf Museum. It took a few hours and some food to come down from that level of stimulation, but it was well worth the experience. It was weird, beautiful, and amazing. Though I cannot say for sure, it looks like different artists designed and created the different otherworldly rooms. The attention to detail, structure, and immersiveness was absolutely incredible. I would love to go back a few more times and revisit my favorite rooms and discover new joyous touches. Part of what I love about Meow Wolf is that it takes art out of the stuffy, pristine environment to one that you can engage with.
What other unique museums have you gone to that were surprisingly delightful? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment below!
Happy Travels,
Hanna