On July 26, the iconic Meow Wolf lettering was installed on the side of the new building tucked alongside the Colfax Avenue viaduct by the Interstate 25 exit. It's a sign that the long-awaited Meow Wolf Denver — a giant entertainment complex brought to the Mile High City by the crew that created The House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe — could be opening soon.
The last official report had Meow Wolf Denver debuting early this fall; the specific date has not been announced. Over 300 artists, 110 of them local, have been working on installations inside the building, filling 79 spaces across four floors. Although word is trickling out on some of their projects — Molina Speaks collaborated with eighteen other artists on Indigenous Futurist Dreamscapes Lounge, for example — the official name of the entire installation is still under wraps.
But with the sign now up, that revelation could be coming soon, along with the actual opening date.
Meow Wolf was not the first immersive art project in the country, but the amazing success of House of Eternal Return, which exploded on the scene in 2016, inspired a clowder of copycats. Meow Wolf, too, has been expanding. Earlier this year, it opened an outpost in Las Vegas, dubbed Omega Mart; after Denver, it has projects planned in Phoenix and Washington, D.C.
To catch a far earlier example of immersive art, head west to 6715 West Colfax in Lakewood, where Casa Bonita, the pink eatertainment palace, opened back in 1974. That was long before the term "immersive art" was coined. "Kitschy" is a more common description for this spot, but fans of the form have embraced Casa Bonita as an early, and classic, example of immersive art.
It's been closed since March 2020, but reopening preparations continue indoors, with hints that Casa Bonita could return before summer ends.
Which means that within a matter of months, you'll be able to visit the country's very latest immersive-art projects, then travel a half-dozen miles west along Colfax — an immersive experience in itself — to toast Meow Wolf Denver at one of the country's earliest immersive-art examples.
Sounds like a purrfect fall.