SF’s Meow Wolf set to launch incubator project
Arts collective creates team to help kick-start creative businesses
Nico Salazar always thought of himself as an artist, although he’s had to work in retail or in freelance website creation to make a living — until Meow Wolf offered him a full-time job more than a year ago on its “big project” that turned out to be the popular exhibit “The House of Eternal Return.”
Now, after decorating one of the exhibit’s rooms with his bold, black-and-white graphics in what he terms almost a mind-blowing degree of artistic freedom, the Santa Fe artist has been chosen to launch the arts group’s first business incubator project.
“They assembled a team for me,” he said with an air of disbelief in his good fortune, standing amid various prototypes of his designs applied to T-shirts, leggings, tote bags and more items of apparel or fabric. “That was amazing ... . It’s very cool that they just believe in my work so much.”
Meow Wolf CEO Vince Kadlubek said this project is one of many ventures the company is eyeing for the future.
“We want to help launch other creative businesses,” he said. “We want to help an artist who has an idea. We have the supports to make it happen.” Such supports include business advice, legal help, fundraising, and even the ideas and resources from a network other artists to help flesh out someone’s concept, he said.
“This is an opportunity to launch more creative businesses in Santa Fe and New Mexico,” he said. With a planned $100,000 total investment, Meow Wolf has become a co-owner of Salazar’s business, Future Fantasy Delight.
But while Meow Wolf has provided a team to help him with issues such as business development, tax and legal matters, and other business needs, Salazar said he continues to have artistic freedom in the creation of the products. “They make sure everything is on the right track, moving in the right direction,” he said of his collaborators.
It’s pretty heady stuff for this 28-year-old, who graduated just two years ago from the Institute of American Indian Arts with his bachelor of fine arts degree.
“I have complete control of all designs,” he said. “That’s pretty big for an artist to just do what he wants.”
New locations
This project is just one of many Meow Wolf is looking at as it goes through a major transition over the next six months, according to Kadlubek.
From the entire Meow Wolf team operating “The House of Eternal Return,” a core creative team of about 100 members will be separated out to work on new projects full time, instead of “putting wristbands on people part of the time,” Kadlubek said. That would leave about 45 employees operating the Meow Wolf Arts Complex, he said.
The creative team, then, would concentrate on other projects, including the possibility of duplicating the success of “The House of Eternal Return” in other markets. Kadlubek said nothing is set in stone, but he’s had interest from people in Los Angeles; Las Vegas, Nev.; San Antonio, Texas; Seattle; and Philadelphia. The idea would be to create an immersive art experience, similar to the one in Santa Fe, but with a different storyline, involving artists in those cities. Any such project would be looking at an opening date three years from now, he estimated.
Meow Wolf has had a lot to brag about in terms of success. From the opening of its exhibit, “The House of Eternal Return,” in midMarch though mid-August, it has attracted some 250,000 people and generated gross revenues of more than $3 million, Kadlubek said. That has helped it pay off some of its debt faster than anticipated, including $100,000 that has been repaid from a $300,000 loan from Century Bank, he said, as well as other credit card debt.
It’s also working to build a $1.6 million cushion for what is expected to be the slow season as the tourist trade dwindles and kids return to school, he said. “We’ve been seeing 15,000 people a week in the high season,” Kadlubek said. “The
gift shop generates $100,000 a month in sales and 80 percent of that goes to the artists (who produce the merchandise).” The arts complex currently employs about 75 people, with the lowest pay set at $13.50 per hour, which he said he hopes to increase to $15 hourly — “a true living wage for people.”
Two other projects are in the works, both currently at the stage of searching for investors:
A feature film, with a screenplay by James Longmire and direction by Tristan Love, both local filmmakers, and starring Santa Fe actress Megan Burns, who portrays a lead character in the story told through the “Eternal Return” exhibit. The film would be a science-fiction drama with a PG-13 rating, telling essentially the story upon which the exhibit is based. The people on the project already have created a trailer to take to potential producers and investors.
A video game based on “The House of Eternal Return,” being created by Mindshare Labs, a local programming company, and Subliminal Gaming of Albuquerque. Each space within the exhibition will have its own level within the video game as Piper searches for her son Lex, who is lost in the multiverse. She is racing against agents of the Charter to get to him, Kadlubek said. The Charter, he added, tries to keep thoughts and people separated, while Piper’s family bloodline wants to free humanity from that segregation. He estimated this might be 18 months from completion.
More imminent is a planned shutdown of “The House of Eternal Return” for two weeks in January, allowing for an upgrade or replacement of portions of the exhibit, according to Kadlubek. “Then we’ll relaunch it with new elements,” he said.