Immersed in Art, someday soon

Even as the pandemic takes its toll on tourism, immersive museums and experiential art centers are expanding to new cities and wooing investors willing to gamble on the future of the emerging industry.

Fotografiska wanted to introduce New Yorkers to a different type of museum when it opened in December 2019 in Manhattan, welcoming visitors to view photography exhibitions in a boozy clubhouse atmosphere complete with midnight D.J. sets and a restaurant run by a Michelin-rated chef. The coronavirus pandemic has brought an end to the party, but not to the Swedish company’s dreams of dotting the world with its for-profit museums. The franchise has announced plans for a fourth location, in Berlin.

Similar ambitions have fueled Meow Wolf, which over the last decade became a tourism juggernaut in Santa Fe, N.M. The immersive-art company welcomed a half-million visitors in 2019 into its psychedelic “House of Eternal Return,” with a giant marimba that resembles a mastodon’s rib cage. But an outbreak of Covid-19 cases among staff members forced the enterprise to close its facilities last year, resulting in layoffs for 200 employees. Despite losing half its work force, the company is barreling ahead with a $158 million investment, expanding its footprint with new locations in Phoenix, Washington, D.C., Denver and Las Vegas.

Read the full article from The New York Times here