Nearly five years after Convergence Station opened its doors in Denver, Meow Wolf is adding a new interactive experience to the massive immersive art installation.
“Heirloomarium,” a new room created entirely by Meow Wolf’s in-house creative team, opens to the public Tuesday, September 1. The installation takes visitors into one of Convergence Station’s more ancient and mysterious spaces while introducing a new interactive, game-like experience.
When Convergence Station opened, the response was immediate. The exhibition sold 35,000 tickets within its first 24 hours and welcomed 1 million visitors during its first nine months. Today, the Denver location remains one of the city’s major immersive art attractions.
“Heirloomarium” is located off the Obsolete Obscurity hallway, where Eemia and the Ossuarian catacombs converge. The space was repurposed from an ancient mineshaft and incorporates elements of rock, glass, and metal into an environment filled with fossilized plants and animals, crystallized OSS formations and retro-futuristic screens displaying fragments of memories.
The room is part of the fictional Eemian-Librarian research collective which rediscovered and reclaimed the site. According to Meow Wolf, the collective uses “arcane technomancy” to holographically bring ancient creatures preserved in the fossil record back to life.
Visitors play an active role in that process.
Rather than simply walking through the installation, guests can interact with the room by connecting OSS crystals, fossils, and old-tech screens in specific sequences. Successfully completing the connections reanimates an incorporeal creature within a holographic environment and uploads it to Convergence Station’s shared knowledge network.
Those who complete the full creature anthology are designated official “Archaeologists.”
The room then returns to an ambient state when no one is interacting with it, ready for the next visitor to begin the process.
“The team pushed themselves and delivered a space that’s genuinely joyful to walk through,” Brie Lipari, general manager of Meow Wolf Denver, says. “That’s what I hope the team is proudest of: not just the finished room, but how much it was about connection—finding the threads between people, between ideas, between the strange and the familiar—and choosing to embrace them instead of pushing them away.”
More than 20 Meow Wolf artists, engineers, creative directors, and other team members contributed to the installation.
Brandon Vargas, artist liaison at Meow Wolf Denver, describes the room as a reflection of the artists who have helped shape Convergence Station since its opening.
“‘Heirloomarium’ was created by the artists and artisans who keep Convergence Station alive,” Vargas says. “You can really see how their time and experience shows up in the techniques, collaboration, and art in the installation.”
He added that the room feels like “an exciting love letter to the core spirit and narrative of Convergence Station.”
Alongside the new room, Galleri Gallery, Convergence Station’s local gallery, will open the second part of its Demi-Decade Exhibition. The exhibition features work from some of the same Meow Wolf creators who worked on “Heirloomarium” and will be on display through September 30. Admission to the gallery is included with general admission to Convergence Station.
Members of the press and media can preview “Heirloomarium” during an event Monday, August 31 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Sips (with a Z) inside Convergence Station. A speaking program will begin at 4:30 p.m., followed by a preview of the new room and an opportunity to meet the artists involved in its creation.
Those interested in attending must RSVP to Meow Wolf by August 18.
“Heirloomarium” will be available during regular Convergence Station hours beginning September 1.
Convergence Station is located at 1338 1st Street in Denver. Tickets are available through Meow Wolf’s Denver website.
Photo courtesy of Meow Wolf
