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2024 was a year of significant growth and transformation. From opening new portals within the multiverse, to facilitating deeper engagement across our communities, here’s a look at our top moments of impact from the past year.
Photo by Atlas Media.
Meow Wolf is a world-builder—dedicated to exploring and bringing every corner of the imagination to life. Through this, we aim to inspire everyone around us, from our employees to our biggest fans, to embrace their own creativity. However, as we dream up these fantastical worlds, we remain grounded in the realities of Earth, emphasizing our commitment to impact, inclusion, and sustainability as a purpose-driven company.
2024 was a year marked by significant growth and transformation: we opened our fifth permanent exhibition in Houston and announced that we will be joining the Los Angeles community in 2026. Meow Wolf employees drove profound change both within our internal operations and our larger communities as we partnered with like-minded organizations to expand access within the arts and continue sparking creativity.
"This year, we’ve seen the power of creativity, collaboration, and community in action. Despite challenges, our team has built worlds, sparked the imagination, and made a tangible difference in the lives of many. I am profoundly grateful for every individual who has contributed to our vision, proving that when we embrace innovation and care for one another, we can create portals of possibilities."
-José Tolosa, CEO
Change can also be difficult. The past year has also tested our resilience and forced us to adapt to new realities. During times of complexity and evolution, it’s tempting to seek comfort in clear-cut answers. Yet, true understanding often lies in the spaces between—where nuance is embraced, and binary thinking falls short. Art gives us the tools to question assumptions, hold paradoxes, and explore perspectives beyond our own. When we let creativity guide us, we can begin to see that growth comes not from simple solutions, but from the beauty of the unfolding process.
The power of change lies not in choosing one path or the other, but in the courage to explore the whole spectrum while in partnership with each other. We invite you to learn more about our top moments of impact from 2024.
No, we are not talking about crustaceans. Our Shrimps (A.K.A. Meow Wolf Employees)
are the cornerstone of Meow Wolf. Walls may frame a space, but it’s the creativity, passion, and connections of those within that give it life and meaning. The Shrimps Are Very Essential (SAVE) Fund was established in 2024 by the Meow Wolf Foundation to provide financial relief to our employees experiencing financial hardship.
The launch of the SAVE Fund symbolizes the combined effort and compassion that has been a throughline of our values since the very beginning. This type of aid is based on solidarity and reciprocity. It involves a reimagining of the way we see ourselves in connection with others—where meeting someone's needs is meeting our collective needs.
“The SAVE Fund was a lifeline during an incredibly difficult time for my family. It allowed me to cover the sudden and unexpected cost of traveling across the country for bereavement leave, letting me focus on being with my family when they needed me most. Without this support, navigating both the financial and emotional stress would have been far more overwhelming.”
-Anonymous
Part of what makes our impact so meaningful is the generosity, care, and community that is shared by our people. It is no surprise that our Shrimps have deep roots in the places where they live - many are still participating in local artist collectives, regularly volunteering including through board service, and financially supporting a variety of causes that are near and dear to their hearts.
Last year, the Meow Wolf Foundation launched employee matches for donations and volunteer service to honor the unique ways our Shrimps build community. This year alone, Shrimps have contributed over $33,000 and volunteered over 1000 hours to an expansive list of nonprofit organizations - from those working to address affordable housing, to disaster relief and animal rescue, to mental health and art access. This engagement reflects over 60% participation across our company. We’ve got the power, the passion, and the purpose. Together, we’re using our time, talent, and treasure for good.
“ I volunteer to express my gratitude forward into the world.”
-Redd, Meow Wolf Santa Fe
In 2024, Meow Wolf Education invited visitors to unlock the learning behind our exhibitions. We created free, curated educational guides that allow students, teachers, and eternal learners to enhance their immersive experiences. Last year, almost 20,000 students and educators explored a Meow Wolf location as part of a field trip.
We are also incredibly proud that over 20% of those visits were completely free as part of Meow Wolf’s initiative to expand access to the arts. These learning materials are at the heart of our commitment to make Meow Wolf accessible to all. We believe that everyone deserves the chance to wander through Numina’s magical swamplands in Convergence Station, or to discover a secret world hidden within a refrigerator at House of Eternal Return. Field trips are an accessible way for young minds to engage with our transformative experiences.
Meow Wolf education also spotlights the talented artists and technologists behind our immersive worlds. By introducing students to possible STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) careers, we hope to inspire the next generation of creators and innovators.
VOICE has been trailblazing change from the get go! It is truly inspiring to see the team's vision for a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace come to life. It is an honor to lead a group of passionate, creative, and empathetic individuals that make up our Grapevine chapter. VOICE demonstrates that when our ideas meet empowerment, meaningful change occurs”
-Kendyl Kercho, Meow Wolf Grapevine
Meow Wolf aspires to create places of belonging. This includes how we establish a safe and welcoming space for onsite & remote employees to share innovative ideas, coordinate events that celebrate our unique team dynamic, and champion an inclusive work environment where everyone feels valued and heard. The Valorize Our Inclusive Culture & Employees (VOICE) chapters are made up of Shrimps from across the company who are dedicated to cultivating a supportive and connected environment through collaboration, education, advocacy, and engagement. We have proudly established VOICE Chapters in Denver, Las Vegas, Grapevine, and Houston and look forward to a 2025 launch of Santa Fe and Remote Shrimps.
“Being involved with VOICE has reignited my excitement for what’s possible when diverse minds come together. By fostering better communication and truly hearing one another, we cultivate compassion, creativity, and bold ideas. Together, we’re building a workplace unlike any other—where belonging sparks innovation and drives lasting impact.”
-Davis Baker, Meow Wolf Grapevine
While we love every hue in our Meow Wolf color palette, in 2024, we painted with a lot of green. Meow Wolf renewed our commitment to operating sustainably by launching a comprehensive initiative to measure and reduce our environmental impact and began tracking our waste, energy usage, and carbon emissions in order to establish a baseline and set meaningful reduction targets.
Passionate employees across the Meow Wolf multiverse formed a Sustainability Council and identified opportunities to reduce waste and decrease our emissions. This incredible effort from our Shrimps resulted in big wins: we eliminated single use plastic bags from our gift shops and began using 100% recycled materials for our Meow Wolf plushies.
We have also integrated sustainable material analysis into our design process in order to make our exhibitions less wasteful. 26% of the installations by Meow Wolf artists in Houston’s Radio Tave are recycled, and future projects will lean even deeper into environmentally-friendly design by incorporating biodegradable building materials like mycelium and cob.
Radio Tave, Meow Wolf’s fifth permanent exhibition, opened its doors in Houston on October 31, 2024. Everything about this project – its location within the Historic Fifth Ward, the installations by local artists, and even the story centered around a small radio station – is deeply rooted in Houston’s unique community and history.
Before officially opening, we showed our appreciation to the residents of our newest community by inviting over 20,000 members of local nonprofits and schools to visit Radio Tave free of charge and donating $25,000 to Houston nonprofit organizations. We are dedicated to continuing our work with the Houston community to expand equitable access to the arts.
Community is one of the most powerful things we can create and share. Community means that no matter what you face, there’s a network of people who will stand beside you. Community is also about action. It’s in the small gestures: a helping hand when someone is struggling, a kind word when encouragement is needed, or simply listening with compassion. It’s in the bigger moments too—when we rally around a cause, solve problems together, or celebrate our shared successes.
“I strongly believe that the creative economy only becomes sustainable through collaboration and solidarity within our own communities”
-Brandon Vargas, Meow Wolf Denver
This year, our partnerships included deeper storytelling and engagement with both our internal and external stakeholders. Starting in July 2024, we began a Blob series of Art & Healing by highlighting Meow Wolf Foundation grantees.
Our team at Grapevine, TX’s The Real Unreal led a keystone project with Dallas nonprofit SPARK!. SPARK! partners with local innovators to bring creative programming to their community. The Real Unreal and SPARK! worked together on the Prismatic Project to empower local students to design and build their own immersive spaces. What started as donations from the Meow Wolf Foundation and Meow Wolf Grapevine, TX expanded into so much more – The Real Unreal provided mentorship, workshops, and creative reviews to students throughout the program.
This collaboration won several prestigious awards in recognition of its unique impact – the Best Community PR Relations award and Best in Show award from the Public Relations Society of America, and the Obelisk Award in New Arts Initiatives from the North Texas Business Council for the Arts.
These stories are among many examples of what makes our community so special. It’s through diversity of thought, experience, and heart that we find our greatest power.
