‘Game of Thrones’ Author George R.R. Martin to Open Kooky Santa Fe Art Center

Rendering of Meow Wolf Art Complex interior.

Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin has pledged $2.7 million to renovate a disused Santa Fe bowling alley so that it can host a new art center. Martin has leased the 33,000-square-foot Silva Lanes space for 10 years to local art collective Meow Wolf, which has promised a “unique, interactive arts and entertainment experience.”

Founded in 2008, Meow Wolf bills itself as the city’s first alternative arts and music venue, specializing in “fully immersive exhibits.” When it opens later this year, the Silva Lanes space will be mostly devoted to a permanent sequel to the group’s multimedia installation The Due Return (2011), which boasted the theme of an alien, inter-dimensional sea voyage. The House of Eternal Return will be ten times the size of the original. Meow Wolf hopes to attract 100,000 annual visitors, which seems doable considering the original reportedly saw 25,000 visitors over three months.

Other features of the center will include 19 artist studios, an additional exhibition gallery, a gift shop, and a 2,000-square-foot workshop and learning center named after Meow Wolf’s David Loughridge, who died last year. Admission will cost $8–15, with discounts for local families. Meow Wolf has received a $25,000 grant for the project from Albuquerque Creative Startups, which aims to support “creative and cultural” entrepreneurs, and will undertake a Kickstarter campaign to raise $100,000.

The Meow Wolf Art Complex will be the second Santa Fe cultural institution to garner Martin’s support. In 2013, he reopened the Jean Cocteau Cinema, Santa Fe’s self-proclaimed “most eclectic movie house.”

For more of artnet News’s coverage on Game of Thrones see Game of Thrones Fans’ Tweets Bring Down King Joffrey Statue, Artist Perfectly Captures the Spirit of Game of Thrones‘s Shocking Purple Wedding, Game of Thrones Art is Gory But Beautiful, and Game of Thrones Street Art Hits London.


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