Meow Wolf to Take Over Old Silva Lanes

Meow Wolf to Take Over Old Silva Lanes: Arts collective strikes new deal, plans on unveiling project this summer

The lot on Rufina Circle where Silva Lanes once operated seems like a picture postcard frozen in time. A once lit sign advertising karaoke hangs on its façade and another bowling-pin-shaped one stands proud on a corner. A satellite dish still resides there, glass blocks by the entrance have been punched through and a January breeze caresses the weeds that have invaded its 165-capacity parking lot.

Dormant since 2008, the nearly 33,000-square-foot space has long lost its luster, but local arts collective Meow Wolf is out to refurbish it and transform the old alley into a mixture of headquarters and installation space.

"What I can say at this point is that Meow Wolf can't wait to announce our plans for the building," the collective's Vince Kadlubek tells SFR, opting to remain tight-lipped about specific details.

Meow Wolf was recently awarded a $25,000 prize for "Best pitch" at the Albuquerque-based Creative-Startups, "the nation's first accelerator designed and built for creative-cultural entrepreneurs."

Financial backers for the new project include Game of Thrones mastermind George RR Martin.

"I am involved," Martin told SFR in an interview last month, asking to shine the light on Kadlubek's endeavors instead. "I would like to remain in the background on that," he said, alluding to the project's "exciting plans." Previously, GRRM lent his golden touch to the revitalization of the Jean Cocteau Cinema and is currently developing the space that used to house the Desert Academy on Camino Alire. Plans for that include artist studios and a small restaurant, as well as hosting the new headquarters for the New Mexico Film Foundation.

Founded the same year as Silva Lanes closed, Meow Wolf is responsible for over a dozen immersive cultural experiences including 2012's Omega Mart—a faux grocery store stocked with art goods executed by area schoolchildren—and 2011's acclaimed The Due Return, a multimedia installation centering on a 70-foot-long "inter-dimensional" ship.


The group was also behind Night Wave, a weekend series of nightlife events executed last summer thanks in part to a $4,000 economic development grant by the city.

"We're not gonna say what it is that we're doing," Kadlubek continues on the former Silva Lanes, adding that more information will be announced later this month. "It might be a bowling alley; maybe it's not a bowling alley. That's basically the extent of what we want to say at this point."

Listing broker John Shepler, who held the property listing for three years, dispels the idea of reviving glory days past. "The bowling lanes are already gone, so essentially it's just a big box," he says, pointing out that the lanes were actually property of Brunswick and not the Silvas. "All of that equipment was taken back by Brunswick." The rest was gutted a year an a half ago when a would-be buyer requested it.

Shepler is confident that the Meow Wolf initiative will contribute to the "inertia in that corridor."

Renovations on the space will soon start at the hands of Constructive Assets Inc.

"It's all being worked out," Kadlubek says regarding the vision for the space, citing Return's enveloping nature as a springboard for the group's plans at Rufina Circle. "We create immersive exhibits and that's probably what's going to be happening now at this space."

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