Originally an artists’ collective with a bent toward performance, Meow Wolf is now best known for a Victorian house they built in a bowling alley. After years creating intermittent art, the 10-member group from Santa Fe settled down—with an assist from New Mexican novelist George R.R. Martin (of “Game of Thrones” fame), who bought the bowling alley—to tell a nebulous, otherworldly story in the form of a built environment. The trippy house opens onto other dimensions, and visitors get to explore it and discover the story for themselves.

“At the heart of it, I’m inspired by the evolution of storytelling, and I’m excited for what Meow Wolf is doing because it really is on the brink of what I believe to be a new form of storytelling, 21st century storytelling,” says Vince Kadlubek, a co-founder of Meow Wolf.

Meow Wolf’s success is spawning new and bigger locations, starting with a 50,000-square-foot space in Las Vegas, opening in December 2019. It’ll be related to the original story, incorporating theater and digital storytelling while acting as social commentary on consumerism, says Kadlubek.

“We’re ushering in a new form of the way people experience story, and in a way that is so deep and so immersive that it actually, potentially, is ushering in a new way for people to experience reality as a whole, not just entertainment,” he says.

Further locations, in Denver and Washington, D.C., are not the group’s only outlet. Storytelling, as Kadlubek sees it, will include other avenues Meow Wolf has employed in the past, including episodic TV, feature film, animation, comic books, podcasts and more.