Meow Wolf will lay off 75 workers as part of a “strategic restructuring” that will slash its workforce by 20%, the immersive entertainment company said Thursday.
The number of Denver employees being laid off was not immediately available.
Based in Santa Fe, Meow Wolf runs Convergence Station just west of downtown Denver at 1338 1st St., which features surreal, interactive sculptures and rooms crafted by local and national artists. The Denver location opened in 2021 and has grappled with worker issues at times — with the most recent troubles arriving in April, when 165 employees were laid off company-wide, including 50 in Denver.
The current layoffs, which arrive during the height of the holidays, will affect non-exhibition employees, or people who work outside the elaborate installations.
“This includes all levels … including senior leadership roles,” wrote Kati Murphy, vice president of public relations and communications, in a statement. “These changes were made with great care and we are mindful of their impact on our team and the broader community.”
Murphy said the company would only answer questions via email. Employees earlier this year complained that previous layoff news had leaked via social media before managers could even tell employees about it. Some current and former employees told The Denver Post at the time that they felt the company lacked accountability when it came to workplace issues.
Organizers with the union, the Meow Wolf Workers Collective, weren’t immediately available for comment, but according to a press statement, employees had been asked to voluntarily resign weeks earlier. That prompted union officials to challenge the company’s CEO, Jose Tolosa, and its board of directors on the financial health of the company and employees’ rights.
Specific requests included reducing the number of executive-level positions at the company, normalizing union relations, using more internal employees instead of contractors, and hiring more people for “chronically understaffed” exhibitions where guest safety is affected by areas that are “unsafe and poorly maintained.”
In April, union officials said they believed the company was knowingly violating its collective bargaining agreement, which required Meow Wolf to follow a specific process that prevents day-to-day operations from changing during periods of negotiation.
Meow Wolf has expanded significantly since the pandemic, but its employee count has wavered at times. In 2020 the company cited devastating pandemic-era losses in cutting roughly half of its workers — or 201 employees — even as it planned to open new attractions in Denver and Las Vegas. (The company knew those cuts were coming well before pandemic lockdowns came into play, according to the Santa Fe Reporter.)
The company in September also opened a kiosk-style gift shop at Denver International Airport, its large-scale Radio Tave location in Houston on Oct. 31, and another large-scale exhibition, Meow Wolf Grapevine outside Dallas, in 2023. It opened a Las Vegas location in 2021 and plans to open another in Los Angeles — which will be its sixth permanent installation — but did not provide a date.
“This moment represents both a difficult transition and an opportunity to refocus Meow Wolf’s future strategy,” Murphy wrote in her statement. “We are deeply grateful to all the individuals who are departing for their contributions to Meow Wolf. Their passion, creativity, and dedication have shaped the company’s growth and its standing as a leader in the immersive arts.”