Meow Wolf is Unionizing. Is the Age of the Starving Artist Over?

***UPDATE (7/8/22): Since we published this episode this morning, we received a clarification from a Meow Wolf representative. She wrote in response to our guest John Wenzel's description of his reporting process: "The Denver Post article came out Wednesday morning, but the Meow Wolf Workers Collective Convergence Station Organizing Committee didn't formally reach out to CEO Jose Tolosa about the union until after 5 p.m. that day, after the article was published. Meow Wolf's brief statement and lack of answers to John's questions did not come from an unwillingness to be transparent, but rather a lack of information as the situation was still evolving."

Since Meow Wolf opened the doors to Convergence Station in Denver last year, the Santa Fe-based arts collective-turned-corporation has been the talk of the town. They brought jobs, global clout, and millions of dollars to the often overlooked Sun Valley neighborhood. But the company has also struggled with lawsuits related to gender discrimination in Denver and fair pay issues in its home state. Now, the Meow Wolf Workers Collective says employees here have taken steps to unionize. Today on the show, host Bree Davies and producer Paul Karolyi are joined by Denver Post arts reporter and critic John Wenzel, whose recent piece digs into the unionization efforts at the Denver Meow Wolf outpost. 

Bree also mentioned this story past guest Jason Blevins wrote for the Colorado Sun this week about the Rainbow Family gathering, which went down last week in Routt National Forest

Still don’t have plans for the weekend? We’ve got a rundown of curated picks in today’s newsletter https://denver.citycast.fm/newsletter/

Have you been to Convergence Station yet? Let us know what you think on Twitter @citycastdenver

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