Another museum is coming to downtown Seattle with the hopes of attracting visitors with a mix of interactive rooms and displays.
Museum of Illusions, a global attraction with more than 50 locations in 25 countries, is opening a permanent location in Seattle on June 28 in the historic Skinner Building — home to the 5th Avenue Theatre — at 1330 5th Ave.
The family friendly museum will feature 9,000 square feet of holograms and illusion rooms, including a “Vortex Tunnel” to test visitors’ perception of physics, an anti-gravity room, and a big walk-in kaleidoscope.
The Seattle location will also feature installations unique to the city, such as the “Reversed Room” and “Building Illusion” where visitors appear as if they are levitating upside down on a monorail or hanging from a Seattle building.
“Each display is uniquely designed to puzzle your perceptions, fool your senses, and stimulate curiosity, all while educating visitors about the fascinating science behind the illusions,” the museum said in a news release, calling its “edutainment” a blend of art, science, and psychology.
Museum of Illusions was founded in Zagreb, Croatia, by Roko Živković and Tomislav Pamuković in 2015. The fast-growing chain of private museums has attracted more than 15 million visitors worldwide, in locations ranging from Paris to Dubai to New York City.
The museum is the latest entertainment entity to take over a space downtown in a bid to attract more people to the city’s core.
The high-tech, interactive WNDR Museum opened along the waterfront in March 2023 with an array of immersive, multi-sensory experiences showcasing a mix of video, audio, interactive and AI-generated artwork. But it closed before the end of the year.
Other stabs at interactive spaces in Seattle have included “Stranger Things: The Experience,” which sought to attract fans of the Netflix series to a SoDo warehouse, and “Tomb Raider Experience Seattle,” which is bringing the popular video game series to life this fall in an escape-room-style format, not far from Pike Place Market.
“The Museum of Illusions has found the perfect home in Seattle, a city deeply celebrated for its trailblazing technology, innovation and curiosity,” Museum of Illusions CEO Kim Schaefer said in a statement.
Tickets for the Museum of Illusions will start at $27. Walk-ins are welcome, but visitors are encouraged to reserve tickets online.
