Balloons Over Route 66 at the Balloon Museum: Are Murals Immersive Art?

Is a mural 3D immersive art? What if it's really big? What if it is curved around you? Curved away from you? What if you are surrounded by the artists who made it possible?

Immersion emerges in various ways: scale, space, movement, interactivity, and community. Even words can conjure immersion. Hence, "immersive journalism." Immersive experiences are a big (literally!) deal in the museum world. Museums like Seattle's Museum of Flight, Washington, D.C.'s National Building Museum, and, of course, Albuquerque's International Balloon Museum are intrinsically immersive experiences.

So, what about virtual reality? Projection mapping, such as used in the immersive Van Gogh museum experience? Giant walk-through fantasy worlds like Meow Wolf?

When it comes to immersion, there are many roads to the mountain and many mountains to the moon.

For our next 3D Immersive Arts NM meetup, we’ll visit Balloons Over Route 66 at the Balloon Museum — a fascinating hybrid of mural art, architectural space, suspended sculpture, community storytelling, and New Mexico visual culture.
The installation centers on a 66-foot-wide semi-circular mural by Albuquerque artist Jessey Sandoval. Rendered in striking black-and-white ink, the curved Route 66 cityscape wraps around viewers with retro motel signs, lowriders, desert imagery, roadside Americana, and unmistakable Burque energy.

Floating above the mural are 43 colorful hot-air-balloon artworks created by K–12 youth artists from across the Albuquerque metro area. The result is part mural, part floating sculpture garden, part community-built dreamscape.

And unlike many gallery experiences, this one is highly interactive and social. Many of the youth artists and their families — along with Jessey Sandoval himself — will be present during the event. Attendees will have opportunities to meet artists, discuss their processes and inspirations, and experience the installation as a living community space rather than a static exhibit.
This event checks every box of what our group explores:

• 3D spatial experience
• Environmental and immersive art
• Physical rather than purely digital immersion
• Community-created artwork
• Narrative and cultural layering
• Architecture shaping perception
• New Mexico identity and aesthetics
• Interaction between viewers and creators

No VR headset required.

Just art, space, people, stories, color, and a curved wall large enough to change how you experience the room.

If you’re interested in immersive art beyond screens — or curious how murals, sculpture, architecture, and community participation can combine into something experiential — this should be a particularly interesting meetup.

Look for me. Tall. Glasses. Maroon University of Chicago hat. Possible 360 camera...

Get your tickets:
EXHIBIT OPENING: Balloons Over Route 66