A new, 40,000-square-foot art museum opened Saturday at 2306 South Highway 6 in Katy this Dec. 26. The new museum includes more than 40 unique exhibits focused on displays of light, color, sound and natural elements.

“I am really looking forward to seeing the expressions on peoples’ faces when they experience Seismique for the first time; I liken it to the equivalent of walking through a portal and into an alternative universe that is a feast for the senses,” said Seismique creator Steve Kopelman.

Kopelman, who has a background in immersive experience and escape games, said the year has been very difficult worldwide and he hopes Seismique can serve as a bit of an escape for visitors who are exhausted from the pandemic and other issues this year has brought.

A press release from Seismique indicated that the new facility will have policies in place to ensure visitor safety such wearing masks, limiting capacity, offering hand sanitizing stations throughout the facility and staff frequently sanitizing displays and the facility overall. A mobile app also allows visitors to interact with displays through their mobile devices without touching communal dials and knows, the press release said.

Overall, more than 30 artists’ exhibitions are on display for visitors to explore at Seismique.

Artists featured at Seismique include Japanese crochet artist Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam who has been active globally since the 1960s. Horiuchi MacAdam has created a playscape using colorful crocheted materials that allow children to explore her work in three dimensions through her installation “Public Art for Kids” which began as an installation for a park in Tokyo and has since evolved and grown.

Another featured exhibit is an “Avatar” inspired exhibit called “Eden” which is a large gallery by New Orleans-based artist David Carry in collaboration with Brian Val Habisreitinger. “Eden” includes oversized carved trees, custom lighting and ultra-violet, blaclight-reactive pant and three large holograms.

Horiuchi MacAdam has a second gallery entitled “Venus” with a multi-dimensional playground designed to emulate the surface of the planet Venus. The display is fairly unique as one of only three installations of its type in the country. “Venus” is surrounded by a mural entitled “Ocular Existence” by Chicago-based artist C.J. Hungerman.

Museum guests can also visit “Acid Rain,” an installation piece designed and constructed by Mark Roberts of Smooth Technology that provides the optical illusion of walking through rain that comes from the ground up. As viewers work their way through the display, the rain appears to freeze in midair and eventually reverse its flow and move groundward.

Other displays will also be available for visitors to explore including “The Hub,” a 70-foot spaceship that creates a display using 1,000,000 LEDs and features other multisensory displays.

Kopelman said he and his collaborator on the Seismique project, Josh Corley – both Houston-area natives – were inspired by many artists as they travelled the world and the museum is the “singular manifestation of our collective imaginations.”

“(Corley) and I are both proud Houstonians, and we’re excited to launch Seismique in our own backyard to enhance what is already one of the best places on Earth for art and culture. When President Kennedy gave his 1962 moon-shot speech at Rice University, he espoused the virtues of space as a vast frontier that beckons never-ending exploration. Nearly 60 years later in the same city, Seismique will further embody the limitless potential of space exploration through the lenses of art and technology,” Kopelman concluded.