Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

When communities talk about economic development, the conversation often centers on familiar metrics: jobs created, businesses attracted or retained, investment generated, and growth in a city’s GDP.

But a group of Memphis creatives, engineers, and entrepreneurs believes there is another measure worth watching: the experiences a city creates for the people who live there and the people it hopes to attract.

That idea is taking shape on Mud Island, where a creative team is transforming a long-abandoned museum into an immersive, interactive world unlike anything Memphis has seen before.

Baron Von Opperbean and the River of Time (BVO) is a 33,000-square-foot immersive, open-world art experience being developed inside the former Mississippi River Museum. The first phase, encompassing about 8,000 explorable square feet, opened in May 2026.

The project is the brainchild of artist Christopher Reyes and his co-founders Kathryn Hicks, Marvin Stockwell and Reuben Brunson. Jee Vahn Knight joined the team about one year ago as CEO.

Their ambition is to show people “what’s next” for the city of Memphis.

Transitioning an abandoned museum into an alternate universe

Stockwell shared the founding story with our Teknovation team.

The story began when Reyes received a call from Carol Coletta of Memphis River Parks. The municipality owns the old Mississippi River Museum and lacked a tenant for years. Coletta asked Reyes and Stockwell if they would come look at the space on Mud Island, asking the question: Do you see potential?

They jointly said yes.

“When we saw the museum space, Christopher knew in an instant what we needed to do,” Stockwell said. “The Mississippi River Museum had been closed since 2019, leaving behind years of museum assets, infrastructure, and architectural elements – including two old boats on the property.”

Rather than wipe the slate clean, the founding team saw an opportunity to build something new on top of what was already there.

They decided to contract the property and transition it into an alternate cinematic universe centered around the fictional Baron Von Opperbean (BVO), who is a character at the center of much of Reyes’ works.

Building something out of the ordinary

Unlike a typical museum, where people wander in, follow a path, and wander out. The BVO team wanted to create a web of a world that could keep people of all ages entertained beyond the bounds of a traditional linear story. The team wants visitors to feel as though they have entered a world that already exists, with its own characters, stories, and interconnected environments.

“BVO is not a piece of artwork that you can step into, but an immersive cinematic world that you can step into,” Vahn Knight said. “It’s like exploring a city, wherever curiosity leads you.”

Visitors are encouraged to move through it, interact with it, and play within it.

Building the dream team

For Vahn Knight, the opportunity to build BVO brought together several chapters of her professional life.

Her background includes construction and app development, as well as work with a startup accelerator in Santa Fe. Those experiences eventually led her to Meow Wolf, the immersive arts and entertainment company that transformed an old bowling alley in Santa Fe into an elaborate interactive art experience. She spent some time there before moving to Memphis in 2020.

“When I got here, I wasn’t just looking for a job. When I start something, I go all in. So, I was looking for the next big opportunity to put my all into something,” Vahn Knight said.

Then she saw Mud Island.

“In any other city, this would be the most hotly contested, the most valuable piece of land for entertainment. It’s got a riverfront view of downtown Memphis,” she said.

About a year ago, Vahn Knight met Reyes and Stockwell. Soon after, she joined the BVO team as CEO.

Nate Smith, the Director of Programs at Epicenter, Memphis’ Entrepreneur Center and Launch Tennessee partner, also became aware of the vision, project scope, and team behind it.

As someone who works with entrepreneurs every day, Smith knows that having a compelling idea and executing it successfully are two very different things. But after hearing the BVO team’s vision and meeting the people behind it, Smith saw something different.

“I knew that they actually had the technical chops to pull off what they were talking about,” he said.

Smith encouraged the team to join Epicenter’s two-year Innovate Xcelerate program, designed to meet Memphis entrepreneurs where they are and help them move their companies forward.

Today, BVO has five full-time employees, nine part-time employees, and a network of contractors.

Can experiences be a form of economic development?

Vahn Knight and Stockwell believe the economic-development argument for BVO extends beyond ticket sales. They believe the next generation of cities will increasingly be defined by the experiences they create– whether it’s museums, food, music, parks, or adventure experiences.

Memphis, particularly, in thier view, has a lot of geographic potential to make a splash in the entertainment space.

“Memphis already has a million people. We’ve got 5 million in the Mid South. Yet, it’s still an entertainment desert because we’re three hours away from Nashville. We’re five hours away from St. Louis. We’re two hours away from Little Rock. We are in our own tri-state created desert,” Vahn Knight said.

The BVO team’s goal is to build an attraction capable of drawing audiences near and far.

More tourists mean more demand for hotels, restaurants, transportation and other businesses. Plus, building the experience itself also creates demand for a specialized workforce, including engineers, designers, creative technologists, fabricators, local artisans, and gaming programmers.

What’s next for BVO? And What’s next for Memphis?

The 8,000-square-foot first phase that opened in May is only the beginning, Stockwell explained. The team plans to add another 10,000 square feet by the end of 2026, with the full buildout targeted for completion in 2027.

That final experience will include two large boat environments and greatly expand the alternate universe.

As Vahn Knight puts it, the goal is to make BVO the “what’s next” for Memphis.

Plan a visit to Baron Von Opperbean and the River of Time (BVO).

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