Golf the Galleries

Join us for the 4th season of this playable, artist-designed, nine-hole mini golf installation, designed to be inclusive, family friendly and accessible.

Hole #1: “Pinball St. Louis,” by Philip and Kelsey Jordan
The course begins with a colorful “pop” and “bang” as golfers enter a life-sized pinball game that pays tribute to some of St. Louis’ cultural icons including the St. Louis Aquarium, City Museum and Laumeier Sculpture Park. The excitement and unpredictability of pinball is combined with a pop art motif to create four possible routes to two different holes. Players of all ages are reminded of the importance of play in our everyday lives – no matter what path you take!

Hole #2: “Check, Please!” by World Chess Hall of Fame
Inspired by the WCHOF’s upcoming exhibition, which will highlight food and drink-themed chess sets and imagery from their permanent collection. This fun-filled hole will ask golfers to sink their ball on a giant chessboard, with large-scale pieces adding an element of difficulty, while surrounded by images from Kingside Diner, the museum’s chess-themed restaurant. All golfers will get access to a QR code for a free beverage at a Kingside Diner location!

Hole #3: “Arcade,” by students of Grand Center Arts Academy Makerspace and Theater Department
“Arcade” immerses players in their favorite retro video games, with obstacles including Pac-Man’s antagonistic ghosts, Donkey Kong’s disruptive barrels and Ryu’s Street Fighter-style hurricane kick. This trip through classic ‘80s video games ends with a Pac-Man selfie station.

Hole #4: “Heads of Wash U Shops” by Mathew Branham, Gregory Cuddihee and Bryce Robinson
The managers of Washington University’s shops and making spaces create humorous casts of their own heads on pedestals.

Hole #5: “Nest” by Martha Valenta
Returning artist Martha Valenta evokes feelings of home, comfort and family in an interactive installation that invites golfers to help create a nest with yarn and other materials, supplied along with their putters and balls. Mom and Dad bird stand watch from above as their fledglings venture out into the wider world in this adorable hole inspired by Valenta’s grown children, away at college and working across town during the pandemic. Wooden cutouts offer playful photo-ops for all ages.

Hole #6: “Fly Over Country” by Tim Meehan
Multi-media artist Tim Meehan highlights the beauty of the Midwest from above. Looking down over a quilt-like patchwork of fields, crops, forests and rivers, and surrounded by a video projection of a beautiful blue sky, golfers will be immersed in Missouri’s great outdoors while navigating undulating hills, rivers, weather vanes and tractors to get their ball into the hole.

Hole #7: “What Goes Around” by Perennial and Jenny Murphy
What are the ways you can give your broken and discarded items new life? When you play this hole, you end up where you began because that’s what Perennial and artist Jenny Murphy want you to think about when it comes to all the STUFF in our lives. Your ball will travel through a tricky path scattered with broken and discarded items to get to a DIY patterned green. Once you’ve DIY-ed, you’ll roll through a beautiful landscape of reuse and creativity made of transformed objects! The gallery walls will be “littered” with inspiration and instruction for implementing a circular economy where we eliminate waste with the continual use of resources.

Perennial’s non-profit mission is to build a creative culture of sustainability where discarded items are transformed into cherished resources. To take a class or learn more about how Perennial transforms objects, lives, and communities visit www.perennialstl.org or follow on social media @perennialstl. Jenny Murphy is a social entrepreneur, community artist and multi-faceted maker. She founded Perennial in 2010 and you can follow her current creative adventures at @jenny.makes.it on Instagram.

Hole #8: “P.U.t.t-Perceptions of Uncertain-tees” by Laura and Philip Skroska
Inspired by the “double-slit experiment” in physics, that demonstrates that light and matter can exhibit characteristics of both waves and particles, “P.U.t.t-Perceptions of Uncertain-tees” puts a fun spin on this idea with the installation of a vertical wall between the tee and the hole, with two apparent openings through which the player must hit their ball. Optical illusions, blinds and shadows add further obstacles, introducing an element of chance to the game play.

Hole #9: “Tee Hee-Hee” by Tiffany Mulligan
The course ends with this hilarious hole by furniture maker and designer Tiffany Mulligan (whose last name makes her a natural mini-golf aficionado). A lover of practical jokes and pranks, Mulligan pulls out all the stops with “Tee Hee-Hee,” including banana peels, silly string, finger cuffs, joy buzzers, whoopie cushions and more distracting players from their goal of reaching the final hole.