Students on a Sculpture course at the University of Minnesota probably weren’t expecting mathematics and power tools to play such an important role in their creation of art. But then, it’s not every class that gets to design and build two holes of mini golf for the world-renowned Walker Art Center.
This year marked the 25th anniversary of the Walker’s outdoor sculpture garden and the 6th year the museum has hosted its summer treat, the 15-hole Artist-Designed Mini Golf course.
The Walker approached the University of Minnesota, and asked them to submit proposals to create one a hole as a project for one of their classes, they then came back and upped the ante to two holes.
“We submitted four proposals, said Chris Larson, sculpture professor and they selected the two most ambitious projects”. They were chosen from more than 60 proposals from teams of Minnesota artists, architects, and designers.
And while mini golf may not be as serious as main stream golf, the combination of art and mini golf proved quite serious. Students worked long hours, fretting away evenings, and they even worked weeks beyond the conclusion of the course to make each hole its best.
The students decided on one hole called the “Ames Room,” a distorted room that creates an optical illusion, in this case of golfers, so that those nearest appear as giants compared to those in back, despite their separation of just a few meters. Its hole-in-one happens to be incredibly challenging.
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| Source: www1.umn.edu |
