Play The Back Nine At Elmhurst Art Museum By Wes Hessel
Play The Back Nine At Elmhurst Art Museum
By Wes Hessel
Sports are not exactly what you would associate with an art museum, especially golf – in this case the puttering around version known as mini-golf. But at the Elmhurst Art Museum through January 2nd, there is a great indoor family activity this holiday season, featuring nine artist-created mini-golf holes which are all actually playable, and at the same time you are exposed to various art medias and styles.
The original exhibit which inspired this endeavor was “Par Excellence”, a very popular show in 1988 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago: a group of artist-designed mini-golf course elements. This reboot, “Par Excellence Redux”, generated so many great options when a new set of holes was commissioned, the exhibit had to be broken into two phases – over the summer into fall was the “Front 9”, and running now until just into the New Year is the “Back 9”. The artist list for this outing is diverse and eclectic: Wesley Baker, KT Duffy, Eve Fineman, Annalee Koehn, Vincent Lotesto, Joshua Lowe, Jim Merz, Donna Piacenza, David Quednau, and Liam Wilson & Anna Gershoni.
Museum Executive Director John McKinnon in a prior interview noted that the “Front 9” portion was the most successful exhibit hosted in the summer months by the museum in recent history, based on attendance. In accordance with pandemic safety, in addition to the splitting of the course into the two consecutive exhibits, actual scheduled “tee times” aid in reducing crowding and keeping social distancing. Mr. McKinnon also pointed out that the golf challenges in the Back 9 are more interactive and intimate, with more lights, bells and whistles, literally.
Director McKinnon also said the collision of art and sport makes for unique perspectives: one hole is set up like a pinball machine, while another has the possibility of players together cooperating or competing to finish the play-through. There is even a practice hole, which, he pointed out, is a recreation of one of the holes from the original exposition.
You will not want to miss out the opportunity to try these nine putting greens of obstacles and obstinance, in a nice, warm, weather-sheltered venue, so just set your time slot online and then “drive” on over to Elmhurst to make it a fun “holey-day” season. For tee times or more information, see their website at www.elmhurstartmuseum.org.
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