No longer must you journey to Towson, Perry Hall or Jessup to play mini golf – for this summer and early fall, at least. Station North is getting its very own putt-putt course, thanks to four teams of city students and artists, as well as some brilliant architects and the folks at OpenWorks.
The eight-hole Station North Mini Golf course is set to open on Friday, July 21, smack in the middle of Artscape. The endeavor has been more than a year in the making. Station North Arts and Entertainment District received a $35,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant, along with some added funding from four public and private entities from around Maryland, to make it happen.
The course will be situated in a formerly vacant space at the corner of N. Charles Street and E. Lafayette Avenue, right in front of artist Freddie Sam’s mural of Table Mountain that went up in 2012. The mini golf spot will remain open with varying hours through early October. City schools students can play for free, while admission will be $5 for everyone else.
SNAED interim executive director Amelia Rambissoon told Baltimore Fishbowl when she took over for Elissa Blount Moorhead in May that the project would be rolling out some time this month.
“We really wanted to incorporate members of the community, especially the youth,” she wrote in an email on Thursday. “It was great to see the students so enthusiastic about the project, especially the ones that had not heard of mini golf prior to the project.”
Many parties have had a hand in bringing the course to life. There were the teams of students from Margaret Brent Elementary Middle School, the Baltimore Lab School’s middle and high schools and the Baltimore Design School; their creative guides, painter Dave Eassa, illustrator Megan Lewis, curator Samantha Redles and light artist Jose Rosero-Curet; and a coach from mobile makerspace FutureMakers, who designed the curriculum for the students and the artists to collaborate in hour-long workshops.
And, of course, there were the architects from Gensler & Associates who fabricated the designs from the artist drawings, the architects from Mahan Rykiel who crafted the site plan and OpenWorks, the Greenmount Avenue maker space, which supplied the tools needed to construct the eight holes.
Rambisoon noted that when the project was in its early planning stages, OpenWorks wasn’t even around. “The fact that we were able to design and create the entire project in and around Station North was extra special,” she said.
Each hole has a different concept, with names like “Hooping,” “Sharkbait” and “Kong’s Revenge.” Two have themes of sneakers and video games, and at least one hole, “Thank You, Arabbers,” will pay homage to a piece of historic Baltimore culture. SNAED will have tarps ready to cover the holes during bad weather.
No need to bring your own putter, as balls and clubs are included.
The course will remain open from noon to 11 p.m. during Artscape weekend (July 20-23); noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and noon to 9 p.m. Thursday through Sunday from July 24-Aug. 13; and 3 to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday and noon to 9 p.m. on weekends from Aug. 13 to Oct. 6.
During the winter months, the course could be either moved to an indoor space or, potentially, to a school somewhere in the city, Rambisoon said. SNAED intends the bring the course back out in the spring.
