Spirituality and mini-golf--back when I lived in the South, the two were almost as inextricably linked as church and pig-pickins. One reason so many religious gatherings ended up on the putt-putt course was the simple fact that mini-golf was one of the few indisputably not immoral public forms of entertainment you could find--no worries that parents would object to the youth group going there, and it was also an innocent pastime for the idle hands in the singles group.
Now the ecumenical appeal of mini-golf has become part of an intriguing avant garde art project in Manhattan: Jeffrey Packard's Cafe Thou Art at St. Mark's Church. This micro-mini-golf experience aims for nothing less than the establishment of world peace:
The idea of the café is to create a place where people can meet. In its’ simplest form, the café consists of 2 chairs, a table, the lit neon sign: “Café Thou Art” and refreshments and of course, mini-golf.
The installations are sculptures that assemble time, space, and people. They are constructed in the Public domain to express the openness and expansiveness of hope in humanity. . . .
The main reason that mini-golf is such an important part of the installations is that it is a fun and safe way for people to interact with one another. The other reason is that it is very satisfying to use mixed media to create functional works of art that bring people pleasure.
Our hope is that “Café Thou Art” will actually become the world as a café and establish lasting peace.
Thanks to the invaluable Jeremiah's Vanishing New York for the highlighting Packard's work!
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