We wouldn’t normally think of Downtown Los Angeles as an ideal location for a golf course, but a group of artists and activists have taken over a storefront space on Broadway to create some mini-golf links—with a mission.
Open to the public starting on Saturday, the mini-golf course was created by an organization known as the Los Angeles Poverty Department as a fun and interactive way to start conversations around concepts like zoning policy and housing costs, particularly around Skid Row.
Playing through the holes is similar to a classic putt-putt course, from the faux-grass to colorful objects and even a windmill but, here, navigating a ball toward the hole puts players in physical environments that provide teachable moments on density, affordability and environmental impact.
For the murals and visual design of the space, artist Rosten Woo channeled one local golf course in particular, the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, the L.A. Times reports. This mini-golf game is only the latest in Woo’s art practice which specializes in taking complex systems and expressing them in easy-to-understand ways through art and design.
The project—titled The Back Nine, to evoke the chummy deal-making one might associate with politicians and business leaders playing golf together, off the public record—will run through October 28 at the Skid Row Museum and Archive. Despite the name, the space only had room for eight of the nine planned holes. On certain days, performers will join golfers, playing “thought leaders” expressing various viewpoints on the information presented in each hole.
The Back Nine is open 2pm to 9pm daily from June 10 through October 28 at 250 S. Broadway. Performances will be held on June 8, 9, 10 and 16 at 8pm and June 17 at 3pm. Admission is free.
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