The Golden Door

Everybody loves to write about a worthy cause.
The Golden Door has been on the lips of a lot of reporters and bloggers recently. The exhibition was mentioned in the Metro section of The New York Times a couple of weeks ago, as well as The Star Ledger and on NJN News. Brooklyn-based art blog Hyperallergic posted an in-depth article and is even organizing a field trip to the exhibition on July 22.

We had a fantastic grand opening on Wednesday June 23, and Irene Borngraeber from The Jersey City Independent was there to photograph the festivities. She did a fantastic job of capturing the excitement.

There’s nothing like a worthy cause and a unique project to get people talking and writing. Here is a fantastic article about The Golden Door in The Jersey City Independent. The exhibition was also mentioned in The Wall Street Journal and The Jersey Journal. The Wall Street Journal also covered the fund raising goals of the exhibition in this article.

Mark Rodrick: I remember vividly the last hole when a clown swallows your golf ball, and being so disappointed that I could not retrieve it. As children we always wanted to continue playing, after walking along the Point Pleasant boardwalk, climbing up the staircase above the arcade and waiting on line to play miniature golf, the round always ended too quickly. I’m sure “The Golden Door” participants, especially the children, will have longstanding memories of this course.

Art + miniature golf = awesome.

Artists can add something special to miniature golf. They bring an insight and sensitivity that you don’t find in most commercial courses. During the design phase of “The Golden Door” mini golf exhibition, the participating artists were asked to consider how their golf holes translate as visual objects, relate to an exhibition theme, and behave as part of a leisure sport—which presented a unique challenge.

There are few other mediums that are both sculptural and experiential. In miniature golf, unlike regular sculpture/installation, there are several different audience perspectives to acknowledge: 1) the player, 2) the ball, and 3) the players’ opponents. It is through an understanding of “putt-putt psychology” that the artists were able to create golf holes that successfully guide the players through different situations, in which they identify with their golf ball’s journey and become engaged with their own standing in a competition.

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