Art Class Creates Metal Sculptures for New Mini Golf Course
Artwork created by an IU Kokomo sculpture class enhances the experience of local mini golfers at the newly opened Kokomo Little Links.
Students in a sculpture class led by Gregory Steel, professor of fine arts, created two large-scale metal sculptures for the miniature golf course, built in Cutler Park and operated by Bridges Outreach.
The first, titled Bridge, includes three metal pillars that will be connected by steel cables when the cables arrive. The second, Putt, represents a putter and ball, and moves.
Steel said the experience of creating public art gives the students’ work a real purpose.
“This is something a lot of people are going to see,” he said. “It’s going to be out in public, so that’s an important element for students to understand, that art is not just something that goes in a gallery or a museum. It can also be part of the public sphere, and it can contribute to the experience people have out in public.”
Travis Taflinger, Bridges Outreach chief professional officer, commissioned the pieces to add interest to the miniature golf course, which the organization operates as part of its mission to bridge communities, schools, and churches through programs that feed, tutor, mentor, employ, and provide affordable housing to youth and their families.
“There is a lot of river rock out here. It was lacking visual impact,” he said. “Whatever we do, we want it to be holistic, and more than just mini golf. There are great spaces here, where we want to have natural elements or art.”
Because the organization focuses on youth, Taflinger said it was meaningful to incorporate art created by college students.
“My favorite part is that students are involved,” he said. “That’s what we’ve been doing for 21 years, working with young people.”
Steel and the students brainstormed ideas for the work and showed sketches to Taflinger before beginning work.
“Anything they showed me I was excited about,” he said. “I loved it from day one, and it’s perfect here. Each sculpture tells its own little story, but they fit inside the bigger story that’s going on here. It’s unique, and it’s original to us.”
Students Mikayla Franks, Greentown; Nick Biscella and Liliana DeLaCruz Garcia, Kokomo; Cristy Chavez, Mulberry; Christian Hopper and Alyssa Stevens, Peru; and Olivia Parsenow, Sharpsville; worked on the sculpture during the fall and spring semesters.
“It makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something that matters,” Stevens said, while Chavez described it as “the start of a journey.”
“It feels like a mark I’ve left, hopefully the first of many,” DeLaCruz Garcia said.
Creating the sculptures developed their skills in welding and engineering large-scale work, while also reminding them of the value of contributing to their community.
“It gives them a chance to do something that is connected to the community in a good way, and to think about how you can make something that is much more than a class project,” Steel said. “This is going to be sitting in a park for as long as this park is going to be there. They can be proud they did something that became part of the community itself.”
Funding for the project came from the IU Kokomo General Foundation Account, through the IU Foundation.
Education is KEY at Indiana University Kokomo.
