Crazy Golf at Coal Drops Yard, King's Cross, London

Information about the pop-up Crazy Golf at Coal Drops Yard in King's Cross, London.

Coal Drops Yard in London will be home to a pop-up crazy golf course from the 19th February to the 29th March.

The artist designed 9-hole course has been inspired by the rave culture in the King's Cross area back in the 1980's and 90's.

Players can tee-off on the course midday to 8pm Monday to Saturday, with games costing £5.

Artists Baker & Borowski have created the rave-themed layout.

Visit the Coal Drops Yard website for more information.

Pac-Man ghost street art in Düsseldorf, Germany

Spotting the Pac-Man ghost stickers in Düsseldorf.

Emily recently returned from Düsseldorf, Germany and while there noticed a lot of Pac-Man ghosts stuck up around the city.

This was the first Pac-Man ghost Emily spotted

The Pac-Man ghost stickers are the work of the street artist known as Pdot who has put up 2,000 of the stickers in Düsseldorf!

We're big fans of video games, Pac-Man and street art, so it was a nice surprise for Emily to see them on her trip.

A yellow ghost. The stickers by Pdot are only found on the back of street signs

A red ghost. And oh look, a tram too!

They're hidden in plain sight everywhere!

Related blog posts:
- Pac-Man
- Germany
- Street Art

Art and sculpture trails

A look at some of the art and and sculpture trails we've followed this year.

This summer we've seen a number of different art and sculpture trails pop-up in Greater Manchester and beyond.

Last year there was the Bee in the City trail in Manchester with 100 big bees and 130 little bees to spot. Some of those are still in situ.

A bee in Didsbury

There was also an ice sculpture trail in Stockport town centre last December and this summer the town has had a very popular frog trail with 22 decorated frogs to spot on the Giant Leap.

A froggy character was part of the Stockport Ice Trail last December

Edgeleap, the Stockport County frog

As fans of tickable lists, wandering and exploring we've enjoyed the different art and sculpture trails we've taken part in.

Earlier this summer the Trafford Centre had a Big Bug Tour and on a recent trip to the Lowry Outlet mall in Media City we saw there was a Bear Hunt.

Meadow grasshopper - number 8 on the Big Bug Tour

Sitting on a sitting Grizzly Bear - number 2 on the Lowry Outlet's Bear Hunt

The latest trail we followed was quite unexpected. On a trip to visit family and friends in Ipswich we noticed an elephant sculpture at the side of the road and soon noticed a lot more of them on the drive to our hotel.

Elephant number 1 - Pip - the first of the elephants we saw

They were part of Elmer's Big Parade Suffolk in aid of St Elizabeth Hospice with 139 placed around Ipswich. In the short time we were in town we managed to find 55 of them.

Nine of the elephants on parade in Ipswich

We've also found quite a few more of the Space Invader pieces of street art by the French artist Invader on our trips to London and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, as well as seeing some reactivated pieces in Manchester city centre.

The seven Invaders in Gateshead

A selection of the Invaders in Manchester

The various trails and maps we've followed have seen us explore new places, see different things and also rediscover parts of towns and cities.

They're a nice way to bring communities together, attract and retain visitors to towns, shopping centres and malls, as well as raising money for good causes.

Do you have a favourite art-trail, or know of others? Do let us know in the comments.

Related blog posts:
- Art
- Sculptures
- Tickable Lists

Space Invaders in Gateshead

A look at the seven Gateshead Invaders.

The French street artist known as Invader has invaded London, Manchester and Newcastle. On our trip to the World Transplant Games in Newcastle last weekend we were able to add to our tally of Invaders spotted.

Clockwise from top left - NCL_21, NCL_19, NCL_20, NCL_14, NCL_25, NCL_05 and NCL_06

There were originally 25 Space Invaders in Newcastle and Gateshead. Made during the INVASION of Newcastle in 2006. One has since been destroyed. We've found the remaining 24, with seven of these 'Newcastle Invaders' over the border in Gateshead.

• NCL_05
• NCL_06
• NCL_14
• NCL_19
• NCL_20
• NCL_21
• NCL_25

You can find them at Gateshead Interchange, on the approach to the Sage Gateshead and at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.

Invader has so far invaded 78 cities around the world, putting up 3785 pieces.

To date I've managed to find 120 Invaders, worth 3040 points on the Flash Invaders app. At the time of writing I'm ranked 13640 in the ever-changing world rankings. Emily is 34485. The person at the top of the leader-board has found 2544 of them!

Looking for the Space Invaders has been great fun and we've seen lots of the parts of cities we wouldn't necessarily have explored if we weren't Invader hunting.

Leisure Land Crazy Golf at York Art Gallery

Playing Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf course at York Art Gallery.

A look at the first three holes

On Sunday 3rd September we swung by York Art Gallery to play Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf course. The 7-hole layout became the 451st we've played and 763rd visited overall on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour since September 2006.

Playing hole 2

In our match-up on the course I picked up the win with a score of 16 to Emily's 38.

My score was enough to top the leaderboard - the previous best on the day had been 26. Although when we walked back through the gardens just as the course was closing a score of 15 had been made later in the day

Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf

The minigolf layout consists of holes and obstacles created by different artists from the contemporary art world.

Hole 1 - Reactor - Alligator Resort

Hole 1

Hole 1

Hole 2 - Yinka Shonibare MBE - Football Cloud

Hole 2

Hole 3 - Eyal and Ines Weizman - The Bridge of Königsberg

My favourite hole - it's always great to score less than 1 on a hole!

Hole 4 - Hetain Patel - Coloured Processor

Hole 4  not the easiest hole(s) to play!

Hole 4

Hole 4

Hole 5 - John Akomfrah - The Turkey Shoot Galactico

Hole 5

Hole 5

Hole 6 - Doug Fishbone - SOS

Hole 6

Hole 6

Hole 6

Hole 7 - Ellie Harrison - Life Raft

Hole 7

X marks the spot

The green on hole 7

Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf course was open at York Art Gallery throughout the summer following its installation as part of an Art Happens campaign to bring the course to York. It was originally created for the Venice Biennale in 2015 and last year was in Nottingham and Derby. I played the course in Nottingham - it was 10-holes then. And indoors.

Who knows where it'll be installed next...

Emily playing hole 2

Minigolf is a popular theme for artists and we've played a few other art-installation pop-up crazy golf courses on our travels. Our friends of at A Couple of Putts have also created a few holes, obstacles and courses for art galleries and shows!

Visit the York Art Gallery website for more information on the exhibition.

Links:
- York Art Gallery

Related blog posts:
- York
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf in Venice
- Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf in Nottingham

Videos of the course:
- Hole 1
- Hole 3 - scoring a '2'
- Hole 3 - scoring another '2'
- Hole 3 - scoring a hole-in-none!
- Hole 4
- Hole 5
- Hole 7

York Art Gallery to host Leisure Land Golf this summer

Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf travels to York Art Gallery.

York Art Gallery will be hosting Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf this summer, with the Crazy Golf course open from the 3rd June to 3rd September. The miniature golf layout consists of holes and obstacles created by different artists from the contemporary art world.

Our friends and minigolf rivals Gareth and Lhurlyn Holmes were lucky enough to play Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf course at the Venice Biennale in 2015, while I got to have a game on the course in a visit to the New Art Exhange in Nottingham with another friend and rival Jam Trubridge last summer. The art-installation Crazy Golf course became the 401st played and 682nd visited on the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Alongside more traditional collections, York Art Gallery endeavours to bring a variety of artworks to the gallery including contemporary pieces by cutting-edge artists.

Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf will be open to the public from the 3rd June to the 3rd September 2017 in the Artists Garden. Created during York Art Gallery’s recent refurbishment, the Artists Garden is a free public space used to display a changing series of art installations, offering a place of reflection and inspiration in the heart of the city centre.

York Art Gallery recently ran an Art Happens campaign to bring the course to the city. Entry to the Artists Garden is free. For a small fee, or for those donors who selected one of the higher rewards in the Art Happens campaign, visitors can play a round of crazy golf during garden open times.

We're looking forward to playing the course in its new location this summer. Emily and I love visiting York and Yorkshire. Now we live up north we're hoping to visit the area even more in the coming weeks, months and years.

Check out the York Art Gallery website for more information on Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf.

London Design Festival Crazy Golf course in Trafalgar Square

Visionary Crazy Golf course heading to London's Trafalgar Square.

London's burgeoning Crazy Golf scene is hoping to expand further with a Visionary Crazy Golf course set to takeover Trafalgar Square later this year. It'll be futuristic, functional, fun and free for the public to play from the 16th to the 22nd September during the London Design Festival 2016.

The iconic Nelson's Column with a concept design by Atelier Bow-Wow - this hole reminds us of a couple of net and hoop based holes we've played while competing for the GB team in Finland and Sweden

For years there's been a bit of a dearth of places to play Crazy Golf in London - although we've managed to search out, find and play a great many of them - so it's marvellous to see Mini Golf undergoing something of a renaissance in the capital with some great new indoor, outdoor and rooftop miniature golf layouts opening this summer.

We've seen - and been pestered by - a lot of seagull's on our Crazy Golf travels, but we've not played through anything like the Pigeon hole designed by Ordinary Architecture!

Paul Smith, is the curator and ambassador for the project. Other design teams include the late Zaha Hadid, Tom Dixon and Mark Wallinger as well as Camille Walala, Ordinary Architecture, HAT Projects with Tim Hunkin, NEON, and Atelier Bow-Wow.

Camille Walala’s Visionary Crazy Golf installation brings the kaleidoscopic colour of her signature designs to a dynamic 3D landscape

The team at the London Design Festival say that "Each will create a miniature pavilion that makes an entertaining, playable statement about the future of architecture, filling the square with Pop Art colours and inventive forms that will amuse and inspire both adults and children alike." Looking at some of the early designs and sketches it looks like it'll be a truly one of a kind course to see and play!

Zaha Hadid has designed an undulating course with two levels that traces the shadow of Nelson’s Column

The Visionary Crazy Golf course needs £120,000 to become a reality and the Kickstarter campaign is well underway with over 300 backers and almost £15,000 pledged at the time of writing.

The NEON Kinetic City hole - that will take some playing!

During the planning stages for Visionary Golf I was pleased to be asked for my involvement and I can't wait to play the course when it opens in September. If you're lucky/rich/foolish enough you can receive the auspicious 'reward' of playing a round with me at 6pm on the very first day the course is open!

Check out the Visionary Crazy Golf course Kickstarter page to see how you can play a round with me!

You'll also get your name on the Visionary Golf course Wall of Fame webpage. Find out about all the rewards for supporting the campaign on the Visionary Crazy Golf course Kickstarter page. I love the Wall of Fame idea - when I won the Putt Park Invitational Miniature Golf tournament in Las Vegas I received a place on their Wall of Fame and it gives you a very nice feeling indeed.

A fine minigolf victory at the Putt Park in Las Vegas back in 2011

There are some brilliant rewards for backers of the course and they range from just £5 - for a 'virtual hole in one and your name on the Wall of Fame' up to £5,000 for a chance to meet Paul Smith and receive a tour of his studio.

Paul Smith's design for the first hole

The campaign closes on June 6th so check out the Visionary Crazy Golf Kickstarter page before then.

I like the look of this LOUD musical hole by Tom Dixon

It's great to see Tim Hunkin involved in the Visionary Crazy Golf course design - he's the madcap character behind the alternative amusement arcade 'The Under the Pier Show' on Southwold Pier in Suffolk and 'Novelty Automation' in Holborn.

Hat Projects and Tim Hunkin explore functionality and lifecycle in Downfall

Having a game on one of Tim Hunkin's crazy contraptions at Novelty Automation

First staged in 2003, the London Design Festival is one of the world's most important annual design events. The Festival programme is made up of over 400 events and exhibitions staged by hundreds of Partner organisations across the design spectrum and from around the world.

In 2013 we had a walk up, down and around the 'Endless Stair' that was part of the London Design Festival and designed by dRMM Architects, 2013, supported by the American Hardwood Export Council

A very enjoyable piece of design

On our travels to over 670 courses around the world we've played some interesting courses, including some designed for art shows, exhibitions and as playable sculptures.

We've played art-based minigolf at the one-day only M!MS Mini Golf course in Bedford, Crazee Golf at the TinType Gallery in London, the Bompas & Parr food architecture course on the roof of Selfridges and Putt Putt #2 by TURF Projects in Croydon. We've also not played art courses in Clerkenwell and Folkestone, where the remnants of the old Arnold Palmer Crazy Golf course were used to create a series of beach huts!

Putt Putt #2 by TURF Projects was a temporary art installation minigolf course in Croydon

Miniature Golf certainly lends itself to art events as the options for design are almost limitless. There are so many weird and wonderful layouts around the world as well as new courses opening all the time, so who knows what unique and bizarre themes we'll see and play next!

The '18 Holes' Crazy Golf art installation by Richard Wilson in Folkestone

Last year our friends over at A Couple of Putts created an art-installation course called Sparkle City Mini Putt in Spartanburg, South Carolina. While the team at The Putting Penguin have seen and reviewed a number of art-courses over the years. Last summer my friend and crazy golf rival Gareth Holmes visited "The BEST Mini Golf Course in Venice" at artist's Doug Fishbone's Leisure Land Golf - That course is now open in Nottingham!

For more information on the Visionary Golf project check out the London Design Festival website. You can also follow and use the hashtags #VisionaryGolf and #LDF16 on Twitter, and you can back the campaign and course on the Visionary Crazy Golf Kickstarter page.

Links:
- London Design Festival website
- Visionary Crazy Golf Kickstarter page

Related blog posts:
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Art
- Kickstarter

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