AT THE OLYMPIC SCULPTURE PARK in Seattle, most artworks have a strict “Do Not Touch” policy. The newest installation there, however, is going to get whacked with sticks all summer long. 

A nine-hole mini-golf course debuted in June, with each hole created by a different local artist, among them painters, sculptors, photographers and installation artists. The course is open through Sept. 7.

“I want people to come out and have a social experience at the museum, and I think mini golf helps,” says Scott Stulen, director and CEO of Seattle Art Museum, which owns and operates the park. “If you’re coming for golf, then you experience the art. People that are coming for the art maybe want to have some fun and play golf too.”

The nine holes are staggered along the upper part of the park’s z-shaped path, from Ai Weiwei’s “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads” to Tony Smith’s “Wandering Rocks.” It’s flat and accessible, with views to swoon over.

SAM essentially gave artists carte blanche to design whatever they wanted, with the stipulation that the work had to be durable enough for outdoor playtime. (The artists fully expect their work to be pockmarked by the season’s end.) The only unifying element of the nine works is that they’re all golf holes.

One of the participating artists is Anthony White, who also has one of his highly detailed paintings on view in SAM’s downtown building. Designing and fabricating his golf hole was a full circle moment: In high school, he’d get up at 5 a.m. on weekends to make it to his job at a golf course by 6.

White’s pinball-inspired golf hole, “CAPTCHA,” is an obstacle course of the constant pop-ups, error messages and ads that bombard people online. “It’s a commentary on how we’re forced to navigate the world,” he says. “The demand for our attention these days is so incredible.”

White estimates he put 500 hours into the project, and at summer’s end, it’ll go in the trash — unless someone steps up to claim it. “The audience finishes the work for you,” he says. “How it’s interpreted. What they take away from it. It’s just like a painting. I have to let it out into the world.”

Julie Alpert also designed a hole for the course. You may recognize her work from the baggage claim area at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where her colorful “Raindrops on Roses” is installed above the carousels. 

For her contribution, “Spellbound,” Alpert draws on the nostalgia of growing up in the ’burbs in the ’80s and ’90s. Think giant bows, barrettes with tassels, fluorescent pink. Alpert hand painted her piece with outdoor paint and coated it with polyurethane. Still, sitting outside in the sun all summer long? “There’ll be a nice patina by September,” she says.

One summer when artist Andy Arkley was a kid, his dad got a pass to Putt-Putt, so they went twice a week, along with his two brothers. “I played a lot of miniature golf,” Arkley says. “Before everybody had phones, we had to figure out how to entertain ourselves.”

His golf hole at the sculpture park, titled “Outer Loop,” is loosely inspired by walking through Seward Park every day with Alpert, his wife.

Has he designed a golf hole before? Arkley laughs. “I’ve done a lot of installation work and sculptural work. But never this,” he says. “It’s kind of cool to have the opportunity to do something that’s outside.”

The other artists with works on the course are Zack Bent, Elizabeth Gahan, Cathy McClure, Chris McMullen and Kalina Wińska.

These days it’s hard to remember that the 9-acre outdoor sculpture park was a contaminated industrial site until it was remediated in the early 2000s. (The park opened in 2007.) Now you can gaze out through Alexander Calder’s “Eagle” to the Olympic Mountains and the Salish Sea. Do a 180 and you’re looking at the Space Needle. Of SAM’s three locations — downtown, Volunteer Park and the Olympic Sculpture Park — the sculpture park is Stulen’s favorite.

“It feels like such a core of the city,” he says. “You’re seeing everything that makes Seattle special.”

The Olympic Sculpture Park sits between two mighty overhauls: Waterfront Park, which opened last summer, and Myrtle Edwards and Centennial Park, which opened this spring. 

Along with mini golf this summer, the sculpture park is adding rocking chairs, picnic tables and concessions. Also important to note: free and open restrooms.

Stulen brought the mini golf idea from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where mini golf has been a summer staple since 2006. The Olympic Sculpture Park hosted mini golf once before, in 2021 for a week.

Will mini golf at the Olympic Sculpture Park become an annual event? Stulen hopes so.

“We’re going to see,” Stulen says. “I think it’s going to be really successful. It’s our proof of concept to see how it works this summer.”