Artists at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton will soon unveil the entirety of their latest masterpiece: an 18-hole mini-golf course that doubles as an art history lesson.
Masterpiece Mini-Golf opened its first nine holes to the public on May 10, with the back half slated to be finished in time for a grand opening ceremony at 4 p.m. this Friday, June 13.
A team of about a dozen artists and carpenters have been working in “overdrive” over the past month to complete the final pieces of the course before the ribbon-cutting, according to Tim Grant, a resident artist at the Workhouse who agreed to lead the project.
“I’m looking forward to seeing people have fun playing it, but also, while they’re having fun, to get exposed to something that they might not know that much about, taking a look at art styles, whether it’s pop art or abstract art, or the architectural orders of ancient Greece,” Grant said in a May 27 interview.
Masterpiece Mini-Golf was originally conceived as a standard mini-golf course that Workhouse leaders hoped would draw more visitors to their sprawling, 55-acre campus at 9518 Workhouse Way.
Opened to the public in September 2008, the Workhouse Arts Center repurposed a portion of the former Lorton Reformatory after D.C. shut down the notorious prison facility in 2001. Since then, the arts center and development projects, from shopping centers to apartment complexes, have started to transform the old prison grounds.
The arts center, which is run by the nonprofit Workhouse Arts Foundation, now hosts dozens of artists and a variety of classes and events, including theater productions, fireworks for the Fourth of July and a “haunted” trail for Halloween. The opening of a Bunnyman Brewing outpost last June helped propel the campus to a record-breaking year with 166,000 total visitors — a 56% increase from 2023.
However, Keith Gordon still perceived a gap in the Workhouse’s offerings when he arrived as the foundation’s new president and CEO in July 2024.
“We felt like there was just missing some element of interactivity that would keep you here for longer periods of time,” he told FFXnow. “So, I had this notion to create a mini-golf course, which would bring families down and allow them to … spend at least an hour or so at any given time, playing golf and enjoying themselves and spending the afternoon here and getting a bite to eat and a drink and everything else.”
The project grew in ambition when Grant came on board. Now in his second year at the Workhouse, Grant has built an almost 40-year career as a painter and mixed-media artist who specializes in theatrical sets and murals — some of which can be seen at Fairfax County’s recreation centers.
That experience made him an obvious candidate for leading the mini-golf course project. When Gordon approached him last fall to gauge his interest, Grant suggested that the facility explicitly tie into art and involve as many of the Workhouse’s resident artists as possible.
The resulting golf holes pay tribute to more than a dozen key figures in various artistic movements, from French impressionism — represented by Claude Monet — and the Italian Renaissance (Michaelangelo) to magical realism (Frida Kahlo) and guerilla art (Banksy).
Grant aimed to cover a broad time period, from ancient to contemporary art, and pair different artists to each tribute based on their style; charcoal artist Grant Baudoin, for example, crafted one for German expressionist Käthe Kollwitz.
Interpretive signs written by Ellen Silva help contextualize the artworks — and give players something to read when they’re waiting for the next hole to free up. According to Grant, the course has given the artists who worked on it greater appreciation for different styles that might be outside their usual focus, and he hopes visitors will come away similarly enlightened.
“We’ve created bonds that we hadn’t had before, friendships throughout the process,” Grant said. “Some of the people that didn’t know each other very well have become best friends, and it’s just been a really positive experience in terms of the way that we’ve all worked together … I have to say this is been a real team effort.”
Visitors who’ve tried out the first nine holes so far “have really enjoyed what they’ve seen,” Gordon says, adding the caveat that sporadically rainy weather throughout May likely dampened the initial turnout.
He anticipates that visitation will pick up as the weather gets warmer and the full course launches.
“I think we’re anticipating that this will be a consistent driver not just of evening activity, but I think during the day, people will come and want to play golf as well,” Gordon said.
Open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday through Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Masterpiece Mini-Golf costs $9 for the existing nine holes. The fee for all 18 holes will be $15, and group booking options with special rates will eventually be available.
Designed to be taken apart so individual components can be easily moved, the course will be available on a seasonal basis, likely going into storage in November and returning next spring, depending on the weather. Gordon says they plan to introduce light-up golf balls and holes for days when the sun sets earlier.
In addition to furthering the Workhouse’s goal of becoming a destination for both local residents and tourists, the golf course’s addition “reinforces the talent that is here on campus,” Gordon says.
“Every single piece of it is literally rooted right here in the Workhouse,” he said. “So, if you see the Salvador Dali [tribute], and then you want to go talk to the artist who created it, you have that opportunity. You really don’t find that somewhere else.”
