In addition to the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors, the storied Washington, D.C., venue hosts a diverse slate of performances year-round (similar to Seattle’s Paramount Theatre). Trump says he’s never been to a Kennedy Center show, but aims to revamp the programming. “We’re going to make sure that it’s good and it’s not going to be woke,” he told reporters.
Regardless of what Trump and his new Kennedy Center board deem compliant with their “Vision for a Golden Age of Arts and Culture,” as the President called it on Truth Social, this authoritarian approach to arts does not bode well for anyone who believes in the open spirit of the creative sector.
(See also the National Endowment for the Arts’ recent switch from funding projects that prioritize underserved communities to projects that “celebrate and honor the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.”)
If all this makes you want to swing a stick at something: Smash Putt is back, and well-timed. The love child of Burning Man and putt-putt golf, this Seattle-born event has been around in various incarnations since about 2010. The basic premise is a mini-golf course gone wild, courtesy of artists and gadgeteers who build madly inventive holes, some involving old-school robotics.
When I heard Smash Putt was returning I flashed back to a past event wherein I recall simultaneously attempting to navigate Mission Impossible-style red laser beams while hitting a ball and holding a beer. Try that, Tom Cruise!
It’s funny and anarchic and loud (and 21+), with many thwacks and clangs and cathoonks — this last likely from the “driving range,” where players shoot golf balls through an air cannon. (No word on whether any of the new holes celebrate the Declaration of Independence.)
Having previously taken place in a defunct post office at 23rd and Union, the Inscape building, and various empty warehouses, this time Smash Putt is happening at the ever-playful Base Camp Studios 2, in the former Bergman Luggage space Downtown (Feb. 14 – Apr. 12). Time slots must be reserved online, and this month’s are filling up fast.