(curious mystic music) (tap) (rattling) (tap) (rattling) (murmuring) (clinking) (tapping) - There's so much beauty, and passion, and wonderful qualities that art has, and it's a shame that a lot of people don't feel comfortable at fine art galleries.

They feel excluded.

So why is that?

What good is that doing?

- The thing about mini golf is that it literally does appeal to everyone.

So it kind of fit this criteria of making the arts fun and accessible, and creating this vibrant community gathering place that would attract people of all ages and all backgrounds.

- You've touched on the other real vision of Can Can, and that was exposing more people to art, having a venue where people would come, the general public would come, and be exposed to art and realize the value of that.

- Most people walk in, and you just kinda keep looking 'cause there's so much to see.

You walk down the boardwalk, there's all these arcade games, and you can see the whole length of the mini golf course.

There might be something on one of the stages that you see.

I mean, you go around this corner back here, there's the electronic arcade and the big cloud hanging from the ceiling that lights up in different colors.

- I would say there's lots of bad mini golf out there.

And so when you look at our course, it's unique, it's unlike any other miniature golf course in the country.

- It's like an arts-based miniature golf and amusement center.

- Each of the mini golf holes are artist designed, and we did a call for artists, local artists.

So it was 56 artists altogether.

- That's not somethin' that we picked out of a catalog with some cookie cutter mini golf course company.

It's all custom-designed, custom-dreamt.

- I mean, Can Can is a lot more than artist-designed mini golf, too.

It's like Willy Wonka meets Pee Wee's Playhouse.

(laughing) (joyful fancy music) (murmuring) (tap) (romantic music) - Art, in alotta ways, has a difficult relationship with money, profit, for-profit.

When you think art, you immediately think non-profit; they go hand in hand.

But that isn't actually necessarily that beneficial for artists.

(chuckling) - Can Can really strives to be an economic engine for the arts in that we have, you know, in almost all of our projects that happen here, we try to hire an artist to do that.

And so of course in the creation of this space, that's what really took it out of the park.

- I know how important artists and what they create means to the fabric of a neighbor, and the vitality of neighborhoods and cities.

So...

Being able to foster that environment and that community is really cool.

- You know, there's like one reason mini golf is fun.

Because you can have the sculpture sit there and people can look at it.

But if they have to put around it or play in it, all of a sudden it's way more dynamic and way more interesting.

It allows the artist to have a way more intimate relationship with their patrons, their viewers.

We have a lot of these artists that made this.

And for the first several months of being open, they'd just come after their normal day job or whatever, and just grab a beer and park it on the, they can just watch people play their hole.

And it's so rewarding to watch someone get a hole in one on your hole, and scream, and yell, and go "Ah!"

I always argue with artists it's like you could sell one painting for $10,000, or you could sell a thing a thousand times, $10, still make your money.

You're just doing it for a different audience, and you're sharing your art with a wider group of people.

So to be more inclusive is a beautiful thing, and it's a much-needed thing right now.

You know, don't put beauty in a corner.

(laughing)