The late Kirk Mangus was an art professor at Kent State University renowned for his ceramic art, sculpture, drawings, paintings and murals.
Mangus served as head of ceramics at Kent State from 1985 until his passing in 2013. He was the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts grants, four Ohio Arts Council fellowships, a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship and a McKnight fellowship residency at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, according to The Nevica Project. He also won multiple awards for his work, one including the NCECA Purchase Award for their Permanent Collection at the University of Maryland. Mangus also appeared on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” where he showcased some of his ceramic works and how he created them.
One of his notable works includes the Kings and Queens mural located in Akron. The Kings and Queens mural is a 225-foot-wide by 9-foot-high mural that depicts the faces of people representing the various ethnic groups in Akron, according to aroundKent.
Riana Parry, sophomore art history graduate student, and Sarah Tomasko, senior art history major, were mentored by a group of people to help preserve the cultural history of Kirk Mangus’ art work through an oral history project. The mentors included John-Michael Warner, associate professor in Kent State’s School of Art; Natalie Grieshammer Patrick, Summit Artspace’s director of artist resources; and Sam Imrie, Summit Artspace’s gallery and programs assistant. The oral history serves as an audio recording that captures a moment in time that is important to history.
“I think Kirk was doing some really interesting things with his work,” Parry said. “I think with the awards that he won and work he did, he was a prominent figure in the Kent area that should be remembered.”
For the oral history, Parry and Tomasko interviewed Mangus’ wife, Eva Kwong, for specific details about his’ life and career. Don King, part-time art faculty member, was also involved in the project to assist the students in audio visual work.
“He was a professor at Kent State and created a huge impact through his artwork,” Parry said. “I think it is important for students to know about local history specifically.”
This project was a collaboration between the Kent State School of Art’s art history program and Summit Artspace. The project took a semester to complete.
“We had to work around a lot of different schedules, and if people are on the same days, that was the biggest setback that we noticed,” Parry said.
The oral history has since been used for the Summit Artspace’s website to inform readers on Mangus’ Kings and Queens mural. The interview the students conducted for the oral history is also being edited by the Summit Artspace and will be added to the same website page.
For more information about Mangus and his works, please visit www.aroundkent.net/articles/summit-artspace-expands-partnership-with-kent-state-through-faces-of-akron-project.
For more information about Kent State’s School of Art, please visit www.kent.edu/art.
For more information about Summit Artspace, please visit summit artspace.org.