Topic: Public Art
Interview of Michael Young, February 28, 2025
Interviewed by Linda Jeffrey
This oral history of artist Michael Young was conducted in front of a live audience in the Kansas Statehouse while viewing the mural he painted depicting the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brown v Board of Education. A short program preceded the interview which was followed by a question and answer session with the artist. The attached transcript includes the Q/A session but not the preliminary remarks by Senator Jeff Klemp, Senator Ty Masterson, Rep. Dave Buehler and Governor Laura Kelly. They were widely quoted in the press about the event. Two of the press accounts from Show MoreBryan Richardson, Hawvers Capitol Report/State Affairs and WIBW TV are also attached. To see the video of the introductory remarks, go to NEWS. Show Less
Interview of Phyllis Garibay-Coon, May 13, 2025
Interviewed by Linda Utoff
Phyllis Garibay-Coon, the artist who created Rebel Women, the most recent mural installed in the Kansas Statehouse, describes her journey as an artist including the importance of the support she found in the Manhattan, KS community. Garibay-Coon is the first woman to have her mural installed in the Statehouse. She is interviewed by Linda Uthoff, League of Women Voters of Manhattan/Riley County. During the interview, conducted a few months after the mural was unveiled on the 2025 anniversary of Kansas becoming a state, Garibay-Coon describes the Kansas suffragists who are the most prominent figures in Show Morethe painting. She also describes how the state and local historical societies and families of those suffragists contributed to how she imagined the mural. Garibay-Coon credits the League of Women Voters of Kansas, the AAUW of Kansas, and generous individual donors who made this public art possible.
Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview