1xbet online sports betting State University

MANHATTAN -- Works by an artist inspired by his southeast 1xbet online sports betting roots and his international experiences have a new home at 1xbet online sports betting State University.

The 1xbet online sports betting 's Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of 1xbet online sports betting and Hale 1xbet online sports betting collaborated to acquire works by Robert Blunk, whose community 1xbet online sports betting has gained him recognition in Kansas, Africa and Puerto Rico. The works, which include paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, as well as his sketchbooks and papers, are now part of the university's permanent collection.

As a noted regional artist, Blunk's work fits in with the Beach Museum's focus of connecting regional 1xbet online sports betting , culture and interests with the outside world, said Linda Duke, museum director.

"As a quintessential artist of the prairie who grew up amid seas of grass and small town venues, Robert Blunk's 1xbet online sports betting nonetheless speaks of a larger world," Duke said. "His paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings can be seen as a unique blend of folk and modernist, prairie and sea, small town and world cultures."

Blunk grew up during the Great Depression in the southeast Kansas town of Salyards, which didn't survive the rough economic times. After graduating from high school and serving in the Marines during World War II, Blunk returned to Kansas, got married and was accepted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study industrial design. But he started taking 1xbet online sports betting courses at Kansas State University and got hooked on 1xbet online sports betting . He enrolled at the Kansas City 1xbet online sports betting Institute, where he had contact with Robert Rauschenberg, Thomas Hart Benton, Charles Birchfield and other noted artists. After graduating in 1950, Blunk was an 1xbet online sports betting teacher for local schools and a community college in Chanute. He earned his master's in sculpture, via night school, at Kansas State College -- now Pittsburg State University -- in Pittsburg. In 1962 he joined the college's 1xbet online sports betting faculty.

Community 1xbet online sports betting became Blunk's passion. He designed pocket parks for the city of Pittsburg, organized 1xbet online sports betting fairs and helped open local museums. He was commissioned to do sculptures and other works for businesses and communities across southeast Kansas, including at the Coffey County Courthouse in Burlington and Neosho Country Courthouse in Erie, as well as various works in Chanute, Coffeyville and in Pittsburgh.

Blunk played a role in establishing the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum in Chanute, founded to exhibit 1xbet online sports betting brought back from Africa by the Johnsons, the noted explorers. The African 1xbet online sports betting would influence Blunk's own 1xbet online sports betting .

Blunk's community activism led him to Puerto Rico in 1969, where 1xbet online sports betting had a consultancy with the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and worked with crafts artists developing markets for their work. 1xbet online sports betting took on the same role nearly 30 years later with street children and adults in Zambia.

While Blunk's community 1xbet online sports betting was in the public eye both locally and internationally, he kept his own 1xbet online sports betting at home. He rarely offered his work for exhibition and didn't seek outside representation.

Now in his late 80s and living in Denver, Colo., Blunk's career as an artist continues. His work is part of private collections in Boston, Philadelphia, 1xbet online sports betting City, Chicago and the Emprise Bank Group in Wichita. He is represented by Strecker-Nelson Gallery in Manhattan.