Ask Sarah

By Sarah Duggan on August 18, 2016

What’s for dinner?

I come to you all with crimson cheeks and recently expanded knowledge on local sculptors. I haven’t decided what I am having for dinner – I will either be eating crow or putting my foot in my mouth. Either way, what follows is the real story behind that beautiful sculpture on the patio.

A little bird told Magye and me late last week that my article regarding who created the Prairie Star sculpture was wrong. The bird, Magye and I poured over the source which I had received the information then followed up with some additional research, including phone calls and article review, to uncover the truth.

Despite what was originally printed, the Prairie Star sculpture was created by Elden Tefft, a sculptor out of Lawrence, Kan. It was entered in the Statehouse dome competition in 1984 alongside 27 other entrants, including the winning entry that currently stands proudly atop the Kansas Statehouse. The winning entry is “Ad Astra” designed by Richard Bergen. Bergen’s piece was a 20-foot tall, 3,500-pound bronze sculpture of a Native American warrior. Tefft’s entry into the contest was “Ad Astra: Prairie Spirit.”

I know what you’re thinking, Sarah! Her name isn’t even Prairie Star! Yes, to my surprise I learned that Tefft titled his less dramatic representation of the state’s motto (Ad Astra, meaning To the Stars), “Ad Astra: Prairie Spirit.”

 After collecting dust in Tefft’s workshop, the Prairie Spirit sculpture came to Manhattan, Kan. to be displayed at Strecker-Nelson Gallery. The rest is history.

 It is my opinion that the original source (the incorrect one!) that I pulled information from combined and confused the two sculptures largely because their names were very similar. An additional opinion of mine is that somewhere along the way, because of the star our sculpture on the patio holds, her name morphed into what we now know as Prairie Star.

Thank you, little bird, for keeping me on my toes. Let’s hope I have learned my lesson in source checking or I will be eating a lot more crow, or feet, in the future.

See you next week, thanks for stopping by!