Peggy Mangold

Peggy Mangold (1932-2022)

Peggy Lou Mangold was born on October 4, 1932 in Monroe Country, Indiana, the only child of farmers, Thelma Denney and Carl Burks. She was raised by her parents, together with a large “village” of family and friends in the surrounding community. Throughout her life Peggy considered the family farm to be her true “home”.

In 1955, Peggy married Robert “Bob” Mangold in Bloomington, Indiana, when he was a graduate student at Indiana University; in 1958, the couple had the first of their two daughters, Lisa. In 1960, the young family relocated to Denver, Colorado, when Bob was given a teaching position at the University of Denver, having been hired by Vance Kirkland, the head of the visual arts department. In 1964, their second daughter, Mickey, was born. For several years Peggy raised her children while supporting Bob in his growth as an artist and a professor of art.

From the time they first came to Colorado, Peggy and Bob were intensely involved in nurturing Denver’s contemporary art scene with many of their oldest friends and associates being a part of the “Beat generation”. The couple emerged as key “influencers” of that era. As a result, during the next fifty years, Peggy and Bob would emerge as being major players in the art world in Colorado, and a constant in the lives of many of Bob’s former students.

In the 1970s, Peggy began to develop her own identity in the scene distinct from that of her prominent sculptor husband, becoming active in all aspects of the contemporary art world for the remainder of her life. She began by working with friends, Carol and Erick Schwartz, at their quarterly arts magazine Ocular . After several years there, she resigned to help her husband Bob and other sculptors of large-scale contemporary works with the administration of their newly established group, Form. This led Peggy to open the legendary Artyard Gallery, one of few venues exhibiting large outdoor sculpture in Denver. Peggy mounted an incredible number of both indoor and outdoor exhibitions at Artyard winning Westword ’s ”Best of Denver“ award multiple times. She was known for her integrity as a gallerist, both mentoring young emerging artists as well as facilitating the national and international exposure of more established talents. She was involved in many large outdoor sculpture exhibitions including those at Burns Park, Jesus Morales at MOA, and in the placement of permanent installations of other artists at MOA, Loveland Sculpture in the Park, Barcelona Eight Options at 1999 Broadway, the Arvada Center, and the Denver Botanic Gardens, just to name a few. Peggy served on the boards of the Denver Art Dealers Association, DAM Contemporaries of the Denver Art Museum, CHAC (Chicano Humanities and Arts Council) and the International Sculpture Group. Notably she was among the founders of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.

Peggy also had many other interests. She was a voracious reader of cookbooks, medical journals and contemporary art tabloids. She loved to cook and grow veggies in her garden. She canned, baked, entertained and still managed to be very hands-on in raising daughters and was deeply involved in their education personal pursuits. She was involved in local and national elections. One of her favorite things to do was hunting wild mushrooms both at the couple’s cabin in the Colorado mountains and on the family farm in Indiana.

Peggy died on February 13, 2022 at Denver Hospice after losing her battle with ALS. She Was 89. She is survived by her husband, Robert Mangold, her daughters, Lisa Mangold-White, Mickey Mangold, her husband, Andy Herb, and Lisa’s daughter, Zoe Zella Mangold-White Mäkelä, and her husband, Nikolas Mäkelä, all of whom currently reside in Colorado. Until her passing Peggy also maintained deep and loving relationships with many of her extended blood family as well as friends and neighbors “back Home“ in Indiana.

On February 26, 2022, following her wishes, the family buried Peggy in the Denney family cemetery on her family farm in Indiana. She arrived in a pine box covered with wildflowers, carried by a horse-drawn wagon, ushered in by a fiddler.

She will be deeply missed.

DENVER MEMORIAL:

There will be a public memorial service in Denver at the Arvada Center for the Arts https://arvadacenter.org/

March 12 from 3:00 to 5:30 hosted by The Natural Funeral

The family asks that any donations in honor of Peggy go to the Arvada Center for the Arts.

https://www.arvadacenter.org/support-us

Click on “Donate to the Arvada Center”

-This will open a new page where you can make your donation.

-Select the amount you want to donate

-At the bottom of the page under “Gift Designation” select “In Memory of” and under that write Peggy Mangold.