2025-2026 K-State Common Work of Art

Each year, the K-State Book Network selects a common reading for first year students to provide a shared intellectual experience. The 2025 K-State First Book is Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World by Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, who served as U.S. Surgeon General in 2015-2017 and 2021-2025.

Murthy has warned of a nationwide epidemic of loneliness that deeply affects Americans’ mental and physical health. “Mental health is the defining public health crisis of our time,” he writes, “and for many Americans, loneliness is at the heart of that crisis.” At any time, about half of U.S. adults report measurable loneliness. The problem, Murthy emphasizes, transcends age, income, and social status. “There are people in marriages who are lonely, CEOs of major companies who are lonely, seemingly happy people posting pictures of their fabulous vacations on social media who are lonely. And far too many young people who are lonely.”

In Together, Murthy combines research and personal stories to describe the scope of the issue and real-life strategies individuals and communities have used to reconnect. “Connection is the essential glue of our lives,” Murthy says. “It is what brings us happiness and fulfillment.”

To complement this selection the Beach Museum of Art presents Carol Pylant’s No Masters, the 2025 Common Work of Art. The quiet, interior scene suggests a kind of psychological distance. Pylant has said that the work invites viewers to consider “the psychology of the place and the relationship between the individuals.” The artist is professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"No Masters" by Carol Pylant, showing a man sitting at a desk looking outside the window and a woman standing close to the man looking at a painting on the wall.
Carol Pylant, No Masters, 1986, oil on panel, 30 1/2 x 26 7/8 in., 1988.6