Sculpture Tour

The UT Outdoor Sculpture Tour was implemented by the Chancellor’s Office in May 1982 as the result of a collaboration of the UT Knoxville Council for the Study of the Arts, the Cultural Affairs Board, and the School of Art (then Art Department). It was initially proposed by Dr. Harry Rutledge, head of the Classics Department. Seven nonfigurative sculptures were loaned to be displayed on campus throughout the 1982 World’s Fair. Seventeen sites for outdoor sculpture convenient for heavy pedestrian traffic were initially identified throughout the campus. When the 1985–86 exhibition was removed in June 1986, Dennis Peacock, curator of the tour and professor of art, decided not to continue it, since it remained an unfunded program. In fall 1987 the Chancellor’s Office allocated funds for a budget for the program, which allowed payment to artists for transporting their work and a small honorarium to each participating artist and paid for an assistant curator. In addition, the Cultural Affairs Board and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Business, Planning, and Finance provided money for a purchase fund, and an independent Sculpture Tour Purchase Committee was established. The committee, composed of two students, one person from the community, and two university employees selected Armor Pierce by Jim Buonaccorsi as the first purchased sculpture. In 1990 the collection of works (familiarly dubbed “Reese’s Pieces”) was named the Reese Collection in honor of Chancellor Jack E. Reese, under whose guidance the tour was originally established. The tour was discontinued in 1996 with the removal of the pieces installed in 1994. Most of the sculpture was abstract and the work of young faculty at higher education institutions, with the most famous piece on the tour being one by Alexander Calder. Written by Betsey B. Creekmore