Art Alumni Writing Book About UT Sculpture Tour
Two School of Art alumni are writing a book about the University of Tennessee Sculpture Tour, a unique loan program in the 1980-90’s that influenced outdoor art exhibitions at institutions and communities throughout the country.
Leticia Bajuyo (MFA ‘01), an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at the University of Oklahoma, and Durant Thompson (BFA ‘97), a Professor of Sculpture at The University of Mississippi, were students of Emeritus Professor Dennis Peacock, the Tour’s founder and curator. It wasn’t until several years after they had graduated from UT that the two realized the far-reaching impact of Peacock’s program, said Thompson.
“Outdoor exhibitions used to be gallery or commission based,” he continued. “There wasn’t a program in academics or in the general public that had a loan program like this at the time.”
Peacock founded the UTK Sculpture Tour in the early 1980s as a way to expose his students and the Knoxville community to new and exciting artworks from various artists around the country, many of whom had few other opportunities to exhibit their outdoor work to larger audiences.
At its peak, the UTK Sculpture Tour – which began as an exhibition during the 1982 World’s Fair – had 20-25 sites of rotating sculptures on display at heavily trafficked locations throughout the UT campus. Notable installations included work by renowned sculptors Alice Aycock and Richard Hunt as well as the “Reese’s Pieces” collection, named in honor of Chancellor Jack E. Reese, a strong supporter of the project.
Although the UTK Sculpture Tour closed in 1996 due to lack of funding, its legacy continues. According to Durant and Bajuyo’s research, peer institutions and communities throughout the country that have followed Peacock’s original template (which he shared freely with others) include Florida State, LSU, Western Michigan, and possibly Navy Pier in Chicago. Other longstanding art loan programs inspired by the UTK Tour include Notre Dame, Delta State, and The Rosen at Appalachian State University, while newer exhibition programs include the Yokna Sculpture Trail – of which Thompson is a co-founder and curator -and likely the current Dogwood Arts Festival exhibition in Knoxville.
Peacock’s impact, however, reaches far beyond the artists and academic institutions he supported through the UTK Sculpture Tour, said Bajuyo.
“Dennis was a vital component in changing the trajectory of so many people’s lives,” she continued. “Durant and I were just two of the progeny of his program.”
Bajuyo and Thompson plan to submit a proposal for their currently untitled project to UT Press in July 2025
“We thought we were going to have to hunt for a publisher for quite a while, but we really wanted it to be regional and within East Tennessee to bring it all together,” said Thompson.
Jim Bounaccorsi, “Armor Pierce”
Today, only a handful of pieces remain of the original UTK Sculpture Tour, including Rust Never Sleeps (1989) by Al Frega, located between Humanities and Social Sciences and Art and Architecture buildings, and Sky Stone V (1988) by Glenn Zweygardt, which stands near the Clarence Brown Theatre. Bajuyo and Durant hope that their forthcoming book will incite interest in reinstating the UTK Sculpture Tour, along with commemorating Peacock’s extraordinary work.
Although humble about his accomplishments, Peacock, an active sculptor who retired in 1999 after three decades of teaching at UT, is supportive of the project, said Bajuyo.
“It’s something that Durant and I really want to help document for current students,” she continued. “For students here at UT, at Oklahoma, at Ole Miss and also for the general public, because we’re all part of that same larger network, thanks to Dennis.”
Thompson and Bajuyo ask UTK sculpture alumni with stories or memories of working with Dennis Peacock or the UT Sculpture Tour to contact Jason Brown at jbrown45@utk.edu.
(Featured image: UT Chancellor Jack Reese on the Alvin Frega piece “Rust Never Sleeps”)