As any student could tell you, UT places high value on tradition. These traditions take many forms, but perhaps the most enduring are the campus fixtures that the school hopes communicate the individuality and spirit of the UT campus.

The Torchbearer

Foremost in this category is The Torchbearer, also known as The Volunteer Statue. The sculpture, designed by Yale School of Fine Arts student Theodore Andre Beck, was selected through a nationwide contest in 1931 that sought a design to capture “the spirit of University youth and its ideal of service.”

The original sketch was of an older man dressed in Grecian robes. After lengthy consideration, the design was subsequently modified to look younger and portray no specific nationality, giving the design a timeless quality.

The Torchbearer became the official symbol of the UT in 1932, but the statue was delayed from being built due to the Great Depression and World War II. A student campaign led to the casting and establishment of the nine-foot Volunteer in Circle Park on April 19, 1968.

The Centaur from Volos

If you continue down Volunteer Boulevard, past the Torchbearer, to the Jack E. Reese Galleria in Hodges Library, you will find another intriguing piece in the collection of University artifacts—The Centaur from Volos. For 20 years, the display of “The Centaur Excavation at Volos” has led students to question their belief in the existence of centaurs.

Exhibited in an elegantly constructed showcase are what appear to be the remains of a centaur excavated from an archaeological dig site in Volos, Greece.

But are the dusty bones really those of a centaur? Unfortunately, no.

“This display uses the conventions of scholarship to present a work of fiction as authentic,” said Beauvais Lyons, Ellen McClung Berry professor of art and advocate of the Centaur project. “The exhibit is a valuable object lesson on the importance of skepticism.”

The centaur was originally composed by Bill Willers, an artist and professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, from a combination of tea-stained pony bones and a deteriorating human skeleton.

During the fixture’s formation in the early 1990s, then Dean of Libraries, Paula Kauffman, along with a host of other faculty were very supportive of the project.

“The centaur underscores a key heuristic issue; that the experience of having a deeply held belief disconfirmed (as in the hoax dehoaxed) is critical to self-conscience epistemology and thus the educational process,” said Lyons.

The library is an ideal setting for the centaur’s lesson in objectivity due to the fact that a work of “non-fiction” is not often immediately perceived as false. Lyons believes the “centaur” invites critical reflection as it demonstrates an intellectually stimulating juxtaposition.

“Centaurs are part of Greek mythology,” Lyons said, “and since so much of Western culture has Greek and Roman origins, the form is both familiar and totally bizarre.”

The UT centaur is now mythic. Lyons said he is still waiting for a centaur to appear during the homecoming parade.

“Memphis has a pyramid, Nashville has the Parthenon,” Lyons said, “but Knoxville has The Centaur Excavations at Volos.”

The Whirlwind of Opportunity

Arguably, the most modern campus fixture rests at the peak of Pedestrian Mall.

The dynamic “Startling Whirlwind of Opportunity” statue was a private gift to the school from alumnus Wilton D. “Chick” Hill in 2009 as an accessory to UT’s Make Orange Green initiative.

Designed by New York-based artist Alice Aycock, the 25-foot aluminum and glass sculpture was inspired by the bustling atmosphere of Pedestrian Mall.

“The acquisition of knowledge is not a static series of steps but an incredibly dynamic, energetic and creative ricochet of information,” Aycock said in a statement. “Ideas are not at rest.”

Though the piece works to both capture the essence of campus and accommodate UT’s sustainability initiative using low-energy LED lighting, it has been met with a flurry of responses.

“Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the aesthetics because, for it to be a ‘whirlwind of opportunity,’ it seems childish,” said Maggie Miller, graduate student in art education. “It doesn’t really fit the culture of our campus.”

All photos courtsey of McCord Pagan.