In 1993 UT Vice President Sammie Lynn Puett, who chaired the Bicentennial Committee of the UT system, commissioned, as a UT system bicentennial project, a sculpture to be placed on the Knoxville campus as a landmark legacy of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the chartering of UT. Julie Warren Martin, UT graduate and local sculptress, devised the sculpture from Tennessee pink marble. It was installed on the walkway between Cumberland Avenue and the Carolyn P. Brown Memorial Center. Unveiled on December 7, 1994, as the closing Bicentennial Celebration event, the sculpture is entitled Terra.
In describing the upright “totem form” of her Tennessee marble sculpture, Martin indicated that it addresses the university in theme. “It’s basically about the origin of education,” said Martin. “When we hit the earth, we begin to learn from it—our environment.” The black granite base of the sculpture features images of nature and the elements. A “yin/yang” design also figures into the base, suggesting, according to Martin, the importance of balance with our environment. Martin said that, while she did not usually offer such messages in her art, she felt it was appropriate for this piece. “If we don’t respect our environment, we could lose it,” she said. “We won’t have a future if we don’t care of what we have.”
The $125,000+ price of the sculpture was, according to Puett, “funded by alumni—a gift from the alumni of the first 200 years to the alumni of the next 200 years.” In 1993 Carolyn Boling, wife of former UT President Edward J. Boling, wrote and published the book Julie Warren Martin: Sculptor of Stone.