Outdoor Art - Nashville

Our nephew attends Belmont University in Nashville Tennessee. In October we took my Mother with us to visit him during his fall break. We were able to tour the campus without the rush of students that normally abound.


This tree sandwiched between two buildings intrigued me. It looks to be struggling to survive. But what I found beneath the tree was of much more interest to me.

Such a symbolic sculpture. I had to walk around it several times to soak in all the angles and consider the reasoning behind the work of art and it's placement on the campus.

The sculpture by Irvin Limor, a Jewish immigrant who spent five years in concentration camps during World War II is called “Money – Servant or Master”. Probably even more thought provoking now than it was at it's inception.

Limor gave the sculpture, worth thousands of dollars, to Belmont in the 1970’s under one condition – instead of paying Limor monetarily, he simply requested Belmont return the kindness by doing a good deed for someone else.

The sculpture originally stood in what was then the Center for Business Administration and was moved in 2007. It is now nestled in between Heron and Pembroke Halls.

Irvin Limor, who died in 1995, was a well-known Nashville sculptor in the 1960s and 1970s and the owner of Artistic Ironworks, which specialized in ornamental metal work.

I wonder if all the young people that pass by this work of art ever think about it's meaning, not just for them but also for it's creator...