//Furman Humanities Center sponsors ‘El Tiempo,’ one sculpture of the ‘Wings of the City’ collection

Furman Humanities Center sponsors ‘El Tiempo,’ one sculpture of the ‘Wings of the City’ collection

Michele Speitz, associate professor of English literature and director of the Furman Humanities Center.

In conceptualizing and building the Furman Humanities Center, Director Michele Speitz and her board of directors have confronted a long list of decisions. From mission to goals to programming, the choices have been numerous and not always easy.

This one was.

When Speitz learned about an opportunity for the Humanities Center and Furman to sponsor one of the installations in the “Wings of the City” public art exhibit to arrive in downtown Greenville, South Carolina, in April, she jumped on it.

“At an institution like Furman, we would want to support those intersections between the arts and the humanities, and between the sciences and culture — not just within the university’s bounds but within the community,” she said. “We just won the Carnegie award for community engagement, so we are in the top tier of universities that strive to do this.”

This particular public art exhibit – and the specific sculpture Furman is sponsoring, titled “El Tiempo” – is especially compelling and a perfect match for the Humanities Center’s mission to support diversity and inclusion. Created by world-renowned Mexican sculptor Jorge Marín, “Wings of the City” has never been on display in a community east of the Mississippi River before.

The collection of nine bronze sculptures will be installed in Falls Park and on the Peace Center campus in April and will remain in Greenville until October.

“El Tiempo,” sponsored by the Furman Humanities Center, is