The sculpture in the Cornell Mall was created for the University - not necessarily the students, said Roger Lujan, director of facility planning.
Betty Sabo, UNM alumna, designed and created the seven bronze statues that surround a stainless steel centerpiece built by her brother, Gary Beals.
Sabo was asked to submit a proposal for the piece, which was unveiled Aug. 23. She was paid $250,000.
"Is it humanity?" asked Rosalie Otero, director of the UNM Honors Program. "They don't look like students. And for the University, I don't know what that represents."
The decision to choose Sabo's piece was reviewed by the Arts in Public Places Committee and was made based on her contributions to the community.
She has created bronze pieces featured at the Albuquerque Biological Park's Botanical Gardens and the Albuquerque Museum.
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Lujan, three art professors, two members from facility planning and two students were on the committee.
The committee proposes how all state capital funds allotted for the public art fund are expended. Those funds were used to purchase the dancers in front of Popejoy Hall and "Cloudrift" in front of the Health Sciences Center, but not for the Sabo piece.
"We try to apply them to various places across campus," Lujan said.
The funds for the project came from discretionary minor capital funds - money the University receives from things such as investments and property revenues.
Sabo signed a contract with the University four years ago to create "Modern Art."
It is meant to initiate dialogue among the University community, Lujan said.
"I think it's really cool having something like this in the middle of the really prosaic part of the University," said Diane Rawls, faculty member. "We forget about the art of things sometimes."
The contract was not put up for bid, and the option to create a piece was not given to other artists.
Lujan said the funds were committed five years ago.
It's different than anything else we have on campus, UNM student Meghan Marrazzo said, but the statues and the centerpiece don't go well together.
"They're kind of ugly," she said. "Couldn't they do something else with that money?"
Lujan said the committee thought it was a pretty good price, adding that Sabo threw in two extra sculptures for the amount negotiated.
"It's a chance to incorporate characters on the campus," he said. "We don't have any art like that elsewhere on campus."
Rawls said the characters seem to represent a larger community as opposed to traditional college-aged students.
"At least one more could have been a younger-type person," she said.
