"Vessels," a sculpture by Billy Lee, professor of art at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, was accepted for inclusion in the Olympic Fine Arts 2008, a cultural event organized by the International Olympic Committee and Chinese Olympic Committee.

Artists from more than 80 countries were invited to submit proposals for an international exhibition to run concurrently with the Olympics this summer.

After that, the exhibition will travel internationally for two years before being permanently installed in the Olympic Fine Art Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Works include Chinese painting, oil painting, print art, sculptures and digital art.

The Olympic Committee held the first Olympic sports and art contest in Sydney for the 2000 games.

The second contest was in Athens in 2004, intended to promote the development of sports culture.

"There is a great deal of energy and excitement in Beijing right now," says Lee, who will be on research leave in China during the fall semester. While there he will work on a series of stone sculptures.

He will also spend time in Beijing visiting artists and their studios.

Lee is frequently invited to exhibit and place his works around the world. Among Lee's numerous awards are the Giacomo Manzu Special Prize at the seventh Henry Moore Sculpture Exhibition and the Rodin Prize for his work exhibited in the Hakone/ Utsukushi-ga-hara Open Air Museum.

Lee received a master's degree in fine arts from the Royal College of Art in London and was a fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was also a Kennedy Scholar.