Work of art, say, outside university (6)
I believe the answer is:
statue
'work of art' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'say outside university' is the wordplay.
'say' becomes 'state' (synonyms).
'outside' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters go outside others).
'university' becomes 'U' (abbreviation for university).
'state' placed around 'u' is 'STATUE'.
(Other definitions for statue that I've seen before include "Model figure" , "As created by 3dn" , "Sculptured figure" , "A carved or sculpted figure" , "Stone figure" .)