2022 Annual Review

A Bronze Gift for a Platinum Celebration

The Roman goddess, Minerva, returns to Girls Grammar to inspire a new generation of Grammar girls.

Goddess of wisdom, and sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy, Minerva is believed to excel at music, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, and the crafts. A statue of this impressive ‘all-rounder’ was said to have been used in the Classics classrooms at Girls Grammar as a teaching device from the 1920s. She was embraced by senior students as a sort of muse— suggesting that her diverse skills and knowledge may have appealed to students who strove to embody these attributes themselves to meet the challenges of university and the demands of a professional life. Mysteriously, this once beloved muse has not been sighted since 1966 and it is speculated that she was misplaced during renovations at the School, sadly never to be seen again. When President of the P&F Association, Dr Cate Campbell, learned of this missing sculpture, the idea of a ‘school mascot’ that was the embodiment of many of the qualities to which Grammar girls strive—

a physical reminder of the School’s motto, Nil Sine Labore —struck a chord. With the 70th anniversary of the P&F Association forthcoming in 2022, Dr Campbell realised the perfect commemoration of this occasion would be the recreation of a Minerva bust for the modern Grammar girl. Accomplished artist and bronze sculptor, Mr Phillip Piperides, who founded the Perides Arts Foundry in Brisbane, was engaged to create the new Minerva statue. Rather than mimic the classical style of the original bust, the new Minerva is a modern interpretation with a contemporary styled ‘up-do’ and the drapery toga style dress replaced with a roughly finished texture that gives the appearance that she has just emerged from the clay creation— that she is ‘rising up’. With a focused and resilient gaze, Dr Campbell said that she hoped ‘all students (would) see something of themselves, or who they aspire to be, in her’.

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Brisbane Girls Grammar School Annual Review 2022