A history of stained glass art at Brisbane Girls Grammar Sch

A HISTORY OF STAINED GLASS ART AT BRISBANE GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL

A history of stained glass art at Brisbane Girls Grammar School

Jewel drops – section of “Metamorphosis” window, Kathleen Lilley Building

One of the many elements that sets Brisbane Girls Grammar School apart and contributes to its

remarkable place in the education of young women is the collection of stained-glass windows in two

of its buildings. In a secular, non-denominational school, there is no chapel to adorn with stained

glass religious motifs for spiritual reflection. Nevertheless, the stained-glass windows that have been

installed in the Main Building and in the Kathleen Lilley Building are designed for contemplation on

the power of education for young women.

In some ways it is surprising that an art form with a long history and tradition has been created for

the School in a contemporary era. Even in the short contemporary history of the windows here at

Brisbane Girls Grammar School, a mere ten years from the late 1980s into the 19902, there has been

an evolution from traditional design to an explosion of colour, design and ideas in the final windows,

particularly those that frame the entry foyer to the former Kathleen Lilley Building.

Principal Dr Judith Hancock was not only invested in the School’s reputation for academic rigour and

scholarship but was intent on creating a environment for students and staff to appreciate the

aesthetic

The beginning of a series of stained-glass windows incorporated into Brisbane Girls Grammar School

began in 1988 with a window featuring the school badge above the front door of the Main Building,

gifted by the 1988 Year 12 cohort.

At this time, there was a tradition of giving gifts from the graduating class. There are no records to

indicate who crafted this window.

In 1990 the Mothers’ Group took up Dr Hancock’s idea to commission a stained -glass window which

would commemorate the contribution of Brisbane Girls Grammar School to the education of girls.

This window was dedicated in 1991, created by stained glass artists Tony Vaughan and Jude Wixon.

The window addresses through symbols the various stages of learning at Brisbane Girls Grammar

School, elements that the School has proactively pursued in its philosophy and policies regarding the

education of girls.

The elegant stained-glass window

At the top of the window is a lighted lamp, signifying knowledge, above a scroll with the foundation

year of 1875. The Lady Lilley gold medal, awarded to the Dux of the School reflects the contribution

of Sir Charles and Lady Lilley to the founding of the School. There is a medallion representing the

emphasis placed on Science studies, with Brisbane Girls Grammar School being one of the first

schools to provide laboratory facilities.

The lamp of enlightenment and the Queensland emblem.

The medallion with the image of Sophia Beanland commemorates her contribution in providing

library facilities ahead of the times. Sophia Beanland’s name is now the name given to the Library in

the School. There are medallions to represent past, present, and future education as well as those to

show the integral role of Sport in the School and the significant place of Law, Commerce, and the

Arts in the future careers of students.

Window detail of the high jumper.

The colours of the window include red and gold, academic colours of Brisbane Grammar School,

from which Brisbane Girls Grammar School was established. The School’ own colour of royal blue

mingles with the Australian colours of green and gold and the national floral emblem of wattle to

speak to the contribution and place of the School in the history of education of girls in Australia.

In 1995, the Mothers’ Group set out to raise money for a series of two stained glass windows to celebrate the 120 th anniversary of the founding of Brisbane Girls Grammar School. The window in

the corridor of Main building depicts Principals up to 1995.

Principals from 1875 until 1995

The window over the north entrance to Main building shows Principals and Chairs of the Board of

Trustees who have given their names to the Houses. (Missing is Annie Mackay as Mackay House was

only formed in the late 1990s).

These windows were also designed and crafted by Tony Vaughan and Jude Wixon.

Following a visit to Presbyterian Ladies College in Perth in early 1996, the then Principal Judith

Hancock was taken by the stained-glass window newly installed in the renovated chapel of the

school. She understood the importance of leaving a legacy of art within the school and contributing

to the aesthetics of the school for students to see and appreciate art on their campus. Previously Dr

Hancock had initiated a ceramics collection which endures today in the display cabinet outside the

office of Principal Ms Jacinda Euler.

Inspired to develop a stained-glass window that would depict the vitality and creativity of young

women and their striving, Dr Hancock consulted with one of the teachers of art in the school, Ms

Jennifer Andrews, also an alumna, to design the window, then to be crafted by well-known stained

glass window artist, Mr Warwick Blair.

Jennifer Andrews had already experience in stained glass, having completed windows for St

Matthews Anglican Church in Gayndah, west of Gympie. She had drawn inspiration from artist David

Binns who is also responsible for stained glass windows in the chapel s of St Aidan’s Anglican Girls

School in Corinda, Brisbane and at St Hilda’s Southport. Many of David Binns’ designs were

contemporary in form, even when depicting religious saints or stories. It was through David Bins that

Jennifer promoted Warwick Blair as the artist to create the panels of stained-glass window.

Jennifer’s brief was to compose a design that spoke to the notion of “striving”.

However, these stained-glass windows at Brisbane Girls Grammar School were to feature in the

Library of a secular School. The windows were destined to be installed in the then Library, the

Beanland Library, in the Kathleen Lilley building. Here was a place of learning for the students and

striving seemed like an appropriate idea to speak about the power of learning for the girls.

But first, Jennifer Andrews had to take her final concept drawing to the Mothers Group where the

School hoped to gain funding for this initiative. These concept drawings provided some challenges

just in their size. Jennifer took to coming in at weekends to use the floor space in the then art

teaching rooms in the school. There she could lay out the drawings and afterwards, pin the panels of

drawings to the walls to get a sense of how these might look in a more final form. Once the drawings

were presented to the Mothers Group at a meeting, they agreed to fund the project. One year later

the window was completed and opened on School Day in October 1997.

The huge six panel window – Creativity - is a contemporary design that draws on symbols to inspire

and for the students to reflect on the notion of striving. The central symbol is the two eagles with

white wings approaching the centre reflecting freedom, strength and power, the drive to go beyond

normal heights, to explore new horizons. Shards of and multiple, interweaving shapes of colour

spiral towards the centre. The unfurling abstract butterfly images suggest transformation, new

beginnings, growth and beauty. In the far-right hand panel a group of smaller butterflies are shown

in figurative form and each butterfly is unique in appearance and this was a strong metaphor for the

uniqueness of each student. The window speaks to the unfolding of creativity in all students.

Images of flames suggest knowledge and the lighting of the journey, and a tree reaches upwards

with its roots in the ground reinforcing the message of growth.

The “Creativity Window” at Brisbane Girls Grammar School. Source: Mark Baker

The butterflies in the “Creativity Window” represent each student’s individuality.

Warwick Blair was considered a master of colour in his stained-glass creations and in his studio held

a vast collection of glass, much of which he felt was waiting for this project. Warwick sourced a

number of different glasses from across the world, England, Europe and America, to include

different textures and depth, as well as colour, to each detail of the windows. He had thousands of

bolts, sheets of glass from these countries where specific manufacturers all produce a particular type

of glass that has its own texture and use. Different glasses can offer different light and transparency

or translucency. These glasses need to work within the constraints of the building, within the

environment. The selection of glass is therefore a time-consuming task, taking out sheets, holding

them to the light, considering the structural aspects of the surrounds, deciding which parts of the

glass are best suited to the design, such as using the centre or the periphery to achieve the desired

results. This process could take several weeks before a satisfactory choice is made.

The glass that he used for the butterfly had come from America and was “glass developed for the

needs of the US Space Programme”. To begin with, Warwick and Jennifer worked on a small model

of the window to test the response of the glass. From the numerous process drawings that Jennifer

Andrews worked on over long and intensive periods of time, Warwick interpreted the design

through his creative energies to produce his stained-glass art that resembled no other in the region.

This window was the beginning of the story of a series of windows designed and created by Jennifer

Andrews and Warwick Blair that talk about the life of learning of our students.

In 1998, the Old Girls Association wanted to extend the stained glass into adjoining windows in the

same area of the Kathleen Lilley Building. Once again, Jennifer Andrews and Warwick Blair were to

collaborate on the creation of these windows which continued to explore ideas of learning. the

Creativity Window , was Andrews’ and Blair’s first attempt to reflect the theme of striving, growth

and personal transformation.

Metamorphosis was completed and opened in 1999 and was intended as a complement to the

window “Creativity” above the nearby stairwell. Artist and designer Jennifer Andrews was intent on

creating rhythm and movement to move across to the movement of the butterflies and eagle in the

Creativity window. The character of all four panels in the window is at once more abstract and freer

in expression. The window takes symbols from the Creativity Window , particularly the butterfly

wings, but the work is much “cooler” in appearance than its predecessor with a strong emphasis on

deep blues rather than oranges and yellows.

Blair used painted glass to reflect some of the detail in Andrew’s designs, such as the intricate,

translucent wings of the figurative butterflies which Blair represents with considerable finesse. But

much of the windows’ effect comes from the quality of the glass itself. Intensive use is made of richly

coloured glass and bevelled glass (for example, in the Creativity Window for the shards of light

streaming from the centre). Blair also used clear glass, textured glass, overlapping glass, patterned

glass and glass jewels shaped like teardrops which in the Metamorphosis Window are clustered

together like bunches of grapes. Indeed, Blair intentionally changed small parts of the

Metamorphosis design specifically so he could employ some of the “fabulous” glass that he had collected over the years and which had been sitting in his studio waiting for the right job i .

Thus, the 11 panels for the library foyer were grouped into three separate window designs. Five

panels on one side of the main entrance to the foyer comprised the Creativity Window . A set of four

panels on the other side made up the Metamorphosis Window and were installed in either late 1998

or early 1999. To complete the narrative of learning, the Tree of Knowledge was designed as two

panels to flank the doors of what was then the former site of the Beanland Library.

For Warwick Blair, this window came into being around the time that Warwick was diagnosed with a

terminal illness. Time was against him and both Jennifer and Warwick felt the pressure of realising a

final design that did not compromise the integrity of her creative concept.

For Warwick, the window then took on an extremely spiritual aspect, reflecting the swirling waters

of life. It was about realising and surmounting the problems that we all face in life while making

most of the opportunities that are given to us by God in the time that we have.

Metamorphosis - Kathleen Lilley Building

Jewel drops – section of “Metamorphosis” window, Kathleen Lilley Building

Detail from Metamorphosis Window showing use of glass jewels and textured glass.

Detail of butterflies in the “Metamorphosis Window

Tree of Knowledge window, entry to Kathleen Lilley Building

Tree of Knowledge, left panel

This same year also marked the centenary of the founding of the Old Girls Association and to

celebrate this, the OGA commissioned a stained-glass artwork to sit in the semi-circle window of the

western stairwell in Main Building. Again, the commission was entrusted to Jennifer Andrews and

Warwick Blair. Having already worked extensively together on the Beanland Library projects,

Jennifer and Warwick understood each other readily on the intent and an appropriate design. While

a contemporary aspect was an underpinning element of the brief from the Principal Judith Hancock,

it was also important to respect the traditional architecture and history of this original heritage

building on the campus. Certainly, Warwick Blair wanted, as he stated, a “forward looking window,

one that leads the mind and the eye onwards”, not one that was traditional Victorian, like the

building itself but that sits happily with the past. It seems that the Principal, Warwick and Jennifer

were intent on creating something for the young people in the School.

The finished work is another clear nod to learning with the splendid jacaranda flowers reminding us

of end of year exams as a significant stage in student learning. Once again, the depiction of an open

book underscores the notion of learning and knowledge. The window is dominated by an array of

shades of purple and lavender in a field of green leaves and blue, framed by bands of rectangles in

yellow, green and blue that form something akin to a border as borders were very much part of the

geometrical aspects of Victorian windows. This border arches over the window reminiscent of a

rainbow and the shape reflects the curvature of the window as an integral part of the heritage

architecture. Centring all this is an orb of red and gold with the yellow light of sun embracing a

cluster of jacaranda flowers. So, the window is a study of jacaranda flowers draping over the book as

a symbol of knowledge.

Warwick Blair pointed out prior to the project that no glass would match the “luminous, ultra -violet,

and blue of the jacaranda flowers” so no flawless rendition of the flowers was possible. However,

the end result is that the window and its jacaranda is luminous in its achievement of colour and light.

Main Building, western stairwell.

Commemorating 100 years of the Old Girls Association.

Blair was proud of all four windows crafted for the School, but he considered the Metamophosis

Windo w as his finest achievement to date. It was special for Blair, not merely because of its technical

complexities, but also because its theme expressed where he was in his personal life at a time when

he was struggling with the challenges of terminal illness. In a taped interview recorded by the School

in 1999 after the completion of all four windows at the School, Blair articulated eloquently what for

him was the essential meaning of the great sweep of the Metamorphosis Window . He reflected that

his health had started to intrude as he was working on the project and diagnosed with cancer, since

suffering endless health complications. He continued:

I see Jennifer’s’ design, and this might be reflecting some of where I am at this point in my

life, and what shall we say the “waters of life” - people travelling through their existence over

a stormed tossed sea. And you’ll no doubt see this in the great swirls of rich dark violet indigo

blue glass which travel right across the base of the four windows that make up this complete

piece. And emerging from this, and this is where I saw it as very appropriate for the School,

are climbing, swirling rays of light and beauty which are the opportunities given us in life as

we travel by God and also by our own endeavours and by what is given us as children as we

are brought up and educated, and as we move through life.

So, I hope that people will see some of that - the dark storm-tossed waters, the problems

that we all face in life. I think very few of us go through and have a fantastically wonderful

life. Whether the problems come earlier or later, they will come but we rise above them. And

you will see these endless swirling rises out of the darkness, out of the depths of difficulties,

problems, mundane, boredom, whatever you like to read into it - wonderful, sparkling

rewards, wonderful spiritual enlightenments and growth.

The power of the windows created by Andrews and Blair in the former library building at the School

is quite evident. From the outside, the functional unadorned 1970s architecture of the building gives

nothing away of what is to come. As you move into the foyer and look back you are confronted by a

stunning panorama of a range of colours of stained-glass, with the yellow, oranges, reds, purples and

blues of the Creativity Window shining on the right, and the powerful deep blues, violets and reds of

the Metamorphosis Window shimmering on the left - all accentuated by the starkly white walls of

the foyer.

A distinguishing feature of the windows is their sense of movement and tactility. The windows

radiate energy and power, qualities which even modern digital photography fails to adequately

capture – you need to stand in front of them to really appreciate their brilliance. Blair achieves their

extraordinary effect not simply through Andrew’s superb design, which strongly denotes movement

reflecting the theme of “striving” and personal achievement, but also through technically brilliant

use of materials.

For both Warwick and Jennifer, the stained-glass window projects at Brisbane Girls Grammar School

were explorations of new directions. While each had worked in this medium before, working

collaboratively unveiled new thoughts and practices and for Warwick it was a reinvigoration of his

mastery of this art. For both, it was a realisation that it was possible to share ideas, concepts and

bring about the actualisation of these. The projects of the stained-glass windows has blended the

talents and aspirations of each of these formidable artists.

There are no plans to extend the stained-glass windows. Perhaps those that have come in to grace

the School have spoken what was intended to be said in their time and into the future. Now the

philosophy and practices of the continuing and evolving intent of the School, to be a leading light in

providing purposeful education for young women can be articulated in other ways as has been the

case in the long and esteemed history of the School.