A history of stained glass art at Brisbane Girls Grammar Sch

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.