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Beverley Shore Bennett MBE, FMGP – Inducted 2012
Friday, 26 October 2012
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Student at Marsden 1934 (Lower School campus) – 1945 (Lower VIth / Yr 12) Receives this award in recognition of her expertise in the creative arts especially in stained glass, painting and ecclesiastical embroidery. Beverley has a strong belief in preserving and retaining history at both local and national levels; she is also Lay Canon Emeritus in the Anglican Diocese of Wellington. Beverley’s commitment to the school has been a long one; as a student, a parent, a long serving member of both Boards and a supporter of many school activities. Her mother (Edith Carter) and sister Deirdre were also students and her father (Martin Shore) served on the Board of Governors from 1946 – 1970. Beverley has had three daughters and three grand-daughters at Marsden. Beverley studied at the Wellington Art School and the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting in London. She exhibited portraits regularly in the NZ Academy of Fine Arts from her late teens and whilst in London exhibited two portraits at the Royal Academy in the Summer Exhibition of 1953. Beverley returned to New Zealand, married Peter Bennett and continued work completing painting and portrait commissions while bringing up a family. With the building of the new Anglican Cathedral she was asked, in the late 1960s, to design the Holm memorial window. This began a long association with a variety of glass craftsmen as she designed between three and four hundred windows in churches, chapels and cathedrals all over the country. Beverley is, at present, the only New Zealander to be elected a Fellow of the British Society of Master Glass painters, and was the Australasian Governor of Zonta International from 1976-1978 having been Charter President of the Wellington Club. Beverley’s artistic skills have not been limited to glass as she has designed and created many hangings, banners and church linen and vestments and in 1974 wrote A Key to Embroidery. One of her best known works is the large dossal hanging behind the altar in Wellington Cathedral. There is also evidence of her skill in the windows and embroidery in the school chapel. Beverley has a strong faith. The research that precedes her design work is an important part of the process “I like to go back to the original texts. She says. That’s one of the nicest things about it – my churchmanship doesn’t only belong on Sundays. It goes right through the week. |