{{Short description|New Zealand portrait artist and glass artist (1928–2024)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=March 2022}} {{Infobox artist | name = Beverley Shore Bennett | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MBE|size=100%}} | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Beverley Doris Shore | birth_date = {{Birth date text|1928}} | birth_place = [[Wellington]], New Zealand | death_date = {{Death date and given age|2024|09|03|95|df=y}} | death_place = [[Waikanae]], New Zealand | education = | alma_mater = | known_for = | notable_works = | spouse = {{marriage|Peter Bennett||2002|end=d.}} | children = 3 | relatives = }}
'''Beverley Doris Shore Bennett''' {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MBE|size=85%}} (nḗe '''Shore'''; 1928 – 3 September 2024) was a New Zealand portrait artist and glass artist.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=1928-01-01 |title=Shore Bennett, Beverley Doris, 1928- |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22392159 |access-date=2022-03-04 |website=National Library of New Zealand}}</ref> Her work is included in the collection of the [[New Zealand Portrait Gallery]] and she was a Fellow of the [[British Society of Master Glass Painters]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Portrait of Betty Rhind; Beverley Shore Bennett; 1955; 2009.002 on NZ Museums |url=https://nzmuseums.co.nz/collections/3272/objects/544999/portrait-of-betty-rhind |access-date=2022-03-04 |website=eHive |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Beverley Shore Bennett; Betty Rhind; c. 1944-45; 2010.001 on NZ Museums |url=https://nzmuseums.co.nz/collections/3272/objects/545003/beverley-shore-bennett |access-date=2022-03-04 |website=eHive |language=en}}</ref>
== Biography == Shore Bennett was born in [[Wellington]] to Edith Carter and Martin Shore. She attended [[Samuel Marsden Collegiate School]] from 1934 to 1945.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Beverley Shore Bennett MBE, FMGP (2012) |url=https://marsden.ultranet.school.nz/Web/4856/#:~:text=Beverley%20is%2C%20at%20present%2C%20the,President%20of%20the%20Wellington%20Club. |access-date=5 March 2022 |website=Marsden Collegiate School}}</ref> Her art teacher there, [[Betty Rhind]], gave her extra classes in portrait drawing. From 1946 to 1950, she attended Wellington Technical College<ref name=":1" /> where she studied under stained glass artist [[Frederick Vincent Ellis|Frederick Ellis]].<ref name=":23">{{Cite book |last=Stevenson |first=Annette |title=Wellington Hospital Nurses Memorial Chapel |publisher=Dunmore Press |year=2001 |isbn=0908719124 |location=Palmerston North |pages=41–58, 70}}</ref> [[File:HolmWindow.jpg|thumb|right|The Holm Memorial window, designed by Shore Bennett, at Wellington Cathedral of St Paul]] In 1948, Shore Bennett joined the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, exhibiting her work there, and continued as an exhibiting member until 1967. She travelled to England and studied at the [[Byam Shaw School of Art]] from 1951 to 1953, majoring in portraiture. While there, she had two portraits accepted for the 1953 Royal Academy summer show.<ref name=":1" />
[[File:WCSPchancel.jpg|thumb|right|A dossal, designed by Shore Bennett, hanging behind the altar at Wellington Cathedral of St Paul]] In 1953, Shore Bennett returned to New Zealand and started designing stained glass windows. In the early 1960s, she designed windows for [[Waiapu Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist, Napier|Waiapu Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist]] in [[Napier, New Zealand|Napier]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Cathedral |url=https://napiercathedral.org.nz/the-cathedral/ |access-date=2022-03-04 |website=Waiapu Anglican Cathedral |language=en-US}}</ref> At the dedication of the windows at Saint John's Cathedral, she said: {{blockquote|"Glass is not just beauty, but communication; it should lead you to ponder, recollect and be inspired by the great Christian truths."<ref name="Circle"/>}}
Shore Bennett and Martin Roestenburg designed the windows in the [[Wellington Hospital, New Zealand|Wellington Hospital]] Nurses' Memorial Chapel, which opened in 1965.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-11-28 |title=The Hospital Chapel – Wellington Hospital Chaplaincy Trust |url=https://www.whct.org.nz/the-hospital-chapel/ |access-date=2023-07-24 |language=en-NZ}}</ref><ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last=Stevenson |first=Annette |title=Wellington Hospital Nurses Memorial Chapel |publisher=Dunmore Press |year=2001 |isbn=0908719124 |location=Palmerston North |pages=13, 65–69}}</ref>
In 1969, she was asked to design the portable font for the [[Wellington Cathedral of St Paul]] by the dean, Walter Hurst, which then led to her being invited to design the Holm Memorial window for the cathedral.<ref name="Circle"/> She later designed the cathedral's [[dossal]] hangings, which took her three years to make, and windows for the Lady Chapel and ambulatory.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="Circle"/> She also designed and fabricated church [[vestment]]s.<ref name="Circle"/>
In 1972, she was appointed a Fellow of the British Society of Master Glass Painters, becoming the first New Zealander to be accorded that honour.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gilchrist |first=Shane |date=2016-10-31 |title=Colour and light |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/colour-and-light |access-date=2022-03-04 |website=[[Otago Daily Times]] |language=en}}</ref> In the [[1980 Birthday Honours (New Zealand)|1980 Queen's Birthday Honours]], she was made a [[Member of the Order of the British Empire]], for services to art.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=48214 |date=14 June 1980 |page=41 |supp=3}}</ref>
It is estimated that over the course of her career, Shore Bennett designed between three and four hundred windows in churches, chapels and cathedrals around New Zealand.<ref name=":2" /> In 1974, she wrote the book, ''A Key to Embroidery'', which has had two editions.<ref name="Circle"/>
Shore Bennett was made a lay canon for the arts in the [[Anglican Diocese of Wellington]] in 1976, and later was a lay canon emeritus.<ref name="Circle"/> She was involved with [[Zonta International]]: she was charter president of the Wellington Zonta Club and Australasian Governor of Zonta International from 1976 to 1978.<ref name=":2" /> From 1979 to 2008, she served on the board of management and trust board of Samuel Marsden Collegiate School.<ref name="Circle"/>
Shore Bennett married Peter Osborne Bennett after she returned to New Zealand from Britain in the early 1950s.<ref name=":2" /><ref name="Circle">{{cite news |url=https://www.anglican.org.nz/content/download/48280/243599/file/Circle%20Vol%2050%20no%202final%20red.pdf |title=Inspirational women |pages=16–18 |work=Circle |first=Diana |last=Maunder |date=May 2018 |volume=50 |issue=2 |access-date=5 March 2022}}</ref> The couple had three daughters.<ref name=":2" /> Peter Bennett died in 2002.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.pglrossandcromarty.org.uk/pdf/ProvNews92-August17.pdf |title=The bottle |work=The Provincial Patter |issue=91 |date=May 2017 |page=6 |access-date=5 March 2022}}</ref> Shore Bennett lived in retirement in [[Waikanae]],<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.anglican.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Spring-2018-FINAL.pdf |title=Association of Anglican Women |work=Waikanae Anglican |date=Spring 2018 |access-date=5 March 2022}}</ref> and died there on 3 September 2024, at the age of 95.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.legacy.com/nz/obituaries/dominion-post-nz/name/beverley-bennett-obituary?id=56230623 |title=Beverley Bennett obituary |date=6 September 2024 |work=[[The Post (New Zealand newspaper)|The Post]] |access-date=6 September 2024}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shore Bennett, Beverley}} [[Category:1928 births]] [[Category:2024 deaths]] [[Category:Artists from Wellington City]] [[Category:New Zealand glass artists]] [[Category:Women glass artists]] [[Category:20th-century New Zealand artists]] [[Category:New Zealand Members of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Category:People educated at Samuel Marsden Collegiate School]] [[Category:Zonta International people]]