Sculptors Queensland

Originally the Taxidermy shed for the Old Museum, where specimens were received and prepared for exhibition in the 1900s, this heritage-listed building has served as home to Sculptors Queensland for the last fifty-five years.

Sculptors Queensland regularly holds workshops in drawing and sculpting for members in addition to the forums where sculptors discuss their work and share their skills.

Members include notable Brisbane sculptors who have left their mark all over the city, and whose works are now well-known landmarks.

Examples include the monumental tympanum over the entrance to Brisbane City Hall by Daphne Mayo, whose work also features at the Women’s War Memorial in ANZAC Square.

Leonard and Kathleen Shillam’s work ‘Pelicans’ is installed at the Queensland Art Gallery’s water mall; their bronze of Queensland’s Coat of Arms lives in Parliament House, and their Proclamation Figure resides in St John’s Cathedral in Anne Street, Brisbane.

Rhyl Hinwood, who worked in the shed for the Queensland Museum in the late 1950s, is Patron of Sculptors Queensland. Hinwood is famed for her sculptural works at the Great Court of The University of Queensland.

Hundreds of her Helidon freestone carvings have been listed on the Registers of the National Estate and Queensland Heritage and she designed and carved eight major artworks for Roma Street Parkland Spectacle Gardens, the River of Stone.

A visit to the shed is a unique opportunity to hear about the cultural heritage of Brisbane’s built environment, and gain an insight into the history of sculpting in Queensland.