Monday, September 15, 1997

Athena Statue Restored To Former Glory

The goddess of wisdom, Today@Sam reports, is once again reigning over the campus of SHSU:
A plaster copy of the Greek deity, Athena, a gift from the university's Class of 1912, has been restored to its former grandeur and now looms majestically over the reading room of SHSU's historic Peabody Library.

The restoration was undertaken by sculptor Monica Taylor and spearheaded by the art department's Jane Bartee, who rallied community-wide support for the project.

Originally erected in 1922, in an alcove of the Old Main auditorium, the statue was later moved, in 1928, into the Estill Library reading room, where it peered over the shoulders of studious patrons from the room's western wall. Years later, the goddess, after suffering a few debilitating injuries, was moved into an art studio on Estill's third floor. There, for many years, the ancient icon posed silently as art students rendered its likeness again and again in pencil, charcoal, and paint. Eventually the statue was placed into storage where it remained until rediscovered when the art department moved out of the Estill Building.

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