Detail of the old cedar school desk at Scone Museum NSW, Australia
desks of fabric
“An artist walks into a museum” served as the intriguing call for artists to apply for residencies as part of a collaborative program in the Upper Hunter. In this Museum Activation project, three artists were selected to collaborate with three local museums, creating artworks inspired by the museums and their collections.
Throughout 2024, Arts Upper Hunter, in collaboration with Tocal Homestead, Scone Museum, and Dungog Museum, produced the This Here Then Now (THTN) Museum Activation Residency Program. Coordinated by Suzannah Jones and supported by the Regional Arts Fund, this residency initiative sought to revitalise small local museums by fostering creative engagement between artists and the museums’ collections, spaces, characters, and stories.
Successful applicant Sophie Cox was selected to create a work inspired by an item from the collection at Scone Museum. She chose a beautifully carved century old cedar school desk, etched with names, initials, and words that resonate with voices from the past. This substantial desk and bench, originally from Scone Grammar School, served as the basis for a textile wall hanging. The piece, titled Desks of Fabric, incorporates charcoal rubbings, stitching, and embroidery, created in collaboration with museum volunteers and students from Scone Grammar School.
Sophie began by taking charcoal rubbings of the desk’s surface—capturing the lingering marks left behind by students long gone. These rubbings were transferred to fabric sourced locally and stitched into by a new generation of students from Scone Grammar School.
In a series of engaging workshops held inside the museum, Sophie taught embroidery techniques to the students and worked alongside museum volunteers. Together, they added thread to history—literally stitching into the initials and names carved into the desk over a century ago, bringing those marks to life through fabric and thread. For many of the students, this marked their first time visiting the museum just across the street from their school. The workshops provided a creative entry point into the collection and its local significance.
Through the process, participants also delved into research, cross-referencing the carved initials with school records and local history books. One story that emerged was of a particularly relaxed schoolmaster who, according to legend, allowed students free rein in the classroom—and was eventually dismissed. Acts that might once have been considered vandalism are now viewed through an artistic lens, reframed as traces of youth, education, and shared experience.
Sophie Cox is a textile artist who combines text and textiles to explore themes of political and personal significance. Through the tactile and meditative process of hand-sewing, she creates work that seeks to provoke change both in herself and in the viewer as they engage with the artwork. Her practice examines the relationship between everyday life and societal issues, often incorporating appliqued banners, embroidered tea towels, and other sewn pieces that draw on the aesthetics of activist iconography. Sophie’s work addresses the intersection of craft, art, and political action, as well as the role of museums and galleries in the art world.
Special thanks to Margaret MacDougall and Carolyn Carter of Scone Museum, and to Scone Grammar School students and teachers Anna Towse and Shereen Butters for their generous contributions to this project.
You can view these works at the Scone Museum during opening hours, Wednesday 9.30pm – 2.30pm and Sunday 2.30pm – 4.30pm
Sophie Cox Art Sydney (sophiecoxartist.com)
Fabric rubbing and stitching detail from Sophie Cox’s exhibition Desks of Fabric
The This Here Then Now project was conceived by Arts Upper Hunter and developed in partnership with local museums.
In 2024 three Upper Hunter regional museums were selected to work with resident artists; Sophie Cox at Scone Museum, Helene Leane at Dungog Museum and Todd Fuller at Tocal Homestead. This was made possible by the Australian Government Regional Arts Fund, which supports the arts in regional and remote Australia, and the NSW Government.
