News release: 3rd February 2026

New commission to respond to one of Western Europe’s most significant Roman textile collections

The Vindolanda Trust is delighted to announce Susie MacMurray as its  2026 artist-in-residence. Working in close dialogue with Vindolanda’s remarkable Roman textile collection, MacMurray will research and develop a new temporary artwork to be  exhibited at Vindolanda in Autumn/ Winter 2026. 

Vindolanda is home to the largest collection of Roman textiles in Western Europe. Woven almost exclusively from the wool of northern sheep, the collection includes a wide range of textile fragments alongside tools in textile production, including bone and wooden weaving combs, needles and spindle whorls. Among the most rare and fragile objects are woven items made from a local plant called hair moss (Polytrichum commune). With its strong, hair-like fibres, hair moss was ideally suited for use in different types of woven objects. One of  Vindolanda’s most exceptional discoveries is a wig (or possibly a hat) featuring a complex woven cap and long, loose strands that fall to shade the face. 

Pioneering climate research, conducted in collaboration with Teesside University, is advancing the Trust’s textile research; using data collected from probes in the ground, the Trust is analysing how changing environmental conditions impact processes of organic decomposition, providing a new and scientific lens to study its textile materials and conservation practices.

During her residency at Vindolanda, MacMurray with be given exclusive access to the textile collection and the Trust’s ongoing archaeological and climate research. Reflecting the opportunity, she said:

“I am fascinated by how the layers of materials and history have built up at Vindolanda and lain like so many sleeping (not necessarily linear) multicultural stories, waiting to be teased out and pieced together. I am struck that the work of an archaeologist might be a little bit like my process as an artist.  Explorers, picking away at the world, peeling things apart, puzzling physical clues and ideas together. Revealing things and trying ultimately to understand a bit better what it is to be human through what we uncover”. 

MacMurray’s artistic practice incorporates sculpture, site specific installation and drawing, with an exploration of materials at the core. As a former professional classical musician, MacMurray is drawn to interrogate the elements that shaped her as an orchestral performer. Themes of fragility and sensuality, immersion and the ephemerality, sit alongside processes of accumulation, layering and orchestration through repetition. Although MacMurray trained as a sculptor, the material repetition and layering in her work often place it in close dialogue with textile traditions. As MacMurray notes:

 “I am ultimately driven by curiosity and asking ‘what if?’. I am looking not only for new materials, but for new ways to handle, combine and manipulate the stuff that human bodies interact with.” 

MacMurray’s residency is part of the Vindolanda Trust’s residency programme, The Land We Walk On. Living and working from the Trust’s heritage sites, artists are invited to undertake research and make new work informed by the Trust’s collections and climate research.

 “Hosting contemporary artists at Vindolanda allows us to see our site and research through new and exciting perspectives,” said Morag Iles, Contemporary Art Curator at the Vindolanda Trust. “It enables us to ask different questions and connect with our collection in new ways.”

The Land We Walk On is generously supported by The John Ellerman Foundation, Arts Council England, and Newcastle University.

For more information, visit www.vindolanda.com or contact:
Press Contact: Sonya Galloway [email protected]

Notes to Editors:

The Vindolanda Trust 

The Vindolanda Trust is an independent archaeological charitable trust, founded in 1970. The Vindolanda Trust does not receive any annual funding and relies on the visitors to both Roman Vindolanda and the Roman Army Museum to fund its archaeological, conservation and education work. 

Roman Vindolanda and the Roman Army Museum are both situated in the heart of the Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site, Roman Vindolanda is just to the north of the village of Bardon Mill and the Roman Army Museum is next to the village of Greenhead and the adjacent Magna Fort. 

Roman Vindolanda is regarded as the most exciting archaeological site in Europe with its wealth of archaeological remains and ongoing excavations. Vindolanda is home to the world famous Vindolanda Writing Tablets, voted as Britain’s top archaeological treasure by the British Museum, these thin handwritten wooden notes have revealed an astonishing amount of first-hand information from the people who lived at this site 2000 years ago. The Vindolanda Trust has been awarded Designation, a mark of distinction celebrating the national importance of the collection.