Sense of Place Activities: The Value of Place

The Value of Place

We can discover the value of our place through art!

Award winning watercolor artist from Wichita Falls, Polly Hoffman Cox (1921-2005), did just that, to identify and understand the culture of our area. Through her careful observations, she recorded land, historical places, and moments in time. As an active member of the Wichita Falls art community, she served numerous terms as president of the Wichita Falls Art Association, which named her Outstanding Woman in the Arts and an honorary lifetime member. Her work is included in the Let Me Show You This exhibition at WFMA.

Polly Cox's watercolor paintings of historic homes and buildings are captured in a book titled Wichita Falls in Watercolor 1880-1922, published in 1982. Of these paintings she says: "The illustrations are of the earliest versions I could find, and the colors are either those actually used, or the most probable... These are only a few of many fine old buildings in Wichita Falls. Their preservation would enrich our future. Like antiques they can only grow rarer with the passage of time." (Cox, p. 36)