Main Areas of Focus

My interests are wide-ranging, primarily in how human beings affect and are affected by the natural world of which we are part, and the related theology and psychology of connectedness.

Artist

Creating beautiful and thought-provoking art as a means of supporting care for planet and people, nurturing a sense of place, and building community

Writer

Articles and blogs on economics, environment, nature, attentiveness, applied theology, arts, and anything that interests me

Consultant

» Website development and training
» Energy efficiency and renewable energy consultancy
» Research and reporting

Latest News and Produce

What I’ve recently produced. What I’m working on. What’s in the pipeline.

Performance/Event

"Compline: A contemplative journey through Lent" in St Olave's Church

The ancient close-of-the-day service of Compline, with plainchant and polyphony. Hosted by Margaret Aagesen Hughes (Soprano) and Clare Bryden (Alto). Featuring the music of Barber, Bach and Pergolesi, and musicians Ruth Molins (Flute), Emma Welton (Violin), John Draisey (organ).

News

15 minutes of flame

This week I've been doing a tiny bit of press for Prayerdle

Article

Good money after bad

Clare Bryden. Good money after bad. Church Times, 1 October 2021.
Clare Bryden suggests ten ways to use personal finance for a better world

Blog

Five books that have formed me

I have a great debt of gratitude to Thomas Hardy, Margaret Craven, Rainer Maria Rilke, the author of the Cloud of Unknowing, Richard Powers, and many others.

Talk/Workshop

Prayer and Bible reading groups

As part of starting a new blog devoted to prayer and spiritual life, I have moved over the material on related workshops and group work.

Exhibition/Installation

"Climate Blocks" for "Get On Board 16"

Studio 36 has a wonderful noticeboard out front, hosting a continually changing series of shows of work by local artists. For Board 16 the wider Studio 36 community was invited to submit work relating to climate change.

Academia

“Live the questions now” 2020/21

Teaching on the Medical Humanities Special Studies Unit at Exeter Medical School, introducing fourth year students to conceptual and environmental art, looking at meaning-making and how we turn ideas into art, making art.

Recording

"...and the Greatest of these is Love"

In their second album, Antiphon presents world premiere recordings of three choral works by Michael Walsh: an unaccompanied Mass of the Holy Trinity; a full-scale Requiem Mass; and The Way of Love, a setting of five love poems by Rupert Brooke. We recorded it in July 2017 in the crossing and Lady Chapel in Exeter Cathedral.

Random Work Generator

There are a number of threads running through all my work. Here’s a random sample from each.

Attentiveness

Silent Spring

Today is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. In its honour, I am spending a couple of hours walking around my neighbourhood listening for bird song. In the meantime, here are three short posts I wrote a year and a half ago, reflecting on the book.

Environment

"Particulart: Up in the Air" pop-up at TEDxExeter

Clare was honoured to be able to show Particulart at TEDxExeter 2016, in between a nice lot of Particulart-relevant talks(!) such as Danny Dorling on different ways of mapping the world, Alan Smith on how statistics are about Us, and the video of Al Gore's latest TED talk on climate change.

Making

"Particulart: Up in the Air" in the Glorious Art House

The overall aim of Particulart is to engage people with environmental and social issues and challenge the status quo through the power of knitting, science, and public art. In addition, “Up in the Air” aimed to promote public awareness and provoke reflection on climate change and the underlying science, through appealing to different ways of accessing information – words and numbers, sight and touch – and enabling playful interaction.

Place

Lessons on sustainable living, with the green monks [and nuns!] of Mucknell

Clare Bryden. Lessons on sustainable living, with the green monks [and nuns!] of Mucknell. Guardian, Comment is Free: Belief, 15 September 2011.
Spending a year with Benedictine monks has taught me how to cultivate a healthy environmental idealism rooted in reality.

Play

"Particulart: Up in the Air" pop-up at Exeter Green Fair

Exeter Green Fair on 5 September saw the debut of my new "Up in the Air" pop-up. Under a blue gazebo (the sky), I suspended eight pale blue hula hoops (clouds), and from these the eight greenhouse gases.

Public Engagement

"Freefall Climate Graffiti" Workshop 2: Preparing the Wall

While the Freefall youth group took it in turns to bluewash the Phoenix graffiti wall... the Met Office knitting group gave the others a crash course in crafting, and much crochet and more pompoms were created.

Science and Data

"Particulart: Exhausted" at Oxford Festival of Arts

The overall aim of Particulart is to engage people with environmental and social issues and challenge the status quo through the power of knitting, science, and public art. In addition, “Exhausted” aimed to promote public awareness and provoke reflection on urban air quality, through a quirky display enabling playful interaction. It appeared at “Test Drive the Future”, an exhibition of electric vehicles, that will help solve the problem of air pollution.

Social Justice

Synod and the unengaged majority

The Women Bishops Measure was lost in the House of Laity, by six votes. It might not be a rejection of women bishops, just the enabling legislation, but it sure feels like a rejection to me.