Mary on the green: commemorating Mary Wollstonecraft
In 2009 Clare initiated a project to erect the first public memorial to the founder of modern feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft. She co-organised a series of public commemorative events celebrating the 250th anniversary of Wollstonecraft's birth, held at Newington Green Unitarian Church, London.
Clare produced a booklet, Mary Wollstonecraft and the Dissenters of Newington Green, 800 copies of which were distributed at these and subsequent public events. The booklet was republished as an article in the local Islington Archaeology and History Society Newsletter.
These activities led to an invitation in May 2010 to address the AGM of Newington Green Action Group – a community group leading the regeneration of the area – about Wollstonecraft's local links and her global historical significance.
The enthusiasm generated by Clare's talk resulted in a unanimous vote to launch a fundraising campaign to erect a local memorial to Wollstonecraft. The Mary on the Green project committee has to date raised over £20,000 and is currently beginning the process of selecting a sculptor and memorial design.
Women on the platform: commemorating Scottish women abolitionists and feminists
Clare acts as expert academic advisor to a women's history group in Edinburgh arousing public enthusiasm for a permanent memorial to three local women who played leading roles in the anti-slavery and feminist movements.
She was involved in the successful bid made by the Adult Learning Project at Tollcross Community Centre in Edinburgh to the All Our Stories Heritage Lottery Fund for this project. Clare gave a talk to members of the group in January 2013 that highlighted the transatlantic dimensions of links between abolitionism and feminism and the leading role of women in the boycott of slave-grown produce.
This fed into the group's organisation of the public launch of the project in Edinburgh on 7 June 2013, attended by around 90 people. This event involved participants painting pots with slogans such as 'sugar not made by slaves' to echo the activities of the nineteenth-century abolitionist women described by Clare, and drawing links with contemporary ethical consumer campaigns.
Clare's public lecture formed the central focus of this public launch event. This event also began to generate ideas from the public for the forms that memorialising the women might take.
English Heritage: under-represented groups and the historic environment
In May 2012 Clare was an invited as an academic expert to a one-day seminar on women in England. The seminar was part of a series which explored English Heritage (EH) and the significance of the historic environment for groups currently under-represented in its work.
This consultation was part of EH's National Heritage Protection Plan (NHPP), an initiative to determine how to manage a prioritised programme to identify and protect England's heritage.
Clare's suggestions were included in the report Responses from the Consultation on Under-Represented Heritages. This report was presented to the NHPP Implementation Board in October 2012 and published on the EH website, along with EH's official response, A Response to the BOP Consulting Report from English Heritage.
Clare's input contributed to the recognition in the report of the need to make more available information on the huge range of sites reflecting the history on non-elite groups. EH is currently developing further detailed practical action plans to address the implications of the consultation. As a result of her participation in this consultation, Clare has been placed on EH's list of expert advisors.
