Bryony Simcox is a multimedia artist and creative producer working in the north of England.
Bryony Simcox is a multimedia artist and creative producer working in the north of England.
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Interested in:
Sense of Place • Collective Shift • Systems Thinking • Filmmaking • Collage • Storytelling • Hands-on Making • Futures • Participation • Audiovisual Delights • Urbanism • Ecological Economics • Cultures • Radical Joy
Bryony is a woman in her early thirties. Half Scottish and half English, Bryony grew up in a small market town in Staffordshire which boasts a three-spiered cathedral, morris dancers and lots of charity shops. She spent the early years of her life making stop-motion animation and imaginary department stores with her sibling Domme and playing violin in a folk-pop band.
In 2012, Bryony headed off to study in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a city full of great people and wonderful contradictions that she came to fall in love with. In 2015 she graduated with a first-class honours in Architecture but became attracted to the city scale over the domestic, realising she didn’t really want to draw bathroom layouts in CAD all day. Instead she began to carve a space out at the fringes, framing herself as an urbanist of sorts.
Bryony loves the messy and exciting interactions that come from people plus space and place. She has worked as a strategist, placemaker, urban designer, lecturer and public artist over the last 10+ years, engaging in projects in the UK, Australia, Spain and Indonesia which explore these interests in civic life, play, resilient communities and participation.
Bryony loves the messy and exciting interactions that come from people plus space and place. She has worked as a strategist, placemaker, urban designer, lecturer and public artist over the last 10+ years, engaging in projects in the UK, Australia, Spain and Indonesia which explore these interests in civic life, play, resilient communities and participation.
Between 2016 and 2019, Bryony lived in Sydney (the second city which stole her heart). Working in design studios, she learnt so much about how projects actually get made; about the nuances of power and politics, the qualities of inclusive leaders, the value of listening, the delight of multidisciplinary teams and the limitations of neoliberal capitalism at delivering truly sustainable outcomes. It was also a time of personal growth, salty ocean swims, queer raves, bush walks and that eyes-wide wonderment you get in your early twenties.
In 2020, Bryony headed off in a 25-year old Japanese campervan with her partner. Ten weeks into what was set to be a three-year trip, the Covid-19 pandemic left them unexpectedly stuck in Spain, which coincidently was where the pair had met at a music festival a few years prior. Living between a 4m² van and the apartment of a friend in a small Valencian village, that year took on a dream-like quality, oscillating between survival, novelty, despair and inspiration.
Bryony believes in storytelling as a thread that binds us. In 2020 she co-founded Broaden – a purpose-led filmmaking studio – with her partner and cinematographer George Webster.
Bryony believes in storytelling as a thread that binds us. In 2020 she co-founded Broaden – a purpose-led filmmaking studio – with her partner and cinematographer George Webster.
At Broaden, Bryony leads on Production, managing people, time and resources to ensure the business is a force for good. Their shared goal to shift perspectives and inspire action is fuelled by the urgent threat that the climate crisis poses to our interrelated living systems.
As a filmmaking studio, Broaden partners with bold and brave organisations, and the studio’s six-year working relationship has seen them craft films for the likes of the World Design Capital, Manchester Collective, Adfree Cities and Bolton Museum. Their debut film The Hundred Miler has amassed over 300,000 views and they have two documentaries currently in production.
Bryony is interested in the transformative power of hands-on making. She has made a large-scale artwork for the Tyne & Wear Metro, designed a 10-metre long sculptural seat for Coventry City of Culture and converted a 40ft shipping container into a creative studio space.
Bryony is interested in the transformative power of hands-on making. She has made a large-scale artwork for the Tyne & Wear Metro, designed a 10-metre long sculptural seat for Coventry City of Culture and converted a 40ft shipping container into a creative studio space.
Bryony makes hand-cut paper collages under the moniker Analogue Bryony. What began as a means of playful meditation has become a body of over 100 surreal artworks each crafted using paper, knife and glue. She has had two solo shows, ‘Curious Landscapes’ (Sydney) and ‘Stop Making Sense’ (Valencia). Whilst she is most fond of working within the constraints of a 21x21cm square, her largest collage commission ‘Macro-Micro’ spans almost three metres. Crafted for the new fleet of the Tyne & Wear Metro in the UK’s North East, this joyful expression is made up of hundreds of images shared through community workshops and online outreach. It is the first urban transit system in the world to feature permanent art inside trains.
In 2021 Bryony worked alongside sound artist Rosie Tee to create an interactive installation as part of Coventry City of Culture. ‘Sound Seat’ was the result, a 10-metre long undulating timber structure that was part-bench and part-playable instrument. The sculpture was made up of 135 interlocking plywood rings, and incorporated pitched percussive domes made from recycled gas bottles, a site-specific looping soundtrack, aromatic herbs and circular mirrors. These sensory elements invited curiosity and quiet introspection as a response to community engagement and the demand for blue and green spaces.
In 2023 Bryony started building a physical studio space for Broaden from a 40ft shipping container which has spent the last decade at sea. This two year project of hard labour and iterative design has been a testing ground for new skills such as joinery and welding, as well as for recycled materials and low-carbon building performance. The finished 29m² studio is now a space for film production and events.
Bryony directs NightGarden , an immersive celebration of audiovisual delights. The festival draws its inspiration from an old botanical garden centre in Greater Manchester’s industrial hinterlands from which Bryony works.
Bryony directs NightGarden , an immersive celebration of audiovisual delights. The festival draws its inspiration from an old botanical garden centre in Greater Manchester’s industrial hinterlands from which Bryony works.
Celebrating its fifth edition in 2025, NightGarden presents a programme of eclectic sonic and visual artists exploring themes of biodiversity, human resilience and radical futures. More than a one-day event, this project has become a live testbed for interdisciplinary working with a focus on inclusive and multi-generational co-creation.
Since its launch in 2021, NightGarden has hosted over 90 sculptural and interactive installations, live electronic, jazz and psychedelic performances and hands-on workshops from the likes of outsider pop artists Stealing Sheep, nature-sourced electronic musician Wildforms, live analogue VJ hellocatfood, light sculptor Jenny McNamara and landscape storyteller Lotte Djikstra.
NightGarden has been described by Creative Tourist as 'A festival that puts people before profit, and imagination before everything'.
A developing creative practice.
A developing creative practice.
Bryony is currently producing a roster of purpose-led films across the arts, education and environmental sectors at Broaden as the studio team grows. She has also been working on urban design and placemaking projects with the UN and the World Bank for the past year, and continues to teach as an Associate Lecturer in Architecture, Planning and Landscape at Newcastle University.
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