Outreach Work
The Mycelium Network
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Proud to share that the BC Prison Arts Practitioners Network (the "Mycelium Network"), a project stewarded by Pandora's Collective, has been awarded a Sector Innovation grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.
We're excited to dig into the work this grant supports: gathering, sharing best practices, and strengthening this emerging sector in the arts to ensure we're widening the creative community! Thanks to our partners in this work, and members of the Network, including WHoS [William Head on Stage], Inside/Out at KPU [Kwantlen Polytechnic], Historic Joy Kogawa House, Art + Justice @ UBC, UBC Library, Pandora's own Free Verse project, and others! @CanadaCouncil and #BringingTheArtsToLife 
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The Mycelium Network (a network of BC prison arts practitioners) is an emerging provincial initiative formed after an initial convening of artists, Indigenous and formerly incarcerated practitioners, and arts organizations working in carceral settings. The name reflects the group’s shared ethos: like mycelium, the Network grows through quiet, interconnected pathways—resilient, adaptive, and nourishing to the wider arts ecosystem.
The effort strengthens the arts sector by supporting and facilitating a collaborative community of practice grounded in trauma- and healing-informed, consent-based approaches. This effort respond directly to practitioner-identified needs and aims to strengthen the emerging field of arts in corrections practice within the arts sector.
The Mycelium Network (a network of BC prison arts practitioners) is an emerging provincial initiative formed after an initial convening of artists, Indigenous and formerly incarcerated practitioners, and arts organizations working in carceral settings. The name reflects the group’s shared ethos: like mycelium, the Network grows through quiet, interconnected pathways—resilient, adaptive, and nourishing to the wider arts ecosystem.
The effort strengthens the arts sector by supporting and facilitating a collaborative community of practice grounded in trauma- and healing-informed, consent-based approaches. This effort respond directly to practitioner-identified needs and aims to strengthen the emerging field of arts in corrections practice within the arts sector.
Community Outreach
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Pandora's Collective has been facilitating outreach workshops since 2003. Our team of poets and writers have facilitated workshops in schools, rehabilitation centers, prisons, hospitals, youth shelters, eating disorder clinics, literary festivals and more. We have also previously offered annual youth scholarships and have contributed globally to literacy via past fundraising efforts such as the loony backpack drive and a book drive for schools in Zimbabwe. What makes Pandora's Collective unique is that we also offer an easily accessible literary-arts community. Participants from rehabilitation programs, schools, etc, are able to attend our public events, where they will meet other writers and build their community. This is important especially for those in transition and in need of support. |
"Writers In The Making" featured at Twisted Poets.
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