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Art projects
The British Mycological Society runs the Massee Arts Grant, named after the first President of the British Mycological Society, George Edward Massee. The grant offers financial support for the creation of artistic works that stimulate dialogue between artists, mycologists and the public. The mission of the British Mycological Society is to promote fungal science and we recognise that art, in all its forms, provides a powerful route through which we can attract new audiences, provoke discussion and stimulate interest in mycology. We are showcasing the work of this year’s Massee Arts Grant awardees here!
Massee Arts Grants awarded in 2025
Following Threads
Fat Fox Mushrooms, artist Poppy Flint, and creative technologist Benji Bailes
Following Threads is an immersive, participatory art installation celebrating fungal diversity and highlighting its ecological importance. The exhibit combines visuals, sounds and creative activities to engage visitors with the hidden world of mycorrhizal fungi. It tells a story of connection between air pollution, fungi, forest health and carbon sequestration alongside positive examples of fungal conservation through scientific images.
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"We are absolutely delighted to have been awarded the BMS Massee Arts Grant 2025. This grant enables us to bring our project 'Following Threads' to the London National Park City Visitor Centre in Oxford Street. This immersive, participatory art installation celebrates fungal diversity and shines a light on the ecological importance of fungi - revealing the hidden threads that connect fungi, forests, and the fight against climate change. Through stunning microscope images by Dr Laura Suz, mushroom music and storytelling, visitors of all ages will engage with the mysterious world of mycorrhizal fungi and contribute to an evolving artwork. A huge thanks to the British Mycological Society for making this project possible! We can't wait to share it with the public later this year!"
Honey Fungus
Jack Parris and Bunkum Ensemble
Honey Fungus is an absurd, darkly comic piece of non-verbal physical theatre that tells a story from the fungal perspective. Set in the fictional town of Westleigh, the show begins when the largest organism in the world is discovered beneath the town's paving slabs. The townsfolk gather to decide what to do — only to realise that "Honey", the Honey Fungus, can talk. It wants to enter into a "new symbiosis" with them. This premise allows us to explore the push and pull between human desires and nature's cycles, offering a satirical take on symbiosis in both the natural and human worlds. Told largely without words, the show blends mime, dance, and clowning, with live improvised music and physical storytelling. As characters enter symbiosis with Honey, they begin to communicate in new ways — not through language, but through movement and sound. The interaction between musicians and performers becomes a form of fungal communication, mirroring the underground networks of mycelium.
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​"We are absolutely thrilled to be recipients of the Massee Arts Grant 2025. This grant will allow the company to deliver four workshops for professional and non-professional theatre makers in the South of England where we will explore fungal symbiosis through our interdisciplinary theatre making practice. Then, working with our company dramaturge, it will support the creation of a rehearsal script, which will be used to stage the show in 2026. Bunkum Ensemble is an interdisciplinary theatre company that puts the improvisational relationships between musicians and performers at the heart of a creative process. This relationship is symbiotic in its essence and provides a great opportunity to play with themes around relationships, power and connectivity. Our show, Honey Fungus, is a largely non-verbal, comedy-horror that follows the happenings in Westleigh, a town that is being rapidly overrun by a huge, orange (sentient) Armillaria mellea — or Honey Fungus. We can't wait to bring this world to life. Thank you!"
