About Us

Pictora is an innovative Social Enterprise (Company Limited by Guarantee), created by a partnership of staff from Kalyx, Koestler Trust, Leaf Systems and Cementaprise.

Pictora brings the therapeutic value of offender art together with the practical creativity of entrepreneurship and business enterprise skills in order to support offenders in prison “Through the Gate” and back into society.

Purchasing offender art and related merchandise on the Pictora website provides funding for:

• Victim Support - to help the victims of crime
• Koester Trust - to support the development of Art in prisons and secure units, in order to help offenders, secure patients and detainees lead more positive lives.
• Training in Prisons – to develop practical business enterprise skills to increase employability on release from prison.  This in turn is shown to help reduce re-offending in the community.
• To support the development of a Social Firm arm to the Pictora Social Enterprise allowing meaningful employment of Offenders on licence from prison or upon release, with the aim to support their inclusion back into the community and the world of work.
• To provide practical Social Incubation support as required for offenders “Through the Gate” from prison to society in order to help reduce re-offending.

In Prison offenders are with support from Pictora and the Pictora website, learning a range of business enterprise skill, developing practical entrepreneurship. This training helps to develop the employability of offenders which in turn is shown by recent research to reduce re-offending in the community.

The launch of Pictora has been supported by NOMS as a pilot project to demonstrate the impact that a Social Enterprise can have in the criminal justice system in terms of both cost implications and reduction of re-offending.