CUNNINGHAM DAX COLLECTION

Named after the psychiatrist Dr Eric Cunningham Dax (1908-2008), the Cunningham Dax Collection comprises some 12 000 art works created by people who have experienced mental health issues. The Collection also includes some archival material such as photographs, documents, and records associated with the history of psychiatric services in Victoria.

In his position as Victoria's most senior government official in mental health from 1952 to 1969 Dr Eric Cunningham Dax lead a transformation in the way the care of people living with mental illness. He made interventions which had a profound impact on the development of mental health services in Victoria, including the introduction and practice of art therapy in Victoria's mental health institutions during the 1950s. 

The majority of the collection consists of works that were created by patients during art and occupational therapy programs conducted at various Victorian mental health institutions; Larundel, Royal Park, Beechworth and Ballarat Hospitals, and the Malvern Clinic between the late 1940s to 1980s. The value of art as therapy was two fold; it served a recreational and healing purpose for patients but to psychiatrists of that era patient art could illustrate aspects of a person's experience of mental illness. 

As well as works which were created in a clinical context during the 1950s to the 1970s, the Cunningham Dax Collection also includes works created by people from non-clinical art programs such as community art programs and art works created in private settings by sufferers of mental illness or psychological trauma. Many of the works in the Collection dating from the 1980s onwards are of this category and have been gifted to the collection by the artists or their families. 

The Cunningham Dax Collection continues to play an active role in the Victorian community demonstrated by the continued additions to the collection and the high level of public interest in the exhibitions and public programs derived from the collection. The Collection consists of works made in a diverse range of media including 47 textile objects, ceramics, collages, paintings, some 11,000 works on paper, and photographic and other archival material.

The Cunningham Dax Collection is of historical and social significance to the state of Victoria. 

The Cunningham Dax Collection is historically significant to the State of Victoria for its association with the long professional life of Dr Eric Cunningham Dax, and his achievements in mental health reform in Victoria. The Collection is of historic significance as a record of the lived experiences of hospital patients in Victoria from the 1950s to the 1960s and of people experiencing mental illnesses and psychological trauma since then. 

The Cunningham Dax Collection is socially significant in that it serves as a resource to educate the community about the experiences of people living with mental health issues.