The Cunningham Dax Collection consists of over 15,000 creative works on paper, paintings, ceramics, and textiles created by people who have experienced mental illness or psychological trauma. The Collection is housed and conserved by The Dax Centre.

The Collection is named after founder Dr Eric Cunningham Dax. In 1946, while the superintendent of a modern psychiatric hospital in England, Dr Dax invited a professional artist to facilitate art programs for his patients. This quiet beginning is now recognised as the first formal introduction of art into mainstream psychiatry.

This unique Collection is the only one of its type and size in Australia. There are only two other collections of similar size and stature in the world: the Prinzhorn Collection in Heidelberg, Germany, and Musee L’Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Today the Collection continues to acquire new works. These include bodies of work created in clinical or art therapy settings or works by individual artists that are donated to the Collection. The works are regularly shown as part of The Dax Centre’s exhibition program.

For further information about The Dax Centre and the program for Reverie, please visit http://www.daxcentre.org