The Cunningham Dax collection was started by Dr
Eric Cunningham Dax in the 1940s when he was working in the UK and also contains works created at Victorian psychiatric hospitals in the 1950s to the 1980s as well as more recent works. The Dax collection contains over 16,000 works created by people who have experienced mental health issue or psychological trauma and is the only collection of its scale and type in Australia and one of only four in the world. The collection was added to the
Victorian Heritage Register in 2009 as being of social and historical significance to the state of Victoria. The centre offers programs and exhibition space at no cost for people living with mental health issues. In 2025 the centre curated an exhibition called 'Mindscapes', consisting of portraits from its collection, held in Queens Hall at the
Parliament of Victoria. == References ==