As a part of Mental Health Awareness Month, the SANE forums team have worked with The Dax Centre to create creative prompts to invite forum members to engage with the CHIME framework.
Using our creativity can be a great way to help our mental wellbeing and connect with others, and The Dax Centre is excited to help inspire this through on forums this month.
Each week, over the next five weeks (30th Sep – 31st Oct), we will post a creative activity prompt for the forum community to respond to, inspired by each letter of the CHIME framework and an artwork from Cunningham Dax Collection.
So, follow along to connect with others through the discovery of artwork from the Cunningham Dax collection and reflection on the CHIME framework through creative activities.
Get crafty, share your interpretations of the artworks, and the creations the art inspires.
The first prompt for Connectedness will be posted next week! All levels of engagement are welcomed and encouraged!
Subscribe to this thread to participate!
Please note: In keeping with the Community Guidelines, the SANE Forums are an anonymous space. Please be sure that no images or art shared contains information that could reveal identity or location (e.g. street names, wider shots of houses, number plates, landmarks or recognisable geographical features, or ANY faces, even if it’s not your own).
Introduction to The Dax Centre & Cunningham Dax Collection
The Dax Centre is an art gallery in Melbourne, VIC, presenting artworks by artists with lived experience of mental ill health and trauma.
We run educational programs and creative workshops and conserve the Cunningham Dax art collection to bring awareness to mental illness and break down stigma.
Currently, we have two exhibitions on display. These include, She Who Persists, an exhibition of textile-based artworks from our collection by female artists with lived experience of mental illness or trauma, and The Anxiety Project, an exhibition by professional contemporary artists with lived experience of anxiety.
Where it all started...
We are the custodians of the Cunningham Dax Collection. The collection contains over 16,000 pieces of art by people with lived experience of mental ill health or trauma. It was started in the 1940s by the psychiatrist that pioneered art therapy in Victorian, Dr. Eric Cunningham Dax.
The collection if Heritage Listed and one of a kind in Australia, with only four collections of this caliber in the world.
To learn more about the history of the collection, click here to view an interactive timeline and short video.
Why we do what we do...
SANE and The Dax Centre partnered in 2018 with the shared goal of using art and creativity to break down stigma surrounding mental illness.
We believe the universal language of art is a powerful tool we can use to help people better connect, empathize and understand each other’s experiences.
In addition, we see creativity as an incredibly important part of looking after our own mental wellbeing and expressing ourselves.
We are always eager to find new ways to activate the collection, so we were so thrilled to be invited to create some prompts for our forums!
Introduction to the CHIME Framework
The CHIME framework stands for Connectedness, Hope, Identity, Meaning and Purpose, and Empowerment.
The framework was developed by Dr Mary Leamy and her colleagues. Looking at research studies on people’s personal experiences of recovery in mental health, they found five common processes which showed up in most people’s recovery experiences and summarized as CHIME.
The CHIME framework guides a lot of the work we do at The Dax Centre, especially when working with lived experience artists to develop themes for new art exhibitions. Therefore, we thought it’d be a perfect fit for creating a new creative forum activity!
Hi all!
Welcome to the first week of our CHIME framework creative prompts – inspired by artworks from The Dax Centre!
The first creative prompt is all about Connectedness.
Connectedness is an important process in recovery.
What can Connectedness look like?
- Connect with friends and family, whether it be online or even video chat.
- Connect with GPs, Mental Health Services and mental health supports.
- Connect with nature/ enjoy gardening.
- Reconnect with something you enjoy, like crafts.
- Eat meals together.
- Read the paper.
- Connect with yourself
This Week’s Artwork: My Life... On the Line
To inspire exploration of the theme Connectedness, the artwork we have chosen for this week is My Life... On the Line.
ABOUT THE ARTWORK:
The t-shirt series My Life...On The Line was created in 2005 by participants of the Mallee Family Care's Psychiatric Disability Rehabilitation and Support Services Program. The collection of works were then showcased at the Swan Hill Regional Gallery. Under the guidance of Jill McIndoe, the Co-Ordinator of Mallee Family Care at the time, the program encouraged participants to reflect on their lives and their position within the community.
Par were prompted to explore their thoughts, perceptions and the challenges they encountered through their experiences with mental health issues. The aim was to investigate the ways in which they felt understood and supported by family members, care workers, case managers, psychiatrists, and other health professionals.
Over four weeks, participants were given cameras to capture photographs representing these experiences. From these captured moments, each participant selected one photograph to be printed on a t-shirt. Alongside the chosen image, they crafted a title and a statement highlighting the significance of the photograph to their journey.
In The Dax Centre exhibition, we have presented a selection of the t-shirts as if hanging on a clothesline. Deliberate thought was given to the method of displaying the artworks in this manner, as Jill McIndoe expressed that for many individuals experiencing a challenging time finding support for mental illness, their existence could often feel at risk, as if hanging "on the line".
Through the participants' engagement with textile-based art and the use of digital printing, this medium becomes a vehicle for personal agency, storytelling, and challenges mental health stigma.
To encourage engagement with this artwork at The Dax Centre gallery, we created an participatory activity with mini-shirts. In this activity, we ask gallery visitors to reflect on these questions: Who and what makes you feel supported? What brings you gratitude?
We then hang the colorful t-shirts on a ‘clothesline’ on display in the gallery.
As you can see from the pictures below – we've had a great response to the activity!
Hi everyone!
Welcome to Week 2 of exploring artworks from The Dax Centre.
For the second prompt in our CHIME framework inspired art activity, we are looking at the letter H, which stands for Hope and Optimism.
Focusing on Hope and Optimism can make an immensely positive impact in recovery.
What can Hope & Optimism look like?
- Having hope and optimism that recovery is possible
- Having relationships that support your hope that recovery is possible.
- Motivation to change
- Positive thinking and valuing success
- Having dreams and aspirations
- Practicing positive self-talk and gratitude
- Have faith that things will improve
- Make a list of positive affirmations
- Take time to focus on self-care
In this thread, we encourage forum members to contribute their thoughts or creations! Please note: In keeping with the Community Guidelines, the SANE Forums are an anonymous space. Please be sure that no images or art shared contains information that could reveal identity or location (e.g. street names, wider shots of houses, number plates, landmarks or recognizable geographical features, or ANY faces, even if it’s not your own).
This Weeks Artwork: Hope and The Happy Picture By Margaret Chapman
This week, we are taking inspiration from Margaret Chapman, her artworks and the accompanying poetry. The Dax Centre holds both the Cunningham Dax Collection of over 16,000 artworks, and the Cunningham Dax Poetry collection.
Margaret Chapman’s artworks were entered into the collection in 2008. Chapman has lived experience of mental illness. In these poems and pictures, she reflects on the importance of optimism, and how art plays a role in her ability to find hope for recovery.
These artworks are made with humble pencil and paper and are now a part of one of the most important collections of art in Australia. This can show us that all we need are pencils and paper to explore our creative side and make something really special!
Artist Statement from Margaret Chapman:
“My art and writing are cathartic, venting my emotions and thoughts, positive and negative. They give me a sense of purpose and expression, of communicating, of meaning and purpose and self-worth.” - Margaret Chapman
Accompanying poem by the artist:
“Happy Picture Poem”
I draw a happy picture
from the gladness of my heart.
Of rainbow hills
and sunshine skies.
Man and Woman
Wine and song.
Yesterday was sad and blue.
Tomorrow may be too.
But today I’ll bask
In love’s damask
And savour every hue.
And pray that God
May bless this day
The good ship me and you.
Accompanying poem by the artist:
“Catharsis”
My art is a weapon
In the war against meaninglessness
Loneliness
Hardness
Anomie
To portray your suffering
Is to step outside it
Enough to see it’s boundaries.
To see that the salve of sorrows
Is hope
In life
And its possibilities.
For the light in the dark
Is the doing
The word spoken,
The vision conveyed.
The direction pointed,
The boundary broken,
The hand taken,
The connection made.
Help us push aside the stigma and discrimination surrounding complex mental health and change the way people talk about, and care for, mental illness.
SANE acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and to Elders past and present.
SANE values diversity. We are committed to providing a safe, culturally appropriate, and inclusive service for all people, regardless of their ethnicity, faith, disability, sexuality, or gender identity.
Help us push aside the stigma and discrimination surrounding complex mental health and change the way people talk about, and care for, mental illness.
SANE acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and to Elders past and present.
SANE values diversity. We are committed to providing a safe, culturally appropriate, and inclusive service for all people, regardless of their ethnicity, faith, disability, sexuality, or gender identity.