Bethlem seeks home for collection of art by psychiatric patients

doi:10.1136/bmj.a626

Published 2 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a626
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a626

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Bethlem seeks home for collection of art by psychiatric patients

Wendy Moore

¹ London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A campaign to raise funds to provide a permanent new home fornearly 1000 works of art by psychiatric patients was launchedin London this week. The collection, belonging to one of theworld’s oldest hospitals, includes paintings by RichardDadd and Louis Wain.

The Bethlem Museum, in Beckenham, south London, holds the UnitedKingdom’s only dedicated psychiatric art collection. Thearchives date back to 1559 from the Royal Bethlem Hospital,the original Bedlam, which was founded in London in 1247. Lackof space in the museum’s 30 year old temporary building,in a poorly drained corner of the hospital site, means thatonly 45 of the 961 artworks can be displayed.

South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, which runs Bethlem today,has committed £1m ( ${euro}$ 1.3m; $2m) towards a new two storeybuilding on the Beckenham site to house the archives, for whichit has statutory responsibility, and provide . . . [Full text of this article]