The Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art at The University of Western Australia (CCWA) is Australia’s largest specialist collection of women’s art.

Formerly the private collection of Sir James and Lady Sheila Cruthers, it was gifted to the University in June 2007.

The collection includes about 600 works by over 100 artists, covering the period 1892 to the present. The works range in medium from painting, works on paper, prints, sculpture, installation, photography, video, textiles, and ceramics.

The collection’s focus is on self portraits and portraits, and is particularly strong in the areas of modernism, first wave feminist art and post-modernism and beyond.

The significance of the Cruthers collection is in its diversity of leading national artists including – Clara Southern, Kate O’Connor, Grace Cossington Smith, Elise Blumann, Margaret Preston, Nora Heysen, Dorrit Black, Kathleen Sauerbier, Freda Robertshaw, Grace Crowley and many others.

However, it is equally committed to recovering the work of artists who have slipped from the historical record or never been part of it. This aspect, and the CCWA’s focus and thematic integration, means that it provides a fascinating alternative history of Australian art over the last 120 years to the versions which are usually seen on the walls of Australia’s art museums.

The Cruthers Art Foundation (CAF) was started by the Cruthers family in 2006 to raise funds to support the CCWA at the University. Funds can be directed towards new purchases, collection maintenance and upkeep, research, exhibitions and publications, and scholarships for art historians, writers and curators working in women’s art.

If you would like more information or to contribute to this educational and cultural program please contact the Acting Curator, Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art, Lee Kinsella.

Rosalie Gascoigne, Past Glories, 1988