Brenda L. Croft (born 1964) is an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

artist,

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

, writer, and educator working across contemporary

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

and mainstream arts and cultural sectors. Croft was a founding member of the

Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative The Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative was founded in 1987 in the Sydney suburb of Redfern, New South Wales. Among the legacies of the Co-operative are the Deadly Awards for achievement in the Indigenous Australian community, which occu ...

in 1987.

Early life and education

Croft was born in 1964 in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

and is from the Gurindji, Malngin and

Mudburra The Mudburra, also spelt Mudbara and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. Language Mudburra is one of the far eastern forms of the Pama-Nyungan Ngumbin languages. Country The Mudburra people live i ...

peoples, as well as having Anglo-Australian/

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

/Irish/ Chinese heritage. She is the daughter of Joseph (Joe) Croft. She completed the first year of a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree from Sydney College of Arts,

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

in 1985. The degree remained incomplete when Croft commenced voluntary work in community activism and public radio (Radio Redfern/Radio Skid Row, 88.9 FM) in the lead-up to the

Australian Bicentenary The bicentenary of Australia was celebrated in 1988. It marked 200 years since the arrival of the First Fleet of British convict ships at Sydney in 1788. History The bicentennial year marked Captain Arthur Phillip's arrival with the 11 ships ...

in 1988. She was awarded a Master of

Art Administration Art is a diverse range of culture, cultural activity centered around works of art, ''works'' utilizing Creativity, creative or imagination, imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an express ...

at the College of Fine Arts,

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

, Sydney in 1995.

Academic work

From 2009 to 2011 Croft was senior lecturer of Indigenous art, design, and culture at the

University of South Australia The University of South Australia is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1991, it is the successor of the former South Australian Institute of Technology. Its main campuses along North Terrace are ...

. From 2012 to 2015 Croft was a senior

research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a p ...

(Discovery Indigenous Award) with the National Institute for Experimental Art,

UNSW Art & Design The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public university, public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, ...

. In 2018 she was appointed as Associate Professor, Indigenous Art History and Curatorship at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

Curatorial and other work

Croft was a founding member of the

in 1987. Croft has worked as an

arts administrator Arts administration (alternatively arts management) is a field in the arts sector that facilitates programming within cultural organizations. Arts administrators are responsible for facilitating the day-to-day operations of the organization as we ...

and curator at local, regional, state, federal and international levels since 1990. From 1999 to 2001 she was curator of Indigenous art at the

Art Gallery of Western Australia The Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA) is a public art gallery that is part of the Perth Cultural Centre, in Perth. It is located near the Western Australian Museum and State Library of Western Australia and is supported and managed by the ...

; from 2002 to 2009 she was senior curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the National Gallery of Australia. Curatorial projects include ''Beyond the pale: Contemporary Indigenous Art'', Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art for the 2000

Adelaide Festival of Arts The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

; ''Culture Warriors'' ( National Indigenous Art Triennial),

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

; ''Stop(the) Gap: International Indigenous art in Motion'' for the 2011 Adelaide International Film Festival; ''A Change is Gonna Come: 50th anniversary of the 1967 Referendum (Aboriginals) and 25th anniversary of the Mabo Decision'',

National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia (NMA), in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''Nation ...

, 2017. Her practice-led doctoral research project included the collaborative exhibition, ''Still in my Mind: Gurindji location, experience and visuality'', UNSW Galleries, UQ Art Museum, 2017, touring nationally until late 2021. Solo exhibitions include ''Heart-in-hand'', Canberra Contemporary Art Space, 2018; ''subalter/N/ative Dreams'', Stills Gallery, Sydney; ''Peripheral Vision'', Artplace, Perth (2005), Niagara Galleries, Melbourne (2006); ''Man about town'', Stills Gallery, Sydney, (2003), Niagara Galleries, Melbourne (2004); ''fever (you give me)'', Stills Gallery, Sydney (2000); ''In my mother's garden'', Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi,

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

(1998); ''In My Father's House'', Australian Centre for Photography, Paddington, (1998). Croft has also worked with

Eastern Arrernte Arrernte or Aranda (; ), or sometimes referred to as Upper Arrernte (Upper Aranda), is a dialect cluster in the Arandic language group spoken in parts of the Northern Territory, Australia, by the Arrernte people. Other spelling variations are ...

/ Kalkadoon independent curator, arts administrator and writer,

Hetti Perkins Hetti Kemerre Perkins (born 1965) is an Aboriginal Australian art curator and writer. She is known for her work at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where she was the senior curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the gallery ...

, on curatorial projects, including the ''Australian Indigenous Art Commission'' for the Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France, (2006); and the Australian exhibition at the 47th

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

in 1997, ''fluent:

Emily Kame Kngwarreye Emily Kam Kngwarray (c.1914-1996) was born in her Ancestral lands, Alhalker located in the Sandover region of the Northern Territory, Australia. One of the world’s most significant contemporary painters to emerge in the twentieth century Kngw ...

Yvonne Koolmatrie Yvonne Koolmatrie (born 1944) is an Australian artist and weaver of the Ngarrindjeri people, working in South Australia. Early life Koolmatrie was born in Wudinna, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Her father was a Kokatha man, Joseph Roberts ...

Judy Watson Judy Watson (born 1959) is an Australian Waanyi multi-media artist who works in print-making, painting, video and installation. Her work often examines Indigenous Australian histories, and she has received a number of high-profile commissio ...

'', and was co-curated by Hetti Perkins, Croft and Victoria Lynn. It was commissioned by Michael Lynch. In 2023, it was announced that Croft will serve as the Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser Chair of Australian Studies at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 2024, working with the Departments of History of Art and Architecture, and Art, Film, and Visual Studies.

Awards

In 1996 Croft was the first Australian to receive the Chicago Artists International Program grant. She also was awarded the 1997

Australia Council for the Arts Creative Australia, formerly known as the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announ ...

Greene Street Studio in New York; the 1998 Indigenous Arts Fellowship from the NSW Ministry for the Arts; an Alumni Award from

UNSW The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public university, public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, ...

in 2001; a 2015 Australia Council for the Arts ''National Indigenous Arts Award Fellowship''; a ''Canberra Critics Circle Visual Arts Award'' for ''heart-in-hand'' in 2018; and the ANZ ''Best Indigenous Writing'' award for her practice-led doctoral research essay ''Still in my mind: Gurindji location, experience and visuality'' in 2018. Croft was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (Visual Arts) from the

in 2009. Croft was named Visual Artist of the Year in the Deadly Awards 2013, which were the annual awards recognising

Australian Aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

and

Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders ( ) are the Indigenous Melanesians, Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal peoples of the res ...

achievement. She won the Works on Paper Award at the 2023 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

Artwork and exhibitions

Artwork by Croft has been exhibited in galleries throughout Australia, and overseas including Germany, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the USA. Her work has been collected by the

, the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...

, the Art Gallery of West Australia, the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...

and the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

. Her sculptural work, ''Wuganmagulya (Farm Cove)'', was installed at the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, as part of the 2000 Sydney Sculpture Walk program.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Croft, Brenda Living people Australian photographers University of Sydney alumni University of New South Wales alumni 1964 births Australian women curators Australian Aboriginal artists Indigenous Australian writers Women's Art Register artists