Brenda L Croft facts for kids
Brenda L. Croft, born in 1964, is an amazing Aboriginal Australian artist, curator, writer, and teacher. She works with both Indigenous and general art and culture. Brenda was one of the people who helped start the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative in 1987.
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Growing Up and Learning
Brenda Croft was born in 1964 in Perth, Australia. She comes from the Gurindji, Malngin, and Mudburra peoples. She also has family roots from Anglo-Australian, German, Irish, and Chinese backgrounds. Her father was Joseph (Joe) Croft.
She started studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the Sydney College of Arts in 1985. She didn't finish this degree because she became very involved in community work and public radio. This was leading up to the Australian Bicentenary in 1988, a big event for Australia.
Later, in 1995, Brenda earned a Master of Art Administration degree from the College of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
Teaching and Research
Brenda Croft has also had a big impact in universities. From 2009 to 2011, she was a senior lecturer teaching about Indigenous art, design, and culture at the University of South Australia.
Then, from 2012 to 2015, she was a senior researcher at the National Institute for Experimental Art at UNSW Art & Design. In 2018, she became an Associate Professor of Indigenous Art History and Curatorship at the Australian National University.
In 2023, it was announced that Brenda Croft would be a special visiting professor at Harvard University in 2024. This is a huge honor!
Art and Exhibitions

Brenda Croft has shown her artwork in many galleries across Australia. Her art has also been seen in other countries like Germany, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the USA.
Her work is part of important collections in Australia, including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of West Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the National Portrait Gallery.
One of her special sculptures, Wuganmagulya (Farm Cove), was placed in the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney in 2000. This was part of a special sculpture walk.
Brenda has also created her own art shows. Some of these include:
- Heart-in-hand (Canberra, 2018)
- subalter/N/ative Dreams (Sydney)
- Peripheral Vision (Perth, 2005; Melbourne, 2006)
- Man about town (Sydney, 2003; Melbourne, 2004)
- fever (you give me) (Sydney, 2000)
- In my mother's garden (Melbourne, 1998)
- In My Father's House (Paddington, 1998)
Curating Art Shows
Brenda Croft has been an arts administrator and curator since 1990. A curator is someone who chooses and organizes artworks for exhibitions. She has worked at many levels, from local to international.
From 1999 to 2001, she was the curator of Indigenous art at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Then, from 2002 to 2009, she was the senior curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the National Gallery of Australia.
She has organized many important art shows, including:
- Beyond the pale: Contemporary Indigenous Art for the 2000 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art.
- Culture Warriors (National Indigenous Art Triennial) at the National Gallery of Australia.
- Stop(the) Gap: International Indigenous art in Motion for the 2011 Adelaide International Film Festival.
- A Change is Gonna Come at the National Museum of Australia in 2017. This show marked important anniversaries for Indigenous rights in Australia.
Brenda also worked with another independent curator, Hetti Perkins. Together, they worked on projects like the Australian Indigenous Art Commission for the Musée du quai Branly in Paris, France, in 2006. They also helped organize the Australian exhibition at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997, called fluent. This show featured the works of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Yvonne Koolmatrie, and Judy Watson.
Awards and Recognition
Brenda Croft has received many awards for her amazing work:
- In 1996, she was the first Australian to get the Chicago Artists International Program grant.
- She won the 1997 Australia Council for the Arts Greene Street Studio award in New York.
- In 1998, she received the Indigenous Arts Fellowship from the NSW Ministry for the Arts.
- She got an Alumni Award from UNSW in 2001.
- In 2015, she received a National Indigenous Arts Award Fellowship from the Australia Council for the Arts.
- She won a Canberra Critics Circle Visual Arts Award for her exhibition heart-in-hand in 2018.
- Also in 2018, she won the ANZ Best Indigenous Writing award for her research essay Still in my mind: Gurindji location, experience and visuality.
In 2009, the University of Sydney gave Brenda an Honorary Doctorate in Visual Arts. This is a special degree given to people who have achieved great things.
Brenda Croft was named Visual Artist of the Year at the Deadly Awards 2013. These awards celebrate the achievements of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In 2023, she won the Works on Paper Award at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, which is a very important art competition.