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Brenda L Croft

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Associate Professor, Indigenous Art History and Curatorship, Australian National University

Brenda L Croft is from the Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra peoples from the Victoria River region of the
Northern Territory of Australia, and Anglo-Australian/German/Irish/Chinese heritage. She has been involved in the Indigenous and broader contemporary arts and cultural sectors as an artist, arts administrator, curator, academic and consultant for over three decades.

Brenda is Associate Professor of Indigenous Art History and Curatorship at the Centre for Art History and Art Theory, College of Arts & Social Sciences, ANU. Brenda’s cross-disciplinary practice-led research encompasses critical performative Indigenous auto-ethnography, representation and identity, Indigenous Storying and creative narratives, installation, multi-media and multi-platform work, personal and public archives, memory and memorialisation.

Brenda has a long-standing engagement with patrilineal family and community members, both on traditional homelands and also as part of dispossessed, Gurindji-affiliated communities. Her doctoral research project 'Still in my mind: Gurindji location, experience and visuality', a collaborative exhibition with Karungkarni Art & Culture Aboriginal Corporation, UNSW Galleries, UNSW Art & Design and UQ Art Museum, commenced a national tour from September 2018, through to 2021.

Brenda's work is represented in major public collections in Australia and overseas and private collections. In addition to working with the ANU she is a practising artist, independent writer and consultant. Brenda is also an Adjunct Fellow with the National Institute for Experimental Arts, UNSW Art & Design Australia, where she is completing her doctoral research.

Experience

  • 2018–present
    Associate Professor, Australian National University
  • 2012–present
    Adjunct Research Fellow, University of New South Wales
  • 2009–2012
    Senior Lecturer, University of South Australia

Education

  • 2009 
    University of Sydney, Honorary Doctorate (Visual Arts)
  • 2001 
    University of New South Wales, Alumni Award
  • 1995 
    University of New South Wales, Master of Art Administration

Publications

  • 2018
    Still in my mind: Gurindji location, experience and visuality, Feminist Perspectives on Art Contemporary Outtakes
  • 2018
    The Instability of Truth: Aspects of Developing a Specific Indigenous Methodology on Experimental Practice‐Led Research, Visual Anthropology Review, Vol 34., Issue 1
  • 2017
    Still in my mind: Gurindji location, experience and visuality, Exhibition catalogue, UQ Art Museum, University of Queensland
  • 2016
    Retrac(k)ing country and (s)kin: walking the Wave Hill Walk Off Track (and other sites of cultural contestation), Westerly 61.1
  • 2015
    Still in My Mind: An Exploration of Practice-led Experimental Research in Progress, Cultural Studies Review, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. pp. 230-248
  • 2015
    Signs of the times, The Intervention: an anthology
  • 2015
    Say my name, The Artist as Curator
  • 2012
    'Revolutionize me (and you, and you, and you)', Decolonize Me/Décolonisez Moi, (exh. cat.), Ottawa Art Gallery
  • 2007
    Culture Warriors: National Indigenous Art Triennial, Exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Australia
  • 2007
    'To be young (at heart), gifted and blak: the cultural and political renaissance of Indigenous art in Australia',, One Sun, One Moon: Aboriginal Art in Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, pp. pp285 - pp292
  • 2006
    Michael Riley: sights unseen, Exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Australia
  • 2006
    Meeting, not colliding, Vision, Space, Desire: Global Perspectives and Cultural Hybridity, ed. Elizabeth Kennedy Gische, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, USA, pp. 68-75
  • 2004
    'What about the dots and circles?! The children need them!', Banff Centre for Continuing Education Conference, ed. Lee-Ann Martin, The Banff International Curatorial Institute, in association with Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre, Canada, pp. 108 - 127
  • 2003
    South West Central: Indigenous art from south Western Australia, Exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of Western Australia
  • 2002
    'Laying ghosts to rest', Colonialist Photography: Imag(in)ing Race and Place., Routledge, London UK; New York, USA, pp. 20 - 29. Previously published in Portraits of Oceania, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1997
  • 2001
    Indigenous Art: Art Gallery of Western Australia, Collection book, Art Gallery of Western Australia
  • 2000
    Beyond the pale: contemporary Indigenous art, Beyond the pale: contemporary Indigenous art, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, for the Adelaide International Arts Festival, Australia

Grants and Contracts

  • 2012
    Discovery Indigenous Award
    Role:
    Chief Investigator
    Funding Source:
    Australian Research Council

Professional Memberships

  • National Association for the Visual Arts

Research Areas

  • Art History (190102)
  • Art Theory (190103)
  • Visual Arts And Crafts (1905)
  • Visual Cultures (190104)