Artist, curator, lecturer and writer, Brenda L. Croft (born 1964) is from the Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra peoples from the Victoria River region in the Northern Territory, and also has Anglo-Australian/German/Irish/Chinese/Scottish heritage. Following study at the Canberra School of Art, she was a founding member, and later general manager of the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative in Sydney, and gained a Masters in Art Administration in 1995. She was the first Australian recipient of the Chicago Artists International Program grant in 1996, and the following year she was resident artist at the Australia Council Greene St Studio in New York. A practising artist since 1985, Croft has exhibited at major exhibitions nationally and internationally and she is represented in public and private collections in Australia and overseas. In 2000 her major commissioned work Wuganmagulya (Farm Cove) was officially launched as part of the Sydney City Council's Sculpture Walk at the Royal Botanic Gardens, and another commissioned work was unveiled at Sydney International Airport. Croft won the 2013 Deadly Award for Visual Artist of the Year and was one of two fellowship recipients at the 2015 Australia Council's National Indigenous Arts Awards. In 2024, Croft will be travelling to Harvard University to be the Gough Whitlam and Malcom Frazer Chair of Australian Studies.
