MArtAdmin (UNSW) 1995, HonD (USyd) 2009, PhD (UNSW) 2021
Born in Perth in 1964, Brenda L Croft is a multidisciplinary creative-led researcher who has been involved in the arts sector for nearly four decades as an academic, artist, arts administrator, consultant, curator, educator and researcher. She is a member of the Gurindji | Malngin | Mudburra nations, with Anglo-Australian | Chinese | German | Irish heritage. Croft was awarded a Master of Art Administration from UNSW Art & Design in 1995 and received an Alumni Award from UNSW in 2001. She was Senior Research Fellow with the National Institute for Experimental Arts, UNSW Art & Design from 2012 - 2015 and has been an Adjunct Research Fellow since 2016. Brenda's creative-led PhD comprised 'Still in my mind: Gurindji location, experience and visuality', a collaborative exhibition she curated which toured nationally from 2017 - 2022; and thesis Kurrwa (stone tool/axehead) to Kartak (container, cup, billycan, pannikin): hand-made/held-ground. Her thesis received a 2022 UNSW Dean's Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis, and was selected for the AAANZ Early Career Publishing Program (2022).
Brenda is a Professor of Indigenous Art History and Curatorship at ANU. Croft is also a founding member of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative and was the general manager from 1990 - 96. She was previously the Curator of Indigenous Art at the Art Gallery of Western Australia and from 2002 to 2009 Senior Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the National Gallery of Australia. Brenda was awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Indigenous Award in 2012. She has received numerous awards, fellowships, commissions and grants throughout her multidisciplinary career.
